Khepri (

Egyptian Egyptian describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of years of ...

: ''ḫprj,'' also transliterated Khepera, Kheper, Khepra, Chepri) is a scarab-faced

god In monotheism, monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator deity, creator, and principal object of Faith#Religious views, faith.Richard Swinburne, Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Ted Honderich, Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Ox ...

ancient Egyptian religion Ancient Egyptian religion was a complex system of polytheistic beliefs and rituals that formed an integral part of ancient Egyptian culture. It centered on the Egyptians' interactions with many deities believed to be present in, and in control ...

who represents the rising or morning sun. By extension, he can also represent creation and the renewal of life.van Ryneveld, Maria M. ''The Presence and Significance of Khepri in Egyptian Religion and Art'', University of Pretoria (South Africa), Ann Arbor, 1992''. .

Symbolism

Khepri (''ḫprj'') is derived from the

Egyptian language The Egyptian language or Ancient Egyptian ( ) is a dead language, dead Afroasiatic languages, Afro-Asiatic language that was spoken in ancient Egypt. It is known today from a large Text corpus, corpus of surviving texts which were made acces ...

verb ''ḫpr,'' meaning to "develop", "come into being", or "create".Wilkinson, Richard H. (2003). ''The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt''. Thames & Hudson. pp. 230–233 The god was connected to and often depicted as a

scarab beetle The family Scarabaeidae, as currently defined, consists of over 30,000 species of beetles worldwide; they are often called scarabs or scarab beetles. The classification of this family has undergone significant change in recent years. Several sub ...

(''ḫprr'' in Egyptian). Young dung beetles, having been laid as eggs within the dung ball, emerge from it fully formed and thus were considered to have been created from nothingness.Liszka, Kate. “Scarab Amulets in the Egyptian Collection of the Princeton University Art Museum.” ''Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University'', vol. 74, 2015, pp. 4–19. ''JSTOR'', www.jstor.org/stable/26388759. Accessed 1 Dec. 2020. Egyptians believed that each day the sun was also reborn or created from nothing. In the same way that the beetle pushes large balls of dung along the ground, Khepri moved the newly-born sun across the sky. Khepri was a

solar deity A solar deity or sun deity is a deity who represents the Sun, or an aspect of it. Such deities are usually associated with power and strength. Solar deities and Sun worship can be found throughout most of recorded history in various forms. The ...

and thus connected to the rising sun and the mythical creation of the world. The god and the scarab beetle represent creation and rebirth.

Religion

There was no

cult In modern English, ''cult'' is usually a pejorative term for a social group that is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals, or its common interest in a particular personality, object, or goal. This ...

devoted to Khepri, and he was largely subordinate to the greater sun god Ra. The sun god was however included in the creationist theory of Heliopolis and later Thebes. Often, Khepri and another solar deity,

Atum Atum (, Egyptian: ''jtm(w)'' or ''tm(w)'', ''reconstructed'' ; Coptic ''Atoum''), sometimes rendered as Atem or Tem, is an important deity in Egyptian mythology. Name Atum's name is thought to be derived from the verb ''tm'' which means 'to com ...

, were seen as aspects of Ra: Khepri was the morning sun, Ra was the midday sun, and Atum was the sun in the evening. As a deity, Khepri's four main functions were creator, protector, sun-god, and the god of resurrection. The central belief surrounding Khepri was the god's ability to renew life, in the same way he restored the sun's existence every morning. Mummified scarab beetles and scarab amulets have been found in Pre-dynastic graves, indicating that Khepri was respected early on in the history of Ancient Egypt.

Appearance

Ra-Khepri_(solar_disc_and_scarab_beetle)

Khepri was principally depicted as a scarab beetle, though in some tomb paintings and funerary

papyri Papyrus ( ) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, ''Cyperus papyrus'', a wetland sedge. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'') can also refer to a d ...

he is represented as a human male with a scarab as a head, or as a scarab with a male human head emerging from the beetle's shell. He is also depicted as a scarab in a solar

barque A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing ship, sailing vessel with three or more mast (sailing), masts having the fore- and mainmasts Square rig, rigged square and only the mizzen (the aftmost mast) Fore-and-aft rig, rigged fore and aft. Som ...

held aloft by

Nun A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...

. The scarab amulets that the Egyptians used as jewelry and as

seals Seals may refer to: * Pinniped, a diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammals, many of which are commonly called seals, particularly: ** Earless seal, or "true seal" ** Fur seal * Seal (emblem), a device to impress an emblem, used as a means of a ...

allude to Khepri and the newborn sun. The beetle carvings became so common that excavators find them throughout the Mediterranean. Ancient_Egyptian_Scarabs

Etymology

The name "Khepri" appears most often in the

Pyramid texts The Pyramid Texts are the oldest ancient Egyptian funerary texts, dating to the late Old Kingdom. They are the earliest known corpus of ancient Egyptian religious texts. Written in Old Egyptian, the pyramid texts were carved onto the subterranea ...

and usually has the scarab hieroglyph as a

determinative A determinative, also known as a taxogram or semagram, is an ideogram used to mark semantic categories of words in logographic scripts which helps to disambiguate interpretation. They have no direct counterpart in spoken language, though they may ...

ideogram An ideogram or ideograph (from Greek "idea" and "to write") is a graphic symbol that represents an idea or concept, independent of any particular language, and specific words or phrases. Some ideograms are comprehensible only by familiarit ...

. Khepri (''ḫprj'') can also be spelled "''Kheper''", which is the Egyptian term used to denote the sun god, the scarab beetle, and the verb "''to come into existence''". Kheper could also stand for "''to change''", "''to happen''" etc.

Origin

It is thought that Khepri came into existence in the same manner as a young scarab beetle emerges from its dung ball fully formed. Ancient Egyptians used to think, the beetles express the sun's motion by rolling their feces on the sand, which is why the sun god Khepri is associated with this particular species of beetle. Khepri was considered below the sun god Ra in rank, so no shrine was built for him. Another sun-god

and Khepri are often considered to be part of Ra. As stated in The

Book of the Dead The ''Book of the Dead'' ( egy, 𓂋𓏤𓈒𓈒𓈒𓏌𓏤𓉐𓂋𓏏𓂻𓅓𓉔𓂋𓅱𓇳𓏤, ''rw n(y)w prt m hrw(w)'') is an ancient Egyptian funerary text generally written on papyrus and used from the beginning of the New Kingdom ...

, Khepri was also sometimes believed to be a part of Atum.

References

External links

{{Authority control Animal gods Egyptian gods Solar gods Creator gods Life-death-rebirth gods Stellar gods Mythological insects Beetles and humans Ra Personifications Insects in religion Beetles