Uraeus
The Uraeus (/jʊəˈriːəs/)[1] or Ouraeus (Ancient Greek: Οὐραῖος, Greek pronunciation: [οὐραῖος] ⓘ; Egyptian: jꜥrt, "rearing cobra", plural: Uraei) is the stylized, upright form of an Egyptian cobra, used as a symbol of sovereignty, royalty, deity and divine authority in ancient Egypt.
Symbolism
The Uraeus is a symbol for the goddess
At the time of the unification of Egypt, the image of Nekhbet, the goddess who was represented as a white vulture and held the same position as the patron of Upper Egypt, joined the image of Wadjet on the Uraeus that would encircle the crown of the pharaohs who ruled the unified Egypt. The importance of their separate cults kept them from becoming merged as with so many Egyptian deities. Together, they were known as the Nebty or the Two Ladies, who became the joint protectors and patrons of the unified Egypt.[2]
Later, the pharaohs were seen as a manifestation of the sun god Ra, and so it also was believed that the Uraeus protected them by spitting fire on their enemies from the fiery eye of the goddess.[citation needed] In some mythological works, the eyes of Ra are said to be uraei.
Golden Uraeus of Senusret II
In 1919, after only a half-hour of excavation, the
Before Tutankhamun's tomb was found in 1922, this Golden Uraeus was the only ornament ever known to be worn by an entombed pharaoh, and it was thought that it was passed to the next pharaoh.
The Golden Uraeus is of solid gold, 6.7 cm (2.6 in), black eyes of granite, a snake head of deep ultramarine lapis lazuli, the flared cobra hood of dark carnelian inlays, and inlays of turquoise. To mount it on the pharaoh's crown, two loops in the rear-supporting tail of the cobra provide the attachment points.[6][7]
As a hieroglyph
Besides the Uraeus being used as an ornament for statuary or as an adornment on the pharaoh, it also was used for
For Uraeus ornament as a mummy grave example, See: Djedptahiufankh, High Priest of 21st Dynasty, Shoshenq I.[citation needed]
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Uraeus— Uraeus on Basket Ntr + Cobra
in hieroglyphs | ||||||||||||
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The simplest hieroglyph is the "Cobra" (the Uraeus); however there are subcategories, referring to: a goddess, a priestess, the goddess Menhit, the shrine of the goddess (àter), the goddess Isis, and lastly goddess: (Cobra (Uraeus) at base of deity (ntr)).[citation needed]
The
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Uraeus on buildings in hieroglyphs | |||||
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Another example of the hieroglyph usage is as adornments upon the hieroglyph for "shrine", and also for "buildings".[8]
The Blue Crown
Before the New Kingdom Period, the body of the Uraeus coiled around in circles behind its raised head on the Blue Crown. The king is most often depicted wearing the Blue Crown in combat and the aftermath of combat scenes. Additionally, the smaller scale king usually wore the Blue Crown when depicted in a protective group of deities. Colossal statues of the king wearing a Blue Crown are extremely rare; the typical royal statue also does not feature a Blue Crown. Also, depictions of the Blue Crown with its Uraeus does not decorate royal tombs until late in the Ramesside Period. The deity-on-earth king was thought to require extra protection in his mortal form, emphasizing the protective qualities of the Uraeus. [9] The Uraeus was usually crafted from precious metals, most commonly gold and less frequently silver, and adorned with gemstones. [10]
Seraphim
The
See also
- Deshret – Red Crown of Lower Egypt
- Hedjet – White Crown of Upper Egypt
- Pschent – Double Crown of Lower & Upper Egypt
- Atef – Hedjet Crown with feathers identified with Osiris
- Khepresh – Blue or War Crown also called Royal Crown
- Khat – head cloth worn by the nobility
- N-red crown (n hieroglyph)
- N-water ripple (n hieroglyph)
- Nekhbet – Woman or vulture wearing an Atef Crown
- Serpent symbolism
Citations
- ^ "Uraeus". Dictionary.com. 2012. Retrieved July 13, 2012.
- ^ a b Egyptian-Gods
- ^ Herodotus, Historia, B:152; 155; 156
- ^ Dunand and Zivie-Coche
- ^ National Public Library
- ^ Reeves (1920) pg. 157.
- ^ Hagen, pg. 202.
- ^ Budge
- ^ Hardwick
- ^ Alchin
- ^ Mettinger, Tryggve N. D., "Seraphim", in Becking, Bob & van der P. W, Horst & van der toorn, Karel. (1999). Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible. Journal of Biblical Literature. 115. 10.2307/3266385. p. 743
General sources
- Alchin, Linda. "The Uraeus Symbol". Egyptian Gods. Siteseen Ltd, n.d. Web.
- Budge, Sir E. A. Wallis. An Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary, in Two Volumes (Dover Publications, Inc, New York), c 1920, Dover Edition, c 1978. Large categorized listings of Hieroglyphs, Vol. 1, pp. xcvii–cxlvii (97–147, 50 pgs.).
- Dunand, Françoise, and Christiane Zivie-Coche. "Cosmonogies, Creation, and Time: Order and Disorder in Creation". Gods and Men in Egypt: 3000 BCE to 395 CE. Ithaca: Cornell U, 2004. 347. Print.
- "Egyptian Symbols: Uraeus". Egyptian Gods and Goddesses. Egyptian-Gods.org, n.d. Web.
- Hagen, Rose-Marie & Rainer Hagen. Egypt; People, Gods, Pharaohs (Barnes and Noble Books, New York), c 2003 (originally: Taschen, GmbH, Koln), c 2003, 1999, p. 202.
- Hardwick, Tom. "The Iconography of the Blue Crown in the New Kingdom". The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, vol. 89, 2003, pp. 117–141. JSTOR 3822494.
- Johnson, Sally J. (1990). The Cobra Goddess of Ancient Egypt: Predynastic, Early Dynastic, and Old Kingdom Periods. Kegan Paul International. ISBN 0-7103-0212-6.
- Reeves, Nicholas. Ancient Egypt: The Great Discoveries, a Year-by-Year Chronicle (Thames and Hudson Ltd, London), c. 2000. See "1920, The Golden Uraeus of Sesostris II from el-Lahun", p. 157.
External links
- Media related to Uraeus at Wikimedia Commons