Words of Life

Is there a key to eternal life? We generally want to live as long as possible and to be remembered after we die, giving us a modicum of immortality. But since humans are still searching for the secret, it is apparently not so simple. There is a piece of history that lives on in paintings, sculpture, tattoos, etc. that we still recognize; the ankh.

Shown in the hands of Gods, the ankh is a symbol for their eternal life.

But it was not just a picture, the oval topped cross was foremost the hieroglyph meaning "life" [sꜤnḫ]. This combination of symbols also shows up in the words for 'mirror', 'floral bouquet', and the phrases 'if you please', to be polite, and 'alive, sound, and healthy' [Ꜥnḫ wḏꜣ snb], as used to honor a pharaoh (Allen 2014, 317-318).

As an aside, hieroglyphs are not letters, they are logograms, similar to the characters in languages such as Chinese and Japanese, each individual symbol stands for a word or an idea. But, as English speakers first 'formally' learning about ancient civilizations in 6th grade (~11 year olds) my schoolmates and I learned to recognize a certain list of hieroglyphs as mostly matching the Latinate alphabet. The reasoning for this is probably to, first and foremost, get and keep our attention as little kids, and children of all ages. Also, as mono-linguist native English speakers it's likely easier for some kids to grasp the concept of an alphabet in which [𓈖] = 'n'.

Definitely makes it easier for, "Hey, look, I can write my name" excitement, especially if your name has the majority of letters as vowels (like mine) which the Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs did not always record. Using this inaccurate simplistic version my name looks like this [𓂋𓇋𓈖𓇋𓇋], but I like looking for the meaning behind names and translating that. As an example, my name is Renée. Translated from the original French and Latin, it is the female form of the name meaning 'rebirth' or 'born again'. An interesting reworking could be 'the feminine is born again'. As I love being creative with names, and Re/Ra is the sun God I could make my name 'the feminine life of Re is reborn'. [𓋹𓁚𓇳𓁓]

By the way, the '[𓈖]' is described as a water ripple (logic) and sounds either like "nt" (with whatever vowel sound) as a preposition, meaning; 'to', 'for', 'to persons', 'in sun', 'time', 'because', and 'belongs to'. It sounds like "ny" when used as a genitival adjective, meaning; 'of' or 'belonging to' or as a plural pronoun, for: 'we', 'us', or 'our'. It's also part of [𓈗] (w3w, swr) as a determinative meaning 'water', 'wave, 'to drink', or 'to wash' depending on the context.

*This information is according to Gardiner's sign list, created by Sir Alan Gardiner in the latter part of the 1950s. And none of this would have been possible without the Rosetta Stone and the work of linguists including Jean-François Champollion. It's all very complicated and it's no wonder that: 1) scribes were a relatively high class and 2) today we learn a very simplified version.

Therefore, just by sound, Re-née would just mean 'for/to/belonging to Re' or 'Re belongs'. [𓁛𓈖]

It's also possible that people keep the simplicity going so new generations can continue to be inspired by history. Whatever the purpose is, the reason we can do this, even though it's not accurate, is based on the first sound/letter that makes up the original words' phonetics.

But, as this article is not specially about the intricacies of hieroglyphs so I'll move back to the subject of the ankh.

*For a long list of hieroglyphs*

Within Gardiner's classification system the ankh is labelled S34, it's described as "life" or "sandal-strap", and is written phonetically as 'ankh' or ' 'n(kh)'. The reason we all can at least identify this symbol is because it has been found in so many cartouches (the sectioned off royal names). Two obvious examples are Tut'ankh'amun [twt-ꜥnḫ-jmn] and 'Ankh'esenamun [ˁnḫ-s-n-imn] meaning "living image of Amun" and "she lives through Amun" respectively.

Archaeologists have dated the sign back to 1st dynasty [c. 30th to 29th century BC], but there is a lot of debate as to what it originally meant (Fischer 1972, 12–13, Gordon & Schwabe 2004, 102–103, & Wilkinson 1992, 13). Egyptologists Heinrich Schäfer and Henry Fischer shared their idea that the ankh was an amulet in the shape of a reeds tied in the shape of a knot was for protection, based on common appearances (Baines 1975 and Gordon & Schwabe 2004). Speaking of appearances, it was because Gardiner thought it looked like a sandal strap that he classified it the way he did, in S, alongside other household items. But as biologists can also attest, things can't be classified based solely on appearance. Otherwise, there would be a long drawn-out argument about what this 'ink blot' could look like: a sandal-strap, a knot, a combination of the was scepter and the djed pillar, or a combination of the male and female reproduction systems (Gordon & Schwabe 2004). Suffice to say, we don't really know, hoping it's not that last one though, feels like they are just equating it to the meaning of life.

The iconography of the ankh symbol, as mentioned before, was commonly shown in the hands of the Egyptian Gods who would use them to bestow life to humans. In friezes from some later periods the ankhs were even given to the pharaoh so they could, in turn, bestow life to people (ushabtis; doll servants) during their afterlife. With the way that the ankhs were portrayed, they are linked to the w3s scepter, which was used by Anubis in the mouth opening ceremony (as discussed in Chapter 3 of my Master's thesis).

Because iconography of this ceremony taking place also contains the djed symbol [pic] meaning 'stability' (being a representation of Osiris' backbone) they are often carved and painted on temple walls together meaning "life, power, and stability", things that the Gods would theoretically provide.(Ram God below is Banebdjedet)

Other than being held by Gods on temple walls, the ankh also appear as physical amulets as early as the Old Kingdom, to impart its qualities and hope of general well-being, as the symbol is part of the word for "health" and are made out of gold, electrum (a gold and silver alloy), or faience (a green/blue Egyptian ceramic). The symbol is also found on mirrors, mirror cases, libation (booze) vessels, and the musical instrument called a sistrum, and as the shape of floral bouquets. (Andrews 1994, Wilkinson 1992).

But, my personal favorite is an ancient Egyptian pun.

An ankh ankh (from the Brooklyn Museum archive)

A mirror in the shape-ish of an ankh. I may be ruining the joke, because nothing makes a joke funny like explaining it, but, whatever. The symbol ankh also has the hinted meaning of mirror, because mirrors reflect things, and therefore reflect life (it's not translated directly). So, a ankh shaped mirror is an ankh ankh, or just an ankh. You're welcome for a terrible joke/history lesson you can use to shut people up.

*There's so much more information that can be investigated, I recommend a wiki rabbit hole. Links are found throughout if this subject is of interest.*

And now you can really enjoy that lower back tattoo you got while drunk.

Citations

Allen, James P. (2014). Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs, Third Edition. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-05364-9.

Andrews, Carol (1994). Amulets of Ancient Egypt. University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-0-292-70464-0.

Baines, John (1975). "Ankh-Sign, Belt and Penis Sheath". Studien zur Altägyptischen Kultur. 3. JSTOR 25149982.

Fischer, Henry G. (1972). "Some Emblematic Uses of Hieroglyphs with Particular Reference to an Archaic Ritual Vessel". Metropolitan Museum Journal. 5.

Gordon, Andrew H.; Schwabe, Calvin (2004). The Quick and the Dead: Biomedical Theory in Ancient Egypt. Brill / Styx. ISBN 978-90-04-12391-5.

Wilkinson, Richard H. (1992). Reading Egyptian Art: A Hieroglyphic Guide to Ancient Egyptian Painting and Sculpture. Thames & Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-05064-4.

Images

< Metropolitan Museum of Art. See the Image and Data Resources Open Access Policy, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=60941366>