The black beetle that rolls his ball of dung into this underearthly home, so supplying food for his little beetles has inspired the old egyptians. They saw the God Khepera who pushes the sun through the firmament (skies). Millions of scarabs were fabricated to serve as seals, decoration and jewellery. A great deal can be seen in the musea around the world. In the middle kingdom the scarab form was used as a seal,often made in form of a ring. Later this symbol was used as amulet. A scarab can be made out of stone,faience,ivory,amethyst,soapstone etc. The format varies from less than a centimeter to 10 centimeter. The text that is written on the backside refers to the goal it was used for. A dignitary had his name and title written on it, an amulet scarab had text to bring happiness. Often the royal cartouche of the ruling pharao is found on them. Amenhotep III had a lot of them made to confirm his marriage to queen tiji, mother of Akhenetan. The text was:Long live pharao Amenhotep and his royal queen tiji.
Scarabs were used in the bandages of mummies as amulets, big ones as heart-amulets.
To end the story with a rumour: To get the special patina on a scarab, egyptians feed the scarabs to turkeys....... I cannot confirm this however..............
RE: Scarabs
The scarabs are indeed wonderous as they can carry 14 times more then their own weight.
Thanks for sharing this information Mum,
Hugs and kisses,
RE: Scarabs
I have several scarab beetles that i have brought back from Egypt, ranging from very small to quite large.
The ancient Egyptians observed Scarab beetles rolling their balls of dung in which they lay their eggs, and burying them underground. They thought the sun was rolled around the sky in the same way, and like the ball of dung, the sun descended down into the under world each night. As the ball of dung gave birth to another generation of beetles
so the sun was reborn each morning bringing warmth and life to the earth.
The Egyptians called Scarab beetles Khepera. He was the god representing regeneration, new life, virility and resurrection. He was sometimes shown with outstretched wings but the most common forms were the little amulets worn as ornaments or buried with the dead. The reverse of the Scarab is often inscribed with name of kings, and these were made and worn as much as a thousand years after the death of the kings whose names they bear.
Many of the kings themselves took the name of Kheper as part of their own name. For example Tutankhamun's throne-name was Neb Kheperu Ra. This means 'The Lord of forms is Ra' this is the name the people of his time would have known him by. The name Tutankhamun is more personal and less important.
I enjoy reading your posts, you have a wealth of knowledge.
Kybalion x