Head
tep |
The head signifies the whole being and could be used to
represent a person, god or animal. The head of a god or goddess is
sometimes shown attached to an object related to the nature of that
particular deity. Conversely, the heads of deities are sometimes
replaced by their hieroglyphic signs. |
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Headrest
weres |
Literally a pillow to support the head of a person
asleep. Many headrests were produced or adopted for funerary use as
indicated by their inscriptions. Symbolically the headrest was
associated with solar imagery for it held the head which was lowered in
the evening and rose again in the day. |
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Heart
ieb |
The ancient Egyptians believed that the heart was the set
of thought, emotion and life itself. It was said of the deceased that
their heart had departed. For this reason the heart was the only organ
that was not removed during the mummification process. |
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Heron
benu |
Ardea cinera, the grey heron, is distinguished by
a long straight bill, double head plumes and a tuft of neck feathers.
The bird appears in two poses the one shown here standing upright and
the other sitting or crouching on a perch. The standing heron
normally appears in naturalistic or symbolic scenes and the seated heron
in solar and afterlife settings. As the symbol of the sun the heron was
the sacred bird of Heliopolis and the legendary phoenix of the Greeks. |
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Hippopotamus
deb |
Because of its voracious appetite and destructive way
with Egyptian crops the hippopotamus was viewed as a manifestation of
disorder and evil. Yet the mother was held in awe as a protector of its
young and several goddesses could appear in the form of a hippopotamus. |
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Hoe
henen |
The Egyptian hoe had a long wooden handle and a
scoop-like blade joined at the top supported by a rope tied between the
two halves. The hoe is depicted in normal use in many tomb paintings but
it could also take on important symbolic meaning. The ritual of hoeing
the ground could allude to the death of Osiris who was symbolically
buried each year in the form of planted grain. |
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Horizon
akhet |
The symbol shows two mountain peaks with the solar disk
appearing between them. The horizon therefore embraced both sunrise and
sunset. It was protected by the aker, a double lion deity who guarded
both ends of the day |
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