Khepri
Egyptian · deity · mythic · deity
Khepri is a pun that held up for three thousand years. The dung beetle rolls a ball along the ground and young beetles come out of it, apparently from nothing; the sun is rolled across the sky and comes up again out of nothing every morning; and the beetle's name, kheper, is also the verb for coming into being. From that the Egyptians built the commonest amulet they ever made. Heart scarabs were laid on the chest of the dead inscribed with a spell asking the heart not to testify against its owner, which is the same idea turned to a different use: becoming, again, out of an apparent end.
Domains
- sun
- becoming
Relations
- counterpart of: Ra
Sources
- Reference treatments of Khepri, of his scarab iconography and of the ḫpr root.