Egyptian symbols are picture signs that each stood for an idea: the ankh for life, the djed for stability, the Eye of Horus for wholeness and protection, the scarab for coming into being. Here are 42 of them, each with what it shows and what it meant in Egypt.
𓋹 Ankh: The word ankh means “life”. Gods hold the sign to the king’s nose to give him breath, and it is written into names such as Tutankhamun, “living image…
𓊽 Djed pillar: Stability and endurance. In the story of Osiris it is the god’s backbone, and raising the Djed was a festival of his return.
𓂀 Eye of Horus: The eye Horus lost in his fight with Set and had made whole again. It means wholeness and protection, and was the most common amulet in Egypt.
𓆣 Scarab: The beetle is the god Khepri, the sun at dawn; the word kheper means “to come into being”. A stone heart scarab was laid on the mummy.
𓆸 Lotus: Rebirth and the first sunrise. In one creation story the young sun god rises out of a lotus on the first waters.
𓌀 Was sceptre: Power and dominion. Gods carry it, and it frames scenes on temple walls.
𓆄 Feather of Maat: Maat: truth and right order. At the judgment of the dead the heart is weighed against this feather.
𓍝 The scales: The scales of the judgment hall, where the heart is weighed against the feather of Maat while Thoth writes down the result.
𓄣 Heart: The ib: the seat of thought, memory and conscience. It was left in the body and weighed at the judgment.
𓍶 Shen ring: Eternity and protection. Stretched into an oval it becomes the cartouche that encloses a king’s name.
𓎬 Knot of Isis: A sign of the protection of Isis, often made in red stone and laid on the mummy.
𓆗 Uraeus: Worn on the king’s brow, it is the goddess Wadjet spitting fire at his enemies: the sign of royal and divine authority.
𓂓 Ka: The ka: a person’s life-force, born with them and fed after death by the offerings at the tomb.
𓅽 Ba: The ba: the part of a person that can leave the tomb by day and return to the body at night.
𓅜 Akh: The akh: the dead person made effective and shining, at home among the gods.
𓀾 Mummy: The body made to last so that the person could live again. The sign also means “image” or “form”.
𓇳 Sun disk: The sun, the day and the god Ra. The sign writes “day” and stands in the names of kings as “son of Ra”.
𓈌 Horizon: Akhet, the horizon: the place where the sun is reborn each morning. The Great Sphinx was called Horemakhet, “Horus in the horizon”.
𓇼 Star: A star; inside a circle it writes Duat, the netherworld. The ceilings of tombs are covered with them.
𓄗 Foreleg of the Bull: Meskhetiu, the Egyptian name for the seven stars we call the Plough or the Big Dipper.
𓊛 Boat of the sun: The sun crosses the sky in one boat by day and the netherworld in another by night, and the dead hope to ride with him.
𓊍 Stairway: The stairway and the first mound of creation. A step pyramid is a stairway to the sky, and the Pyramid Texts speak of a ladder set up for the king.
𓉴 Pyramid: The king’s tomb and his way to the sky. The texts carved inside the later pyramids are the oldest large body of religious writing known.
𓅃 Falcon: Horus, lord of the sky and of kingship. Every king of Egypt was “the Horus”.
𓅝 Ibis: Thoth, god of writing, reckoning and the moon.
𓃷 Baboon: A form of Thoth. Baboons greet the rising sun, and one sits on top of the scales at the judgment of the dead.
𓃢 Jackal: Anubis, who embalms the dead and leads them to the judgment.
𓃯 Hippopotamus: Taweret and Ipet, hippopotamus goddesses who protect mothers and children. A hippopotamus also stands among the northern constellations.
𓃬 Lion: Strength and the sun. Two lions back to back, called Aker, guard the horizon where the sun goes down and comes up.
𓅣 Benu bird: The Benu of Heliopolis, a form of the sun god’s soul, linked with the first sunrise and with renewal.
𓆊 Crocodile: Sobek, god of the Nile’s power and plenty, worshipped at Kom Ombo and in the Fayum.
𓆏 Frog: Heqet, goddess of birth. The tadpole sign writes the number 100,000.
𓅐 Vulture: Nekhbet, protector of Upper Egypt, and the goddess Mut. The sign itself writes the word for mother.
𓆙 Serpent of darkness: Apep (Apophis), the great serpent that attacks the sun’s boat every night and is cut down every morning.
𓆤 Bee: The bee stands for Lower Egypt in the king’s title “He of the Sedge and the Bee”.
𓃹 Hare: The sign writes the sound wn, “to be”, as in Wennefer, a name of Osiris. A hare goddess, Wenet, was honoured at Hermopolis.
𓃠 Cat: Bastet; and the Great Cat of Ra, who cuts off the head of the serpent Apep under the tree at Heliopolis.
𓃕 Cow: Hathor; and the sky itself as a great cow whose belly is the heaven.
𓅬 Goose: Geb, the earth god, wears a goose on his head, and one creation story has the first egg laid by the “Great Cackler”.
𓆛 Fish: Fish signs spell many words. The tilapia, which shelters its young in its mouth, was a sign of rebirth.
𓆭 Sycamore: The sycamore fig of the goddesses Nut and Hathor, who lean out of it to give the dead food and water.
𓇅 Papyrus: Wadj: green, fresh, flourishing. It is the plant of Lower Egypt and of the marsh where Isis hid the child Horus.
In the app: Trainer › Symbol Trainer. Each sign has its own page in the app: what it shows, what it meant in Egypt, how Massey read it, and where you see it today.