What did the hare mean in ancient Egypt?

The sign writes the sound wn, “to be”, as in Wennefer, a name of Osiris. A hare goddess, Wenet, was honoured at Hermopolis.

What the sign shows: A hare.
How Gerald Massey read it in 1907: Massey reads the hare, the leaper, as a figure of the young moon and of the good power.
Where you see it today: Many peoples see a hare, not a man, in the face of the full moon.
Where it stands in Massey’s book: Massey names it 36 times across the book. Book V, p. 317: “The hunter, the hare and the hounds”; Book I, p. 10: “Leapers, dancers and the moon”; Book I, p. 12: “The frog lady of the moon”.
Signs that look like it: Jackal, Cat and Baboon. The app’s Symbol Trainer sets them side by side, so the eye learns to tell them apart.
In Massey’s words: “The Hare, as in Egypt, is typical of the Good Power, and no doubt is a zootype of the young up-springing Moon.” (Gerald Massey, Ancient Egypt: The Light of the World (1907), Book I, p. 15b)
In the app: Trainer › Symbol Trainer › Hare. The app’s Symbol Trainer reads 42 signs this way, each with Massey’s own words and the page they stand on.

Last updated October 25, 2026.

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