What does the frog mean in ancient Egypt?

Heqet, goddess of birth. The tadpole sign writes the number 100,000.

What the sign shows: A frog.
How Gerald Massey read it in 1907: Because it changes from tadpole to frog, he reads it as a sign of transformation, applied to the changing moon and to the rising of the dead.
Where you see it today: Clay lamps in the shape of a frog were made in Egypt well into the Christian centuries.
Where it stands in Massey’s book: Massey names it 156 times across the book. Book I, p. 29: “The frog bride traced to Egypt”; Book I, p. 11: “The frog and the resurrection”; Book II, p. 60b: “Tadpole to frog, girl to woman”.
Signs that look like it: Scarab, Fish and Crocodile. The app’s Symbol Trainer sets them side by side, so the eye learns to tell them apart.
In Massey’s words: “The frog, in Egypt, was a sign of “myriads” as well as of transformation.” (Gerald Massey, Ancient Egypt: The Light of the World (1907), Book I, p. 12)
In the app: Trainer › Symbol Trainer › Frog. 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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