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Mask of Tutankhamun's mummy
featuring a uraeus, from the eighteenth dynasty. The cobra image
of Wadjetwith the vulture image
of Nekhbet representing
of the unification of Lower and Upper Egypt
The Uraeus (/jʊəˈriːəs/;[1] plural Uraei or Uraeuses;
from the Greek οὐραῖος, ouraîos,
"on its tail"; from Egyptian jʿr.t (iaret), "rearing cobra") is the stylized,
upright form of an Egyptian cobra (asp, serpent, or snake), used as
a symbol of sovereignty, royalty, deity and divine
authority in ancient Egypt.
Contents
·
1Symbolism
·
2Golden Uraeus of Senusret II
·
3As a hieroglyph
·
4The Blue Crown
·
5Seraphim
·
6See also
·
7References
·
8Sources
The Uraeus is a symbol for
the goddess Wadjet.[2] She was
one of the earliest Egyptian deities and was
often depicted as a cobra, as she is the serpent goddess. The center of her
cult was in Per-Wadjet, later
called Buto by the
Greeks.[3] She became
the patroness of the Nile Delta and the
protector of all of Lower Egypt.[4]The pharaohs wore the uraeus as a head ornament: either with the body of Wadjet atop the head, or as a crown encircling the head;
this indicated Wadjet's protection and reinforced the
pharaoh's claim over the land. In whatever manner that the Uraeus
was displayed upon the pharaoh's head, it was, in effect, part of the pharaoh's crown. The pharaoh
was recognized only by wearing the Uraeus, which
conveyed legitimacy to the ruler. There is evidence for this tradition even in
the Old Kingdom during the
third millennium BCE.[5] Several
goddesses associated with or being considered aspects of Wadjet
are depicted wearing the uraeus as well.
At the time of the
unification of Egypt, the image of Nekhbet, the goddess
who was represented as a white vulture and held
the same position as the patron of Upper Egypt, joined the
image of Wadjet on the Uraeus
that would encircle the crown of the pharaohs who ruled the unified Egypt. The
importance of their separate cults kept them from becoming merged as with so
many Egyptian deities. Together, they were known as the nebty
or The Two Ladies, who became the
joint protectors and patrons of the unified Egypt.[2]
Later, the
pharaohs were seen as a manifestation of the sun god Ra, and so it also
was believed that the Uraeus protected them by
spitting fire on their enemies from the fiery eye of the goddess.[citation needed] In some
mythological works, the eyes of Ra are said
to be uraei. Wadjets
existed long before the rise of this cult when they originated as the eye of Wadjet as a cobra. Wadjets are
also the name of the symbols called the Eye of the Moon, Eye of Hathor, the Eye of Horus, and the Eye of
Ra—depending upon the dates of the references to the symbols.[citation needed]
As the Uraeus was seen as a
royal symbol, the deities Horus and Set were also
depicted wearing the symbol on their crowns. In early ancient Egyptian
mythology, Horus would have been the name given to any king as part of the many
titles taken, being identified as the son of the goddess Isis. According to the
later mythology of Re, the first Uraeus was said to
have been created by the goddess Isis, who formed it
from the dust of the earth and the spittle of the then-current sun deity.[citation needed] In this
version of the mythology, the Uraeus was the instrument
with which Isis gained the throne of Egypt for Osiris. Isis is associated with
and may be considered an aspect of Wadjet.[2]
Uraeus with Solar Disk, 305-30 B.C.E.,51.147.2, Brooklyn Museum
In 1919, after only a half-hour of
excavation, the Qufti worker
Hosni Ibrahim held in his hands the solid-gold Golden Uraeus of Senusret II. It had been
decided to make a (follow-up) complete clearance of the El-Lahun Pyramid's
rooms at Saqqara. The start in
the rock-cut offering chamber, leading from the tomb, on the south, immediately
revealed in the turnover of the six inches of debris, the Golden Uraeus crown ornament.
Prior to the
1922 find of Tutankhamun's tomb, this
Golden Uraeus was the only ornament ever known to be
worn by an entombed pharaoh, and it was thought that it was passed to the next
pharaoh.
The Golden Uraeus is of solid gold, 6.7 cm (2.6 in), black
eyes of granite, a snake head
of deep ultramarine lapis lazuli, the flared
cobra hood of dark carnelian inlays,
and inlays of turquoise. For mounting on the pharaoh's crown, two
loops in the rear-supporting tail of the cobra provide the attachment points.[6][7]
Green glazed
cobra amulet in the form of a Uraeus
Besides the Uraeus being used as an ornament for statuary or as an
adornment on the pharaoh, it also was used for jewellery and
in amulets. However,
another important use is as the hieroglyph.
·
For Uraeus ornament
as a mummy grave example, See: Djedptahiufankh, High Priest of
21st Dynasty, Shoshenq I.[citation needed]
The simplest hieroglyph is the "Cobra" (the
Uraeus); however there are subcategories, referring
to: a goddess, a priestess, the goddess Menhit, the shrine of
the goddess (àter), the goddess
Isis, and lastly goddess: (Cobra (Uraeus) at
base of deity (ntr)).[citation needed]
The Rosetta Stone uses the plural of the last
example, "3 × "god flag" with Cobra
at each base of flag". The story of the Rosetta Stone
has the king (the priests of the king) listing his reasons for being honored,
and in return, "The Gods and Goddesses (plural)" reward him. The last
two-thirds of the Rosetta Stone relates how he will be honored, including
erecting the Rosetta Stone, for all to read.[citation needed]
Another example of the hieroglyph usage is as adornments
upon the hieroglyph for "shrine", and also for "buildings".[8]
Before the New Kingdom Period, the body of the Uraeus coiled in around in circles behind its raised head
on the Blue Crown. The king is
most often depicted wearing the Blue Crown in combat and the aftermath of
combat scenes. Additionally, the smaller scale king usually wore the Blue Crown
when depicted in a protective group of deities. Colossal statues of the king
wearing a Blue Crown are extremely rare; the typical royal statue also does not
feature a Blue Crown. Also, depictions of the Blue Crown with
its Uraeus does not decorate royal tombs until
late in the Ramesside Period. The deity-on-earth king
was thought to require extra protection in his mortal form, emphasizing the
protective qualities of the Uraeus. [9] The Uraeus was usually crafted from precious metals, most
commonly gold and less frequently silver, and adorned with gemstones. [10]
The angelic seraphim, found in
the Hebrew Bible and
later Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions,
are frequently associated with serpents and are thought to have derived from
the concept of uraeus. Multiple-winged uraei amulets are well represented in Palestine.[11]
·
Deshret – Red Crown of Lower Egypt
·
Hedjet – White Crown of Upper Egypt
·
Pschent – Double Crown of Lower & Upper Egypt
·
Atef – Hedjet Crown with feathers identified with Osiris
·
Khepresh – Blue or War Crown also called Royal Crown
·
Khat – head cloth worn by the nobility
·
N-red crown (n
hieroglyph)
·
N-water ripple (n
hieroglyph)
·
Nekhbet – Woman or Vulture wearing an Atef Crown
·
Serpent symbolism
1.
^ "Uraeus". Dictionary.com. 2012. Retrieved July 13, 2012.
2.
^ Jump up to:a b c Egyptian-Gods
3.
^ Herodotus, Historia,
B:152; 155; 156
4.
^ Dunand and Zivie-Coche
5.
^ National Public Library
6.
^ Reeves (1920) pg. 157.
7.
^ Hagen, pg. 202.
8.
^ Budge
9.
^ Hardwick
10.
^ Alchin
11.
^ Mettinger, Tryggve N. D., "Seraphim", in Becking,
Bob & van der P. W, Horst & van der toorn,
Karel. (1999). Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible.
Journal of Biblical Literature. 115. 10.2307/3266385. p. 743
·
Alchin, Linda.
"The Uraeus." Egyptian Gods. Siteseen Ltd, n.d. Web.
·
Budge, Sir E. A. Wallis. An Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary, in Two
Volumes, (Dover Publications, Inc, New York), c
1920, Dover Edition, c 1978. (Large categorized listings of Hieroglyphs, Vol 1,
pp xcvii–cxlvii (97–147, 50 pgs.)
·
Dunand, Françoise, and Christiane Zivie-Coche.
"Cosmonogies, Creation, and Time: Order and
Disorder in Creation." Gods and Men in Egypt: 3000 BCE to 395 CE. Ithaca:
Cornell U, 2004. 347. Print.
·
"Egyptian Symbols: Uraeus."
Egyptian Gods and Goddesses. Egyptian-Gods.org, n.d.
Web.
·
Hagen, Rose-Marie & Rainer Hagen. Egypt;
People, Gods, Pharaohs, (Barnes and Noble Books, New York), c 2003,
(originally: Taschen, GmbH, Koln), c 2003, 1999, pg 202.
·
Hardwick, Tom. "The Iconography of the Blue Crown in
the New Kingdom." The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, vol. 89, 2003, pp.
117–141. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3822494.
·
Johnson, Sally J. (1990). The Cobra Goddess of
Ancient Egypt: Predynastic, Early Dynastic,
and Old Kingdom Periods. Kegan Paul International. ISBN 0-7103-0212-6
·
Reeves, Nicholas. Ancient Egypt, The Great Discoveries, a Year-by-Year Chronicle, (Thames
and Hudson Ltd, London), c. 2000. See "1920, The Golden Uraeus of Sesostris II from el-Lahun", pg. 157.
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23:21 (UTC).
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