Ancient Egyptian bestiary: Insects
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InsectsApart from the dungbeetle worshipped as Atem and the flies representing tenacity and courage, Egyptians revered other insects too.Butterflies were portrayed for their beauty and bees kept for their honey, but many other insects were less well liked being mostly nuisances in the eyes of the ancient Egyptians and their potential for causing harm only partially recognized: lice, fleas bed-bugs or mosquitoes. Grain weevils (since the Old Kingdom) and grain beetles (since the early New Kingdom) occurred in ancient Egypt [2] and destroyed significant amounts of stored cereals. Bacon beetles belonging to the family of the Dermestidae, checkered beetles (Cleridae), lesser mealworm beetles, cockroaches, snout beetles and others were found in tombs, where they caused damage to the food offerings and the mummies. But apart from occasional drawings showing them being pierced by some weapon, and a few spells there was little anybody could do against them [3]. On the other hand insects such as butterflies, grasshoppers, or praying mantises might serve as guides to the deceased on their journey to achieve eternal life [4]. BeetlesThe Buprestids (also known as Jewel beetles) are conspicuous for their metallic shine. Pendants resembling them were made in pre-historic times. Artefacts were decorated with their shapes, a number of such objects were found in Tutankhamen's and Queen Hetepheres' tombs. It has been suggested that Buprestids were connected with Osiris who had been enclosed in the trunk of a tamarisk tree. Similarly, this kind of beetle must have been found by carpenters enclosed in wood when they split it in order to make planks.Click beetles are quite common in Egypt. They were associated with the protective goddess Neith. Gold foil amulets dating to the early dynastic have been found at Nag ed-Deir. A few centuries later during the Old Kingdom a woman was buried with a necklace consisting of fifty gold elaterid beetles [1]. Most of the ancient Egyptian words connected with beetles refer to the dung beetle, the sacred scarab. There is the sun beetle, the ankh (transliteration anx), turning into which was apparently a major step up for king Pepi I: You will live as an ankh-beetle, enduring as a [Dd-pillar], O Pepiand the scarab, xprr: As bird this Unas flies upwards, as scarab he alightsof others the exact meaning is not as well known: the jbb was apparently a beetle, while the jk.w-tA, known from medical literature, could possibly have been a worm. MsxA.t-kA.w and MsxAA.t are names for beetle divinities. Locust
The locust on the other hand was dangerous to survival and people were well aware of it. Their small size did not prevent them from being a great pest and when a swarm descended on fields and meadows, little was left for men to reap and beasts to feed on, as a Ptolemaic maxim has it:
Locust; Excerpt. The small locust destroys the grapevineTheir great numbers too were proverbial. Ramses II described the armies of his Hittite enemies as follows: They covered the mountains and valleys and were like locusts in their multitude.and in the Pyramid Texts the flight of the locust is of greatest consequence: it can even hide the sun. Someone flies up, I fly up from you, O! men; I am not for the earth, I am for the sky. O! you local god of mine, my double is beside you, for I have soared to the sky as a heron, I have kissed the sky as a falcon, I have reached the sky as a locust which hides the sunBut it was the First Intermediate Period nomarch Ankhtifi who used the locust simile most effectively when he described the Egyptian people in their desperate search for food during a famine: The whole country has become like locusts going upstream and downstream Praying mantis
During the excavations at Deir el Medine B. Bruyère [5] discovered a small, somewhat anthropomorphous coffin made of clay which contained the remains of a praying mantis wrapped in linen.Praying mantises are but rarely mentioned in the texts. In the following passage from a Book of the Dead version the translation of Abyt has also been interpreted to mean 'dancer', in another version of the passage (pBM EA 10477) an Abyt-bird is possibly referred to: I have gone to the king passing by my house. [4] G. Maspero, History of Egypt, Kessinger Publishing 2003, p. 263 [5] B. Bruyère, Les fouilles de Deir el Médineh (1934-35) [6] Totenbuchprojekt, Nordrhein-Westfälische Akademie der Wissenschaften => pLondon BM 10793 => Tb 076, Line [25,18] [7] After a transliteration and German translation on the Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptiae website: Altägyptisches Wörterbuch, Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften => Pyramidentexte => Unas-Pyramide => Vorkammer => Südwand => PT 267 [8] After a transliteration and German translation on the Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptiae website: Altägyptisches Wörterbuch, Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften => Pyramidentexte => Pyramide Pepis I. => Sargkammer => Südwand => östl. Fläche => PT 690 |
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Offsite links I do not assume any responsibility for the content or availability of these websites | ||
 | [1] Carol Andrews, Amulets of Ancient Egypt: Introduction | ||
| [2] Eva Panagiotakopulu Insect Remains from Pharaonic Amarna, Egypt | ||
| [3] H. Levinson, A. Levinson, Wie die alten Ägypter ihre Mumien vor Insekten schützten | ||
| Sacred Insects of Ancient Egypt | ||
| Beetles as religious symbols | ||
