Thursday, December 11, 2008

Winged Scarab

This gorgeous scarab comes from here. As most of you know, the scarab is a powerful image from Egyptian mythology and is found in many ancient writings and antiquities. This tattoo is apparently based on a scarab found in Pharoah Tutankhamun's tomb, probably the one below. Ra, the sun god, in the form of a scarab, or dung beetle, rolls the sun along his back thus explaining the movements of the sun. The scarab was a very popular symbol for this reason and features on everything from jewelry, including magical amulets, grave goods and furniture.

A lot of the significance of the dung beetle can be traced to the natural behavior of several varieties of beetle. They roll a bit of dung into a perfectly round ball with their young, larvae, inside it. The larvae then feed on the nutrients in the dung and eventually climb out. From the point of view of the ancients a new beetle emerging from a dung ball was a powerful representation of creation and life. Thus they immortalized it in hieroglyphic form with the meaning "to come into being" attached to it.

2 comments:

Rose Weaver said...

Wow, that's a nice tat. Khepri has great meaning to me and this particular tat is incredibly close to a winged scarab in a dream I once had. I've been wanted to get one as a tat but haven't found the right one yet. I'll keep looking, but may have to write the artist to see if I can use his design and build upon it. It's great.

Livia Indica said...

It is pretty neat, eh? You'll have to visit the linked blog to find artist information. The blogger only lists his first name so I guess you'll have to contact him. Good luck.