The sacred scarab, Scarabeus sacer in Latin - so the scientists call this beetle. The name comes from the religious reverence with which the ancient Egyptians surrounded scarab.
The existence of the ancient Egyptian religion covers a period of more than 2, 000 years. During this time, she has come a long way from the veneration of animals, which is a legacy of totemism, to the worship of anthropomorphic gods. But at the last stage, religion remained somewhat archaic: the image of gods with the heads of animals or birds, the worship of sacred animals. One of these animals was the scarab beetle.
Scarab as a solar symbol
The lifestyle of the scarab beetle made the Egyptians associate it with the image of the sun god.
A scarab can be seen when the sun is especially strong - in the hottest hours of the day.
From a shapeless dung mass, the beetle forms a regular ball shape, which is associated with the act of creating the world from chaos. This beetle rolls from east to west - just as the sun moves in the sky. From the ball where he lays his eggs, a new life is born - just as the Sun is born again every morning, returning from the underworld.
In ancient Egypt, the sun god was revered in three forms, each of which corresponded to a specific time of day. The god Atum corresponded to the night Sun, which went into the underworld, Ra, to the day sun, and Khepri personified the morning rising Sun. Like many Egyptian gods, he was depicted as a man with the head of an animal, and his head looked like a scarab beetle. The rising sun was symbolically depicted as a bug holding a ball of fire.
This scarab god has a special role in the birth of the world: Khepri uttered the sacred name to the owl, and then peace arose.
