Ankh
Encyclopedia
The ankh also known as key of life, the key of the Nile or crux ansata, was the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic character that read "eternal life
", a triliteral sign for the consonants ʻ
-n
-ḫ. Egyptian gods are often portrayed carrying it by its loop, or bearing one in each hand, arms crossed over their chest.
The origin of the symbol remains a mystery to Egyptologists, and no single hypothesis has been widely accepted. One of the earliest suggestions is that of Thomas Inman
, first published in 1869:
E. A. Wallis Budge
postulated that the symbol originated as the belt-buckle of the mother goddess Isis
, an idea joined by Wolfhart Westendorf with the notion that both the ankh and the knot of Isis were used in many ceremonies. Sir Alan Gardiner
speculated that it depicts a sandal
strap, with the loop going around the ankle. The word for sandal strap was also spelled , although it may have been pronounced differently.
In their 2004 book The Quick and the Dead, Andrew Hunt Gordon and Calvin W. Schwabe speculated that the ankh, djed
, and was
symbols have a biological basis derived from ancient cattle culture (linked to the Egyptian belief that semen
was created in the spine
), thus:
Egyptian academics, in particular those at the University of Cairo, aver that the ankh has been over-interpreted and that it is representative of the pivotal role of the Nile in the country. The oval head is said to represent the Nile delta, with the vertical mark representing the path of the river and the East and West arms representing the two sides of the country and their unification.
The ankh appears frequently in Egyptian tomb paintings and other art, often at the fingertips of a god or goddess in images that represent the deities of the afterlife
conferring the gift of life on the dead person's mummy
; this is thought to symbolize the act of conception. Additionally, an ankh was often carried by Egyptians
as an amulet
, either alone, or in connection with two other hieroglyphs that mean "strength" and "health" (see explication of djed
and was
, above). Mirror
s of beaten metal were also often made in the shape of an ankh, either for decorative reasons or to symbolize a perceived view into another world.
The ankh was almost never drawn in silver; as a sun-symbol, the Egyptians almost always crafted important examples of it (for tombs or other purposes) from the metal they most associated with the sun, gold. A similar metal such as copper, burnished to a high sheen, was also sometimes used.
A symbol similar to the ankh appears frequently in Minoan
and Mycenaean
sites. This is a combination of the sacral knot (symbol of holiness) with the double-edged axe (symbol of matriarchy) but it can be better compared with the Egyptian tyet
which is similar. This symbol can be recognized on the two famous figurines of the chthonian snake goddess
discovered in the palace of Knossos
. Both snake goddesses have a knot with a projecting loop cord between their breasts. In the Linear B
(Mycenean Greek) script, ankh is the phonetic sign za.
The ankh also appeared frequently in coins from ancient
Cyprus
and Asia Minor (particularly the city of Mallus in Cilicia). In some cases, especially with the early coinage of King Euelthon of Salamis, the letter ku, from the Cypriot syllabary
, appeared within the circle ankh, representing Ku(prion) (Cypriots). To this day, the ankh is also used to represent the planet Venus
(the namesake of which, the goddess Venus or Aphrodite
, was chiefly worshipped on the island) and the metal copper
(the heavy mining of which gave Cyprus its name).
David P. Silverman notes how the depiction of the ancient Egyptian ankh was preserved by the Copts in their representation of the Christian cross, the coptic cross
.
The ankh is a frequently recurring element in the video game series Ultima, where it represents power and virtue, often being the subject of worship by the game's NPCs
.
In the MMORPG game World of Warcraft
, it is used for characters known as shamans, as a reagent for a spell called "Reincarnation".
It is also featured in the movie Logan's Run
where the ankh is the key to freedom outside the containment center.
A stylized ankh is also the symbol of the gothic metal
band Theatres des Vampires
.
Vinnie Vincent
used the ankh for makeup design while in the rock group Kiss
in 1982.
Death, a character in Neil Gaiman
's Sandman
series, wears the ankh as a necklace.
Immortality
Immortality is the ability to live forever. It is unknown whether human physical immortality is an achievable condition. Biological forms have inherent limitations which may or may not be able to be overcome through medical interventions or engineering...
", a triliteral sign for the consonants ʻ
Ayin
' or ' is the sixteenth letter in many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew and Arabic . It is the twenty-first letter in the new Persian alphabet...
-n
Nun (letter)
Nun is the fourteenth letter of many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew and Arabic alphabet . It is the third letter in Thaana , pronounced as "noonu"...
-ḫ. Egyptian gods are often portrayed carrying it by its loop, or bearing one in each hand, arms crossed over their chest.
Origin
| Ankh in hieroglyphs |
| |
The origin of the symbol remains a mystery to Egyptologists, and no single hypothesis has been widely accepted. One of the earliest suggestions is that of Thomas Inman
Thomas Inman
Thomas Inman was a house-surgeon to the Liverpool Royal Infirmary. In his lifetime he had numerous medical papers published. Perhaps most notably, however, he was an amateur mythologist, and as such had several non-medical papers published, including Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism,...
, first published in 1869:
E. A. Wallis Budge
Sir Ernest Alfred Thompson Wallis Budge was an English Egyptologist, Orientalist, and philologist who worked for the British Museum and published numerous works on the ancient Near East.-Earlier life:...
postulated that the symbol originated as the belt-buckle of the mother goddess Isis
Isis
Isis or in original more likely Aset is a goddess in Ancient Egyptian religious beliefs, whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. She was worshipped as the ideal mother and wife as well as the matron of nature and magic...
, an idea joined by Wolfhart Westendorf with the notion that both the ankh and the knot of Isis were used in many ceremonies. Sir Alan Gardiner
Alan Gardiner
Sir Alan Henderson Gardiner was one of the premier British Egyptologists of the early and mid-20th century...
speculated that it depicts a sandal
Sandal (footwear)
Sandals are an open type of outdoor footwear, consisting of a sole held to the wearer's foot by straps passing over the instep and, sometimes, around the ankle...
strap, with the loop going around the ankle. The word for sandal strap was also spelled , although it may have been pronounced differently.
In their 2004 book The Quick and the Dead, Andrew Hunt Gordon and Calvin W. Schwabe speculated that the ankh, djed
Djed
The djed symbol is a pillar-like ancient Egyptian symbol representing stability. It has been interpreted as the backbone of the Egyptian god Osiris, especially in the form Banebdjedet . Djedu is the Egyptian name for Busiris, a centre of the cult of Osiris...
, and was
Was
The was sceptre is a symbol that appeared often in relics, art and hieroglyphics associated with the ancient Egyptian religion...
symbols have a biological basis derived from ancient cattle culture (linked to the Egyptian belief that semen
Semen
Semen is an organic fluid, also known as seminal fluid, that may contain spermatozoa. It is secreted by the gonads and other sexual organs of male or hermaphroditic animals and can fertilize female ova...
was created in the spine
Vertebral column
In human anatomy, the vertebral column is a column usually consisting of 24 articulating vertebrae, and 9 fused vertebrae in the sacrum and the coccyx. It is situated in the dorsal aspect of the torso, separated by intervertebral discs...
), thus:
- the ankh, symbol of life, thoracicThoraxThe thorax is a division of an animal's body that lies between the head and the abdomen.-In tetrapods:...
vertebra of a bull (seen in cross sectionCross section (geometry)In geometry, a cross-section is the intersection of a figure in 2-dimensional space with a line, or of a body in 3-dimensional space with a plane, etc...
) - the djedDjedThe djed symbol is a pillar-like ancient Egyptian symbol representing stability. It has been interpreted as the backbone of the Egyptian god Osiris, especially in the form Banebdjedet . Djedu is the Egyptian name for Busiris, a centre of the cult of Osiris...
, symbol of stability, base on sacrumSacrumIn vertebrate anatomy the sacrum is a large, triangular bone at the base of the spine and at the upper and back part of the pelvic cavity, where it is inserted like a wedge between the two hip bones. Its upper part connects with the last lumbar vertebra, and bottom part with the coccyx...
of a bull's spine - the wasWasThe was sceptre is a symbol that appeared often in relics, art and hieroglyphics associated with the ancient Egyptian religion...
, symbol of power and dominion, a staff featuring the head and tail of the god Set, "great of strength"
Egyptian academics, in particular those at the University of Cairo, aver that the ankh has been over-interpreted and that it is representative of the pivotal role of the Nile in the country. The oval head is said to represent the Nile delta, with the vertical mark representing the path of the river and the East and West arms representing the two sides of the country and their unification.
History
Afterlife
The afterlife is the belief that a part of, or essence of, or soul of an individual, which carries with it and confers personal identity, survives the death of the body of this world and this lifetime, by natural or supernatural means, in contrast to the belief in eternal...
conferring the gift of life on the dead person's mummy
Mummy
A mummy is a body, human or animal, whose skin and organs have been preserved by either intentional or incidental exposure to chemicals, extreme coldness , very low humidity, or lack of air when bodies are submerged in bogs, so that the recovered body will not decay further if kept in cool and dry...
; this is thought to symbolize the act of conception. Additionally, an ankh was often carried by Egyptians
Egyptians
Egyptians are nation an ethnic group made up of Mediterranean North Africans, the indigenous people of Egypt.Egyptian identity is closely tied to geography. The population of Egypt is concentrated in the lower Nile Valley, the small strip of cultivable land stretching from the First Cataract to...
as an amulet
Amulet
An amulet, similar to a talisman , is any object intended to bring good luck or protection to its owner.Potential amulets include gems, especially engraved gems, statues, coins, drawings, pendants, rings, plants and animals; even words said in certain occasions—for example: vade retro satana—, to...
, either alone, or in connection with two other hieroglyphs that mean "strength" and "health" (see explication of djed
Djed
The djed symbol is a pillar-like ancient Egyptian symbol representing stability. It has been interpreted as the backbone of the Egyptian god Osiris, especially in the form Banebdjedet . Djedu is the Egyptian name for Busiris, a centre of the cult of Osiris...
and was
Was
The was sceptre is a symbol that appeared often in relics, art and hieroglyphics associated with the ancient Egyptian religion...
, above). Mirror
Mirror
A mirror is an object that reflects light or sound in a way that preserves much of its original quality prior to its contact with the mirror. Some mirrors also filter out some wavelengths, while preserving other wavelengths in the reflection...
s of beaten metal were also often made in the shape of an ankh, either for decorative reasons or to symbolize a perceived view into another world.
The ankh was almost never drawn in silver; as a sun-symbol, the Egyptians almost always crafted important examples of it (for tombs or other purposes) from the metal they most associated with the sun, gold. A similar metal such as copper, burnished to a high sheen, was also sometimes used.
A symbol similar to the ankh appears frequently in Minoan
Minoan civilization
The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age civilization that arose on the island of Crete and flourished from approximately the 27th century BC to the 15th century BC. It was rediscovered at the beginning of the 20th century through the work of the British archaeologist Arthur Evans...
and Mycenaean
Helladic period
Helladic is a modern archaeological term meant to identify a sequence of periods characterizing the culture of mainland ancient Greece during the Bronze Age. The term is commonly used in archaeology and art history...
sites. This is a combination of the sacral knot (symbol of holiness) with the double-edged axe (symbol of matriarchy) but it can be better compared with the Egyptian tyet
Tyet
The tyet is an ancient Egyptian symbol of the goddess Isis; its exact origin is unknown. In many respects the tyet resembles an ankh, except that its arms curve down...
which is similar. This symbol can be recognized on the two famous figurines of the chthonian snake goddess
Snake Goddess
Snake Goddess, indicates figurines of a woman holding a snake in each hand found during excavation of Minoan archaeological sites in Crete dating from approximately 1600 BCE.It seems that the two elegant idols found in Knossos represented goddesses and by implication, the term 'snake goddess'...
discovered in the palace of Knossos
Knossos
Knossos , also known as Labyrinth, or Knossos Palace, is the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete and probably the ceremonial and political centre of the Minoan civilization and culture. The palace appears as a maze of workrooms, living spaces, and store rooms close to a central square...
. Both snake goddesses have a knot with a projecting loop cord between their breasts. In the Linear B
Linear B
Linear B is a syllabic script that was used for writing Mycenaean Greek, an early form of Greek. It pre-dated the Greek alphabet by several centuries and seems to have died out with the fall of Mycenaean civilization...
(Mycenean Greek) script, ankh is the phonetic sign za.
The ankh also appeared frequently in coins from ancient
History of Cyprus
-Prehistory:Cyprus was settled by humans in the Paleolithic period who coexisted with various dwarf animal species, such as dwarf elephants and pygmy hippos well into the Holocene...
Cyprus
Cyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
and Asia Minor (particularly the city of Mallus in Cilicia). In some cases, especially with the early coinage of King Euelthon of Salamis, the letter ku, from the Cypriot syllabary
Cypriot syllabary
The Cypriot syllabary is a syllabic script used in Iron Age Cyprus, from ca. the 11th to the 4th centuries BCE, when it was replaced by the Greek alphabet. A pioneer of that change was king Evagoras of Salamis...
, appeared within the circle ankh, representing Ku(prion) (Cypriots). To this day, the ankh is also used to represent the planet Venus
Venus
Venus is the second planet from the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6, bright enough to cast shadows...
(the namesake of which, the goddess Venus or Aphrodite
Aphrodite
Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of love, beauty, pleasure, and procreation.Her Roman equivalent is the goddess .Historically, her cult in Greece was imported from, or influenced by, the cult of Astarte in Phoenicia....
, was chiefly worshipped on the island) and the metal copper
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
(the heavy mining of which gave Cyprus its name).
David P. Silverman notes how the depiction of the ancient Egyptian ankh was preserved by the Copts in their representation of the Christian cross, the coptic cross
Coptic cross
The original Coptic cross may have been influenced from the Coptic ankh symbol and was adopted by early Christian Gnostics, most notably Valentinus of Alexandria, Egypt. Today's cross has many different forms. The circle represents the eternal and everlasting love of God. Christ's halo was commonly...
.
Modern use
This symbol is one of the most known symbols of ancient Egypt and it is often used as the graphic synonym for this ancient culture. Due to this context, as well as due to the fact that many pictures of Egyptian gods and goddesses contained the symbol ankh in their hands, this symbol was adopted as a symbol of modern religion called Kemetism (although different Gnostic sects have been using this symbol since before Coptic times, and it is still in use by them today), which is reconstructing the ancient Egyptian religion at the present. Many neo-pagan, New Age, and pagan sects wear the ankh as a symbol of power and wisdom or to show that they honor the Egyptian pantheon. It is commonly seen in jewelry such as rings and necklaces and despite its earlier uses it is cast in silver (versus the gold or copper the ancients used).The ankh is a frequently recurring element in the video game series Ultima, where it represents power and virtue, often being the subject of worship by the game's NPCs
Non-player character
A non-player character , sometimes known as a non-person character or non-playable character, in a game is any fictional character not controlled by a player. In electronic games, this usually means a character controlled by the computer through artificial intelligence...
.
In the MMORPG game World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994...
, it is used for characters known as shamans, as a reagent for a spell called "Reincarnation".
It is also featured in the movie Logan's Run
Logan's Run
Logan's Run is a novel by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson. Published in 1967, it depicts a dystopic ageist future society in which both population and the consumption of resources are maintained in equilibrium by requiring the death of everyone reaching a particular age...
where the ankh is the key to freedom outside the containment center.
A stylized ankh is also the symbol of the gothic metal
Gothic metal
Gothic metal or goth metal is a subgenre of heavy metal music that combines the aggression of doom metal with the dark melancholy of gothic rock. The music of gothic metal is diverse with bands known to adopt the gothic approach to different styles of heavy metal music...
band Theatres des Vampires
Theatres des Vampires
Theatres des Vampires is an Italian gothic metal band with strong black metal influences, mostly noted for the predominant theme of vampirism within their lyrics.-History and background:In 1994, Alessandro Nunziati form Theatres des Vampires....
.
Vinnie Vincent
Vinnie Vincent
Vincent John Cusano, better known as Vinnie Vincent, is an American guitarist from Bridgeport, Connecticut and songwriter known for his brief membership in the band Kiss.-Replacing Ace Frehley in Kiss:...
used the ankh for makeup design while in the rock group Kiss
KISS (band)
Kiss is an American rock band formed in New York City in January 1973. Well-known for its members' face paint and flamboyant stage outfits, the group rose to prominence in the mid to late 1970s on the basis of their elaborate live performances, which featured fire breathing, blood spitting,...
in 1982.
Death, a character in Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman
Neil Richard Gaiman born 10 November 1960)is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre and films. His notable works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book...
's Sandman
Sandman
The Sandman is a figure in folklore who brings good sleep and dreams.Sandman may also refer to:-People:*Mark Sandman, singer and co-founder of the band Morphine*Charles W...
series, wears the ankh as a necklace.