Theos-Talk Archives (July 1997 Message tl00260)

Hi Lynn!

>I've noticed that quite a few folks here are quite knowledgeable about
>Egyptian hierglyphs. Could someone pleeeeeeease tell me the meaning of this
>one. It is a bird with its body facing right, however the head is turned
>*facing* the viewer. I've been wanting to know the meaning of this one for 20
>years now, since the day it vividly appeared in my mind's eye straight out of
>the blue for no discernable reason. Thanks!!!

I think you're talking about the 'owl' who's 'looking right at you'?  It's
usually used as a preposition and translated to mean 'in', however, based
on your description,  perhaps 'at' would be more appropriate. :-)

I don't think that enough emphasis has been placed (by Egyptologists) on
the symbolism of the Egyptian glyphs.  You may or may not know that a good
part of the words have been translated wholly on a word's final symbol or
'determinative'.  Because of this, there are a host of words (with
different symbles) that are all said to have the same meaning.

Btw, I know someone who has an awesome collection of Egyptian 'djed'
pillars which he's trying to determine the symbolism of.  They are at:

http://www.aa.net/~mwm/phoenix/library/libraryph.html

Maybe someone here has ideas...  It seems to represent the letter 'T'
(implying that the concept meant to be conveyed began with a 'T').  It's
sometimes found between a set of horns in the hieroglyphics (implying the
top of the head?).  

Gisele