Khepri in the context of "Amduat"

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👉 Khepri in the context of Amduat

The Amduat /ˈɑːm.dʊʔɑːt/ (from Ancient Egyptian: 𓇋𓏶𓇼𓏏𓉐, romanizedjmj-dwꜣt, imi-duat, lit.'[That Which] Is In the Afterworld, also called the Text of the Hidden Chamber Which is in the Underworld and Book of What is in the Underworld', (Arabic: كتاب الآخرة, romanizedKitāb al-ākhirah, lit.'The Book of the Hereafter') is an important ancient Egyptian funerary text of the New Kingdom of Egypt. Similar to previous funerary texts, such as the Old Kingdom's Pyramid Texts, or the First Intermediate Period's Coffin Texts, the Amduat was found carved on the internal walls of a pharaoh's tomb. Unlike other funerary texts, however, it was reserved almost exclusively for pharaohs until the Twenty-first Dynasty, or very select nobility.

The Amduat tells the story of Ra, the Egyptian sun god who makes a daily journey through the underworld, from the time when the sun sets in the west till it rises again in the east. This is associated with imagery of continual death and rebirth, as the sun 'dies' when it sets, and through the trials of rebirth in the underworld, it is once again 'reborn' at the beginning of a new day. It is said that the deceased Pharaoh will take this same journey through the underworld, ultimately to be reborn and become one with Ra, residing with him forever. Many gods, goddesses, and deities help both Ra and the deceased soul on this journey in a variety of ways, Khepri, Isis, and Osiris being some of the main ones. This is alongside many unnamed or unknown deities, which are often given reference to within the text of the Amduat itself.

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Khepri in the context of Dung beetle

Dung beetles are beetles that feed on feces. All species of dung beetle belong to the superfamily Scarabaeoidea, most of them to the subfamilies Scarabaeinae and Aphodiinae of the family Scarabaeidae (scarab beetles). As most species of Scarabaeinae feed exclusively on feces, that subfamily is often dubbed true dung beetles. There are dung-feeding beetles which belong to other families, such as the Geotrupidae (the earth-boring dung beetle). The Scarabaeinae alone comprises more than 5,000 species.

As they do not belong to a single group sharing a common ancestor, there is a diversity in the behavior of dung beetles, including the iconic dung-rolling behavior revered by Ancient Egyptians as Khepri rolling the sun across the sky.

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