Ankh
The ankh denotes life, generation, immortality, authority, and hidden knowledge, joining male and female principles and restoring breath to the dead.
Our paraphrase of what the sources say it carries.
At a glance
- Type
- Symbol
- Borne by
- 1 figure
- Traditions
- Egyptian mythology (1)
Figures that bear it
A model judged each figure against its own description, one term at a time. Is: the figure is a kind of this thing. Bears: it carries the thing or is marked by it. What a figure does is filed under motifs and powers. Open "why" for the sentence the judgement rests on.
- Anubis bears Egyptian mythology
why
He is frequently shown holding a flail or an ankh, and his jackal form recalls the scavenging dogs and jackals that Egyptians observed prowling desert cemeteries, which likely gave rise to his early association with the dead and the necropolis.