Shen ring
A circle of cord, the shen: a sign of eternity to Wallis Budge, and of the fullness of life to Flinders Petrie.
Meaning
Budge explains the shen as the orbit of the sun, which came to stand for an undefined stretch of time, eternity; gods are shown kneeling with their hands resting on it. It was painted on stelae and coffins, and as an amulet was commonly made of lapis lazuli or carnelian. Petrie gives its sense as “benefits of life”, the fullness of the gains and rewards of life, and found it worn in the top row of amulets, beside the Cartouche.
A knotted loop of rope
The Global Egyptian Museum describes the shen as a double strand of rope whose ends are folded so that it closes into a ring, with a knot on the underside. It is a hieroglyph, a protective sign on stelae and in tombs, and an amulet; in the Third and Fourth Dynasties it was worn round the neck for protection. The museum reads it as infinity, because a circle has no end, and as the eternity of the universe when it encircles the sun, close to Budge’s sun’s orbit. Encircling also gave it the sense of protection. Royal names were written inside a lengthened shen, the cartouche.
In the talons of Nekhbet
The vulture goddess Nekhbet and Horus as a falcon hold the shen above the king. On the gold vulture of Princess Khnumit’s diadem from Dahshur (Egyptian Museum, Cairo, JE 31105), Nekhbet grips two, which the museum reads as eternity; on the black coffin of Amenemope in Hildesheim (Pelizaeus-Museum 6330) her shen rings stand for “cyclical eternity”. The same catalogue reads them differently on royal jewellery: on a gold vulture amulet of King Psusennes I from Tanis (JE 85814) they are the shen rings “of the universal power”, and on a clasp from Tutankhamun’s treasury (JE 61978) each cobra’s sun disc rests on a shen, “the symbol of universal power”.
Write in hieroglyphs
stringmash.comHieroglyphics translatorSpell a name in Egyptian hieroglyphs, letter by letter, and put it in a cartouche.Read next
- Next in Egyptian hieroglyphicsCartoucheThe oval ring drawn around a royal name in hieroglyphs. As an amulet, Petrie wrote, it was meant to preserve the name.
- The same shape in Norse and Viking symbolsBorre ring-chainAn interlace of bands running through rings and lozenges, the signature motif of the Borre style of Viking art, about 850–950. It is named after harness mounts from a ship grave at Borre in Vestfold, Norway.
See also
Eye of Horus, Scarab, Djed pillar, Was sceptre, Tyet, Crook and flail.
Sources
- Egyptian Magic, E. A. Wallis Budge, 1901, Internet Archive (Getty Research Institute copy), Amulet 18
- Amulets, illustrated by the Egyptian collection in University College, London, W. M. Flinders Petrie, 1914, Constable and Company, London (Internet Archive), No. 81
- Shen-ring, Global Egyptian Museum glossary, The Global Egyptian Museum, Glossary: Shen-ring
- Diadem of Princess Khnumit with Gold Vulture, Egyptian Museum, Cairo, JE 31105,6,12, The Global Egyptian Museum, Description
- Coffin of Amenemope, Pelizaeus-Museum, Hildesheim, 6330, The Global Egyptian Museum, Description
- Amulet in the Shape of Winged Vulture, Egyptian Museum, Cairo, JE 85814, The Global Egyptian Museum, Description
- Clasp of a Piece of Jewelry, Egyptian Museum, Cairo, JE 61978, The Global Egyptian Museum, Description
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from circles or lines.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 3, 2026. How we research
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