Uraeus
The cobra worn on the brow of Egyptian kings, a sign of royal power; in Egyptian myth, serpent goddesses took its form.
Meaning
The Great Sphinx wore one: the British Museum’s 1909 guide lists a piece of the Sphinx’s painted limestone uraeus, from the forehead. Petrie records many names and meanings for the uraeus amulet, among them goddesses, knowledge and divine life, and the name mehen for the uraeus on the crown. Paired with the vulture it meant royal power in Upper and Lower Egypt. In the legend of the winged sun disk, the goddesses Uatchet and Nekhebet take the form of serpents beside it.
The cobra goddess
Uraeus is the Greek name for the cobra on the foreheads of kings and gods (Global Egyptian Museum); the Cleveland Museum of Art traces the word to an Egyptian term for “rising” or “rearing up”, the cobra’s pose. The cobra was the goddess Wadjet, Budge’s Uatchet, whose name means “the green one”: the protective goddess of Lower Egypt, worshipped at Buto in the Delta. On the king’s headdress she appears beside the vulture Nekhbet of Upper Egypt, and the two goddesses together were the royal diadem. One of the king’s five names, the Nebty or Two Ladies name, is introduced by them. Nekhbet herself is sometimes shown as a cobra, told apart from Wadjet by the crown of Upper Egypt. Hathor, Bastet, Sakhmet and Tefnut were also identified with the uraeus.
On the brow
Tutankhamun’s gold mask (Egyptian Museum, Cairo, JE 60672) has the vulture and the uraeus on its forehead, which the museum calls the emblems of kingship and protection. The Cleveland Museum of Art has a uraeus on its own (2023.102), made of a silver-copper alloy in the Nineteenth Dynasty. Its base probably fitted into the top of the head of a large statue, and the cavities in its hood probably once held blue and red stone.
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 hieroglyphicsFeather of MaatA single ostrich feather, the emblem of Maat: right and truth, against which the heart of the dead was weighed.
- In Animal symbolismSnake symbolismIn Genesis the serpent tempts Eve, and Moses raises a bronze serpent on a staff; in Roman legend the god Aesculapius, “the restorer of health” in Ovid's words, comes to Rome as a serpent; in Norse myth the Midgard serpent circles the world biting its own tail. The Cherokee regard snakes as supernatural beings, to be neither killed nor named carelessly.
See also
Eye of Ra, Serpent, Eye of Horus, Scarab, Djed pillar, Was sceptre.
Sources
- Amulets, illustrated by the Egyptian collection in University College, London, W. M. Flinders Petrie, 1914, Constable and Company, London (Internet Archive), Nos. 51, 58
- A guide to the Egyptian collections in the British Museum, British Museum, 1909 (introduction by E. A. Wallis Budge), Harrison and Sons, London (Project Gutenberg), Ancient Empire
- Legends of the Gods: The Egyptian Texts, E. A. Wallis Budge, 1912, Project Gutenberg, Chapter IV
- Uraeus, Global Egyptian Museum glossary, The Global Egyptian Museum, Glossary: Uraeus
- Wadjet, Global Egyptian Museum glossary, The Global Egyptian Museum, Glossary: Wadjet
- Nekhbet, Global Egyptian Museum glossary, The Global Egyptian Museum, Glossary: Nekhbet
- The Gold Mask of Tutankhamun, Egyptian Museum, Cairo, JE 60672, The Global Egyptian Museum, Description
- Uraeus (Rearing Cobra), Cleveland Museum of Art, 2023.102, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Description; Did You Know?
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from curves and waves.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 3, 2026. How we research
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