Winged sun disk
The sun disk with outstretched wings, carved above temple doorways: the form Horus of Behutet took, in Egyptian myth, to fight the enemies of Ra.
Meaning
Petrie gives its meaning as Ra as protector, and notes that it was seldom placed on the mummy but usual over figures and the entrances to temples. Flanked by cobras it meant Ra as ruler.
The legend at Edfu
The legend is cut in hieroglyphs on the walls of the temple of Edfu. In Budge’s account, Horus of Behutet took the form of a great winged disk and flew up into the sky to pursue the rebels against Ra, joined by the goddesses Uatchet and Nekhebet in the form of serpents. Ra then ordered an image of the winged disk placed in each of his sanctuaries, and the winged disks above the doorways of Egypt’s standing temples, Budge wrote, show the command was carried out.
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 hieroglyphicsBaA bird with a human head: the ba, usually translated soul, the part of a person that could leave the tomb.
- In Egyptian gods and their symbolsHorusHorus is the falcon, or the man with a falcon’s head, who wears the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt. Every king was Horus on earth, so a falcon sits on top of the king’s name, and the eye Horus lost and got back became the eye of Horus amulet.
See also
Eye of Ra, Ra, Sun symbols, Assyrian winged disc, Eye of Horus, Scarab.
Sources
- Amulets, illustrated by the Egyptian collection in University College, London, W. M. Flinders Petrie, 1914, Constable and Company, London (Internet Archive), Nos. 83, 84
- Legends of the Gods: The Egyptian Texts, E. A. Wallis Budge, 1912, Project Gutenberg, Chapter IV
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from circles or curves and waves.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed September 25, 2026. How we research
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