Chapter VI The Interpretation of Hieroglyphics
Hieroglyphs or hieroglyphics, literally “sacred sculptures,” is the term applied to those written characters by means of which the ancient Egyptians expressed their thoughts. Hieroglyphs are usually pictures of external objects, such as the sun, moon, stars, plants, animals, man, the members of man’s body, and various other objects.
They may be arranged in four classes.
First. Representational, iconographic, or mimic hieroglyphs, in which case each hieroglyph is a picture of the object referred to. Thus, the sun’s disk means the sun; a crescent the moon; a whip means a whip; an eye, an eye. Such hieroglyphs form picture-writing, and may be called iconographs, or representations.
Secondly. Symbolical, tropical, or ideographic hieroglyphs, in which case the hieroglyph was not designed to stand for the object represented, but for some quality or attribute suggested by the object. Thus, heaven and a star meant night; a leg in a trap, deceit; incense, adoration; a bee, Lower Egypt; the heart, love; an eye with a tear, grief; a beetle, immortality; a crook, protection. Such hieroglyphs are called ideographs, and are perhaps the most difficult to interpret, inasmuch as they stand for abstract ideas. Ideographic writing was carried to great perfection, the signs for ideas became fixed, and each ideograph had a stereotyped signification.
Thirdly. Enigmatic hieroglyphs include all those wherein one object stands for some other object. Thus, a hawk stands for a solar deity; the bird ibis, for the god Thoth; a seated figure with a curved beard, for a god.
Fourthly. Phonetic hieroglyphs, wherein each hieroglyph represents a sound, and is therefore called a phonetic. Each phonetic at first probably stood for a syllable, in which case it might be called a syllabic sign. Thus, a chessboard represents the sound men; a hoe, mer; a triple twig, mes; a bowl, neb; a beetle, khep; a bee, kheb; a star, seb.
It appears that when phonetic hieroglyphs were first formed, the spoken language was for the most part made up of monosyllabic words, and that the names given to animals were imitations of the sounds made by such animals; thus, ab means lamb; ba, goat; au, cow; mau, lion; su, goose; ui, a chicken; bak, a hawk; mu, an owl; khep, a beetle; kheb, a bee, etc.
It is easy to see how the figure of any such animal would stand for the name of the animal. According to Dr. Birch, the original monosyllabic words usually began with a consonant, and the vowel sound between the two consonants of a syllable was an indifferent matter, because the name of an object was variously pronounced in different parts; thus a guitar, which is an ideograph meaning goodness, might be pronounced nefer or nofer; a papyrus roll, which stood for oblation, was called hetep or hotep.
Most phonetics remained as syllabic signs, but many of them in course of time lost part of the sound embodied in the syllable, and stood for a letter sound only. Thus, the picture of a lion, which at first stood for the whole sound labo, the Egyptian name of lion, in course of time stood only for l, the initial sound of the word; an owl first stood for mu, then for m; a water-jug stood first for nen, then for n, its initial letter.
Phonetics which represent letters only and not syllables may be called alphabetic signs, in contradistinction to syllabic signs.
Plutarch asserts that the ancient Egyptians had an alphabet of twenty-five letters, and although in later epochs of Egyptian history there existed at least two hundred alphabetic signs, yet at a congress of Egyptologists held in London in 1874, it was agreed that the ancient recognized alphabet consisted of twenty-five letters. These were as follows:—An eagle stood for a; a reed, ȧ; an arm, ā; leg, l; horned serpent, f; mæander, h; pair of parallel diagonals, i; knotted cord, ḥ; double reed, ī; bowl, k; throne or stand, ḳ; lion couchant, l; owl, m; zigzag or waterline, n; square or window shutter, p; angle or knee, q; mouth, r; chair or crochet, s; inundated garden or pool, sh; semicircle, ṭ; lasso or sugar-tongs-shaped noose, th; hand, t; snake, t′; chicken, ui; sieve, kh.
| 1 | a | Eagle | ’Aa | |||||
| 2 | ȧ | Reed | Au | |||||
| 3 | ā | Arm | Aa | |||||
| 4 | b | Leg | Bu | |||||
| 5 | f | Cerastes Serpent | Fi | |||||
| 6 | h | Mæander | Ha | |||||
| 7 | ḥ | Knotted Cord | Hi | |||||
| 8 | i | Pair of parallel diagonals | — | |||||
| 9 | ī | Double Reed | iu | |||||
| 10 | k | Bowl | Kâ | |||||
| 11 | ḳ | Throne (stand) | Qa | |||||
| 12 | l | Lion couchant | Lu or Ru | |||||
| 13 | m | Owl | Mu | |||||
| 14 | n | Zigzag or Water Line | Na | |||||
| 15 | p | Square or Window-blind (shutter) | Pu | |||||
| 16 | q | Angle (Knee) | Qa | |||||
| 17 | r | Mouth | Ru, Lu | |||||
| 18 | s | Chair or Crochet | Sen or Set | |||||
| 19 | s | Inundated (?) Garden (Pool) | Shi | |||||
| 20 | t | Semicircle | Tu | |||||
| 21 | θ | Lasso (sugar-tongs-shaped) Noose | Ti | |||||
| 22 | ṭ | Hand | Ti | |||||
| 23 | t′ | Snake | — | |||||
| 24 | ... | Chick | ui | |||||
| 25 | χ | Sieve | Khi |
About 600 B.C., during the XXVIth dynasty, many hieroglyphs, about a hundred in number, which previously were used as ideographs only, had assigned to them a phonetic value, and became henceforth alphabetic signs as well as ideographs. In consequence of this innovation, in the last ages of the Egyptian monarchy, we find many hieroglyphs having the same phonetic value. Such hieroglyphs are called homophones, and they are sometimes very numerous; for instance, as many as twenty hieroglyphs had each the value of a, and h was represented by at least thirty homophones. In spite of the great number of homophones, the Egyptians usually spelled their words by consonants only, after the manner of the ancient Hebrews; thus, hk stood for hek, a ruler; htp for hotep, an offering; km for kam, Egypt; ms for mes, born of.
The Egyptians began at an early age to use syllabic signs for proper names. Osiris was a well-known name; and as os in their spoken language meant a throne, and iri, an eye, a small picture of a throne followed by that of an eye, stood for Osiri, the name of their god.
An ideograph was often preceded and followed by two phonetic signs, which respectively represented the initial and final sound of the name of the ideograph. Thus a chessboard was an ideograph, and stood for a gift, and sometimes a building. It was called men, and sometimes the chessboard is preceded by an owl, the phonetic sign of m, and followed by a zigzag line, the phonetic sign of n. Such complementary hieroglyphs are intended primarily to show with greater precision the pronunciation of men, and they are known by the name of complements.
Phonetic hieroglyphs are often followed by a representation or ideograph of the object referred to. Such explanatory representations and ideographs are called determinatives, because they help to determine the precise value of the preceding hieroglyph.
They were rendered necessary on the monuments from the fact that the Egyptians had few vowel sounds; thus nib meant an ibis; nebi, a plough; neb, a lord; but each word was represented by the consonantal signs n-b; and consequently it was necessary to put after n-b a determinative sign of an ibis or a plough, to show which of the two was meant.
From the earliest to the latest ages of the Egyptian monarchy, all kinds of hieroglyphs are used in the same inscription, iconographs, ideographs, and phonetics are mingled together; and if it were not for the judicious use of complements and determinatives, it would often be impossible to interpret the inscriptions.
The hieroglyphs constitute the most ancient mode of writing known to mankind. They were used, as the name hieroglyphs, that is, “sacred sculptures,” implies, almost exclusively for sacred purposes, as may be proved from the fact that the numerous inscriptions found on temples, tombs and obelisks relate to the gods and the religious duties of man. Hence the Egyptians called their written language neter tu, which means “sacred words.” The hieroglyphs at present known are about a thousand, but further discoveries may augment their number. On the monuments they are arranged with artistic care, either in horizontal lines or in vertical columns, with all the animals and symbols facing one way, either to the right hand or the left.
The hieroglyphs on obelisks and other granite monuments are sculptured with a precision and delicacy that excite the admiration of the nineteenth century. In tombs and on papyri the hieroglyphs are painted sometimes with many colours, while on obelisks and on the walls of temples they are generally carved in a peculiar style of cutting known as cavo relievo, that is, raised relief sunk below the surface. The beautiful artistic effect of the coloured hieroglyphs as seen on some of the tombs is as much superior to our mode of writing as the flowing robes of the Orientals as compared with the dress of the Franks. The spoken language of the Egyptians was Semitic, but it had little in common with the Hebrew, for Joseph conversed with his brothers by means of an interpreter.
Hieroglyphic inscriptions are found in the earliest tombs. The cartouche of Khufu, or Cheops, a king of the IVth dynasty, was found on a block of the great pyramid; and as hieroglyphic inscriptions were used until the age of Caracalla, a Roman emperor of the third century, it follows that hieroglyphs were used as a mode of writing for about three thousand years.
The Egyptians had two modes of cursive writing. The hieratic, used by the priests and employed for sacred writings only. The hieratic characters, which are really abbreviated forms of hieroglyphics, bear the same relation to the hieroglyphs that our handwriting does to the printed text. Another mode of cursive writing used by the people and employed in law, literature, and secular matters, is known as demotic or enchorial. The characters in demotic are derived from the hieratic, but appear in a simpler form, and phonetics largely prevail over ideographs.
To any students who wish to pursue the absorbing study of hieroglyphics, the following works are recommended:—“Introduction to the Study of Hieroglyphics,” by Dr. Samuel Birch; “Egyptian Texts,” by the same author, and “Egyptian Grammar,” by P. Le Page Renouf. The two latter works are published in Bagster’s series of Archaic Classics. Wilkinson’s “Ancient Egyptians,” and Cooper’s “Egyptian Obelisks,” are instructive volumes. The author obtained much help from the works of Champollion, Rosellini, Sharpe, Lepsius, and from Vol. II. of “Records of the Past.”