Sun (hieroglyph)

Sun in hieroglyphs

The Ancient Egyptian Sun hieroglyph is Gardiner sign listed no. N5 for the sun-disc; it is also one of the hieroglyphs that refers to the god Ra.

The sun hieroglyph is used in the Ancient Egyptian language hieroglyphs as a determinative to refer to events of time, for example when referring to '"day xx" (of month yy') . Even the "snap-of-the-finger", a 'moment', or 'instant' of time is represented using a Hippopotamus head (hieroglyph), Gardiner no. F3: , with the sun-disc: , as the time determinative in a hieroglyphic composition block.

Other sun-based hieroglyphs

Some other common hieroglyphs based on the sun hieroglyph, are the Sun-with-rays (hieroglyph), Gardiner no. N8: , and Sun-rising (hieroglyph)-(Coronations), no. N28.

Sun-god Ra

Ra, the Sun-god is Gardiner listed no. C1, of the listed: Anthropomorphic Deities–(more than 20 listed, and other Gardiner unlisted forms used in Ancient Egypt). The God Ra is shown with a sun-disc upon his head – or another common form with the Sun disc, encircled with Uraeus, (the cobra):

Luwian hieroglyhs, Sa-sub4

The Luwian language hieroglyphs, Luwian hieroglyphs has 7 varieties for the syllable of 's' and 'a'. For 'sa' number 4 the same hieroglyph in both Eyptian and Luwian languages exist; it is Sa-sub4 (Luwian hieroglyph).

See also

• Gardiner's Sign List#N. Sky, Earth, Water
• Sun rising-Coronation (hieroglyph)

References

• Collier, Mark, and Manley, Bill, How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs, c 1998, University of California Press, 179 pp, (with a word Glossary, p 151-61: Title Egyptian-English vocabulary; also an "Answer Key", 'Key to the exercises', p 162-73) (hardcover, ISBN 0-520-21597-4)