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VI. The position of the scarab in Ancient Egyptian religion and the Book of the Dead. Egyptian philosophy. Advanced intellectuality of Egypt six thousand years ago. Deities of libraries and learning. Ancient librarians and books. The division of learned men into different branches of study. The statements of Greek writers on Egyptian thought not to be depended upon. Quotations from the Book of the Dead on the symbolism of the scarabæus deity. The symbolism of the Great Sphinx. Further quotations from the Book of the Dead, on the symbolism of the scarab deity 65-90 VII. Importance of the heart in the Ancient Egyptian religion. Immortality of the soul according to that religion. Symbolism of the scarab in their doctrine of such immortality. No thing in this universe absolutely destroyed, only changed. The idea of metempsychosis in Ancient Egypt. Elevated ideas as to the deity. Hymn to Ammon-Ra cited. Quotations as to Egyptian philosophy, evolution of the universe and kosmogony. Of Khepra and of Tum or Atmu. Egyptian psychology and its divisions 91-122 VIII. Forgery of scarabs in modern times. Difficulty of detecting such. Other Egyptian antiquities also counterfeited by the present inhabitants of Egypt 123-127 IX. Phœnician scarabs. Manufactured mostly as article of trade. Used inscribed scarabs as seals in commercial and other transactions. Many scarabs found in Sardinia 128-133 X. Etruscan scarabs. Origin of and where found. Copied from Egyptian but with changes in subjects, size and ornamentation. The engraving of. Where usually found. Uses by the Etruscans. Greek and Roman scarabs. Gnostic, of the Basilidians 134-143 Appendix A 145-154 Index 155-177

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On Scarabs.ToC

Among the many animals, insects and creatures, held in veneration as symbols by the Ancient Egyptians; the one universally in use as a symbol from a most remote period, were insects of the family of the scarabæidæ.

The Greek name of the models of these was Skarabaios, Skarabos, Karabos, Karabis; the Sanskrit, Carabha, which like the Latin Locusta, designated both the lobster and the grasshopper. The Latin name derived from the Greek, was, Scarabæus, the French, Scarabée. To the people of our day, the high position enjoyed in the religion of Ancient Egypt by this insect, appears very strange, for to us, there is nothing attractive about it. With that people however it held, for some fifty centuries; the position in their religion which the Latin cross now holds with us as Christians, and if we consider for an instant, our own veneration for the latter; it would doubtless have been considered, by those unfamiliar with our religion, as also based on a veneration for a very strange emblem; for the cross was the instrument used by the Romans for punishing with death, murderers and criminals of the lowest type; and what would be thought to-day, of a man worshipping the gallows or the guillotine, or carrying copies modeled from the same, suspended from his neck. However we of to-day all understand the emblem of the cross, and the Ancient Egyptians in their time, all understood the emblem of the scarab.

"Men are rarely conscious of the prejudices, which really incapacitate them, from forming impartial and true judgments on systems alien to their own habits of thought. And philosophers who may pride themselves on their freedom from prejudice, may yet fail to understand; whole classes of psychological phenomena which are the result of religious practice, and are familiar to those alone to whom such practice is habitual."[6] Said Thespesion to Apollonius Tyanæus, according to the biography of the latter, by Philostratus; "The Egyptians do not venture to give form to their deities, they only give them in symbols which have an occult meaning."

The family of the Scarabæidæ or Coprophagi is quite large, the type of the family is the genus Ateuchus, the members of this genus are more frequently found in the old world than the new, and of its forty species, thirty belong to Africa.

The sacred scarab of the Egyptians was termed by Linnæus, the Scarabæus sacer, but later writers have named it, Ateuchus sacer. This insect is found throughout