Shen ring
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A shen ring is a circle with a line at a tangent to it, which was used in hieroglyphics as a stylised loop of a rope. In particular, the circle represented eternity, as circles did in many ancient cultures (e.g. the wedding ring).
[edit] The stretched "shen ring", the cartouche
| Shen ring –(in talons) [Cartouche] in hieroglyphs |
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The symbol could be stretched to contain other objects, which were then understood as being made eternal by the shen ring. Indeed, when it contained a name, the symbol became the cartouche. The word shen itself means, in Egyptian, encircle.
[edit] Shen ring uses in iconography
The Shen ring is the 'shenu'.
- The Goddess Heget, (the 'Frog'), is often seated on a shenu.
- For Eternity, the renpit, papyrus stalk is usually based on top of a Shen ring. See the Egyptian god Huh. (Senusret I has a famous Lintel relief showing this.)
- The Shen ring is often attached to various types of staffs, the staff of authority, or power, symbolizing the Eternal authority of that power.
- The Goddess Isis, and the Goddess Nekhbet are often shown kneeling, with their hands resting upon a shenu.
- The Hawk (Horus), and the Vulture (Goddess Mut) have the shenu in their talons, wings outstretched, over the scene portrayed. The "Horus with Outstretched Wings", shenu's in its talons, is an example from the Louvre of a Pectoral-Pin, possibly for royalty.
