Tales of the Scarab Trivia Quiz

Answer: Dung Beetle

Dung beetles, those that feed partially or totally on dung, are classified into two groups - rollers, who roll the dung, and tunnelers, who bury it. Belonging to the subspecies "Scarabaeidae", which alone has more than 5,000 species, the Egyptian scarab beetles are rollers and are often called "true dung beetles" because they feed exclusively on feces.

Interestingly, the dung beetle is considered the only nonhuman that orients and navigates using the Milky Way, according to "ScienceDaily" and "News Watch".

Answer: Renewal

Life and death were a continuous cycle to the ancient Egyptians, and the dung beetle helped to symbolize this process. The mother dung beetle lays her eggs and rolls them in the dung. When the beetles are born, they eat their way out of the ball and seem to appear as self-generated creatures.

This was viewed as a sign of eternal renewal, regeneration of life, and a reminder of life to come, whereby the deceased would emerge from the judging of Osiris, forever reborn.

Answer: Faience

Scarabs were made in a variety of materials, such as steatite, a soft stone which hardens when fired in a kiln, and limestone. Other materials used included carnelian, lapis lalzuli, limestone, terra-cotta, turquoise, colored glass, and faience, which was made from crushed quartz, lime, and alkali, and typically a bright blue-green in color. Faience was used by the Egyptians in a variety of ways.

It was made into small statues or beads, and is commonly seen in shabtis, the statues which worked for the deceased in the afterlife, and scarabs.

Items made from faience have been found in predynastic sites in Egypt, making it the oldest known type of glazed ceramic.

Answer: Sun

To the ancient Egyptians, the ball of dung represented the sun, and the beetle, which represented the sun god, Ra, was the force that moved the sun across the sky - every day. It was part of the renewal and regeneration that began each morning. Throughout the day the sun rolled across the sky; it was taken to the other world after sunset, and reappeared again each morning.

Answer: Khepri

Khepri, usually pictured as a scarab or scarab-headed human, represented the sun god Ra as the rising sun. Not only was he connected to the daily regeneration of life, but he also represented the mythical creation of the world. It was believed that the sun rose from a pyramid-shaped mound that had emerged from the waters of chaos. One version of the story states that the sun rose directly from the mound, while another says it rose from a lotus flower that had grown there. Because Khepri was a form of Ra, there was no cult that specifically worshiped him.

In fact, as far as the sun was concerned, Ra took three forms: Khepri was the rising sun, Ra was the midday sun, and Atum was the evening sun.

Answer: Necklace

A pectoral is a type of jewelry that is worn over the chest. The beautiful pectoral scarab in the picture was found in the tomb of King Tutankhamun. It is believed that he wore it during his lifetime, probably extended from a gold chain; it might have also been worn as a brooch or collar.

The scarab itself is made of gold and lapis lazuli; the wings, symbolizing flight (the sun rolling across the sky), are made of gold, inlaid with blue lapis lazuli, red carnelian, and turquoise. In later dynasties, the pectoral, with outstretched wings, would be sewn on the chest of the mummy.

Answer: To tell the deceased's heart not to bear witness during judgement.

After the burial and the sealing of the tomb (if there was one), the ancient Egyptians believed the deceased made his way to the underworld kingdom of the god Osiris. There his heart would be weighed (remember, it was NOT removed during mummification!) against the feather of truth to determine if the individual would have eternal life or eternal death.

A heart scarab contained a sacred spell. It was a prayer to the heart of the deceased to not bear witness against him as he was being judged by Osiris, especially not to invent lies.

It was also protection for any sort of other hindrance that might arise before Osiris as the heart was being weighed.

Answer: Amenhotep III

Amenhotep III issued hundreds of commemorative scarabs to celebrate and publicize events that took place during his reign. The bottoms of these scarabs were covered with information concerning pharaoh's lion hunts, his marriage to his chief wife, Queen Tiye, the construction of an artificial lake for her, and bull hunting.

In addition, scarabs were issued when pharaoh married a Mitanni princess, Princess Gilukhepa.

Answer: True

Plutarch, the great Greek writer, described the Egyptian view of the scarab beetle: "One accepts (with the ancient Egyptians), that these varieties are only male beetles, that they put down their seed substance which forms a ball and the beetle rolls it forward with its widely spaced hind legs so that the beetle imitates the path of the sun as it went down in the west and rose in the east in the mornings".

In reality, the male and female often work together, and it is the female that, after dropping the eggs on the ground, covers them in excrement.

Answer: False

Although society in ancient Egypt was highly stratified, entry into the afterlife and eternity, the ultimate renewal, was for everyone who had lived a good life. In fact, the ancient Egyptians believed that the afterlife was just like their life in Egypt, so apparently all were content regardless of social standing. Consequently, all classes of people used scarabs in many different forms - rings, amulets, necklaces, bracelets, and seals, among others. Because they were made of a variety of materials, everyone could afford some sort of scarab design, and they were definitely made for the living - the magical power would keep evil at bay - as well as the dead. Scarabs did have power that extended into the afterlife, aiding in the deceased's journey to the western kingdom, and during the judging by Osiris.