FROGS ARE SENT (Plague #1)
Exodus 8:1-7.
Frogs belong to the category of 'amphibians.' These cold-blooded animals hibernate in the winter and undergo several transformations during their life cycle.
This begins with mating, laying eggs, growing into tadpoles in eggs, then as young frogs without tails. This is why frogs have been linked to the mythologies of creation in ancient Egypt.
From chaos to the existence, and from a world of disorder to a world of order, the frog has seen it all.
In ancient Egypt, gods and goddesses were connected with the frog, such as Heqet, Ptah, Heh, Hauhet, Kek, Nun, and Amun.
The trend of wearing frog amulets has also been popular to encourage fertility and were buried alongside the dead to help protect and revive them.
It was a common practice for frogs to be mummified with the dead. These amulets were seen as magical and divine and were believed to ensure regeneration.
The Greeks made offerings to the "averting gods" and heroes who grant safety and deflect evil because frogs were seen as protectors of the household and guardians of pregnant women. Images of frogs were portrayed on apotropaic [Apotropaic magic (from Greek, "to ward off") or protective magic is a type of magic intended to turn away harm or evil influences, as in deflecting misfortune or averting the evil eye]. Apotropaic observances may also be practiced out of vague superstition or tradition, as in good luck charms (perhaps some token on a charm bracelet), amulets, or gestures such as crossed fingers or knocking on wood.
When Christianity came to Egypt in the fourth century AD, the frog was viewed as a Coptic symbol of resurrection and rebirth.
Moreover, the frog is one of the earliest creatures to be portrayed on amulets during the Predynastic Period.
Egyptians called frogs the imitative term "kerer." The Egyptian ideas about regeneration were associated with the frogspawn.
Thes symbol of a tadpole amounted to the number 100,000. Images of frogs have appeared side by side with scarier animals on different platforms, such as on Middle Kingdom ivory wants and birthing tusks.
Different objects, such as spouts, have images of frogs on them to imply connections with the Nile River flood and the overflowing river.
Frogs have been featured during the Pharaonic iconography [the visual images and symbols used in a work of art or the study or interpretation of these], and they appear as symbols of Christian resurrection in the Coptic times - terracotta lamps often portray images of these frogs.
Life Cycle of Frogs in ancient Egypt
Frogs were known to live in the marshes of the Nile in multitudes. The flooding of the Nile was an important event for agriculture as it provided water to many distant fields.
Frogs would grow in the muddy waters left behind by receding waves. Hence, they became known as symbols of abundance.
They became a symbol for "hefnu," which referred to 100,000 or a massive number.
The life cycle of a frog starts with mating. A pair of adult frogs would engage in plexus while the female would lay her eggs.
Tadpoles would start growing inside the eggs and then metamorphose into juvenile frogs.
The frogs would develop hind legs and forelimbs but would not yet transform into fully grown frogs.
Tadpoles have their tails, but as they mature into young frogs, they lose their tails.
According to the myth, the Earth was a watery mass of dark, directionless nothingness before there was land.
Only four frog gods and four snake goddesses lived within this chaos. The four pairs of deities included Nun and Naunet, Amun and Amaunet, Heh and Hauhet, and Kek and Kauket.
The frog's fertility and their association with water, which was essential for human life, led the ancient Egyptians to view them as potent, powerful, and positive symbols.
Water is essential to man's existence. Without it, a man cannot survive. Since the Egyptians were religious, their cultural beliefs derived from water.
The Nile Delta and the Nile River in Egypt are some of the most ancient agricultural lands in the world.
They have been under cultivation for approximately 5,000 years. Since Egypt has an arid climate with high evaporation rates and very little rainfall, the water supply of the River Nile stays fresh.
Furthermore, no natural soil development can take place in this area. Hence, the River Nile was only used for agriculture, industry, and domestic use.
The sun and the river were essential to the ancient Egyptians as the sun's life-giving rays helped crops grow, shrink, and die.
On the other hand, the river made the soil fertile and destroyed anything that lay in its path. Its absence could bring famine to the lands.
The sun and river shared the cycle of death and rebirth; every day, the sun would die on the Western horizon, and it would be reborn in the Eastern sky.
Moreover, the land's death was followed by crops' rebirth each year, which correlated with the river's annual flooding.
Hence, rebirth was an essential theme in Egyptian culture. It was seen as a natural occurrence after death and strengthened the Egyptian conviction of life after death.
Like the sun and crops, the Egyptians felt confident that they would rise again to live a second life after their first one ended.
The frog was seen as a symbol of life and fertility because, after the annual flooding of the River Nile, millions of them would spring up.
This flooding was a source of fertility to the otherwise barren, distant lands. Since frogs thrived in muddy waters left behind by the receding waves of the Nile, it is easy to understand why they became known as symbols of abundance.
In Egyptian mythology, Hapi was a deification of the annual flooding of the River Nile. He would be decorated with papyrus plants and surrounded by hundreds of frogs.
Ptah, the frog-headed deity, made his transformation rise as the opener of the lower world. His dress was a tight-fitting garment that was similar to mummy wrappings.
It highlighted his role on behalf of the souls residing in the underground world.
Ptah was known as the god of creation because he was the god who created ancient Egypt using his heart and tongue.
Simply put, the world was created based on the power of his word and command. All the gods that followed were given work based on what Ptah's heart devised and tongue commanded.
Since the frog is a creature whose tongue is fixed at the tip of its mouth, unlike other animals with tongues in their throats, the tongue is a distinguishing feature for both Ptah and the frog.
Forces of Chaos
The gods hhw, kkw, nnnw, and Imn were seen as personifications of ancient forces of chaos.
These four males out of the eight gods of the Ogdoad of Hermopolis were portrayed as frogs, while the four females were portrayed as serpents swimming in the mud and slime of chaos.
Symbols of Rebirth
The ancient Egyptians used the frog sign to write after the names of the deceased.
The well-wishing term used read "live again." Since a frog was a symbol of rebirth, it showed its role in the resurrection.
Frogs were associated with resurrection because they would stop all their activities and hide among the stones during hibernation in the winters.
They remained stationary in pools or river banks till the dawn of spring. These hibernating frogs would not require any food to stay alive. It almost seemed like they were dead.
When spring arrived, these frogs would jump out of the mud and slime and return to being active.
Hence, they became seen as symbols of resurrection and birth in ancient Egyptian culture.
Coptic Symbols of Rebirth
As Christianity became widespread during the fourth century AD, the frog was considered a Coptic symbol of rebirth.
Lamps found in Egypt portray frogs drawn on the upper area.
One of these lamps reads, "I am the resurrection." The lamp portrays the rising sun, and the frog on it is the Ptah, known for his life in Egyptian mythology.
Goddess Heqet
In Ancient Egypt, frogs were also known as symbols of fertility and water. The goddess of water, Heqet, represented a woman's body with the head of a frog and was associated with the later stages of labor.
Heqet was famous as the partner of Khnum, the lord of inundation. Along with other gods, she was responsible for creating a child in the womb and was present as a midwife at his/her birth.
Also known as the goddess of childbirth, creation, and grain germination, Heqet was a fertility goddess.
The title "Servants of Heqet" was applied to priestesses trained as midwives to help the goddess in her mission.
When Khnum became a potter, the goddess Heqet was responsible for supplying life to gods and men whom the potter's wheel had created.
She then gave the newborn the breath of life before placing him to grow in his mother's womb. Due to her life powers, Heqet also participated in burial ceremonies at Abydos.
Coffins mirrored an image of Heqet as the protective deity of the dead.
During childbirth, women wore amulets of Heqet as protection. The Middle Kingdom ritual involved ivory knives and clappers (a musical instrument) that portrayed her name or image as a symbol of protection within the home.
Khnum
Khnum was one of the earliest Egyptian deities. He was originally the god of the source of the River Nile. He had the head of a frog, with horns but the body of a human man.
Due to the Nile's annual flooding, silt, clay, and water would flow into the lands. Frogs would reappear as life was brought to the surroundings.
Due to this, Khnum was considered to be the creator of the bodies of human children.
These human children were made at a potter's wheel from clay. After being shaped and made, they were placed in their mothers' wombs.
Khnum is said to have molded other deities as well. He is known as the Divine Potter and Lord.
Heh and Hauhet
Heh was the god, and Hauhet was the goddess of infinity, time, long-life, and eternity. Heh was portrayed as a frog while Hauhet as a serpent.
Their names meant 'endlessness,' and they were both the original gods of Ogdoad.
Heh was also known as the god of formlessness. He was portrayed as a man crouching down while holding two palm ribs in his hands. Each of these was terminated with a tadpole and a shen ring. In ancient Egypt, a shen ring was a circle with a line tangent to it, represented in hieroglyphs as a stylized loop of a rope. The word shen itself means, In Ancient Egyptian, encircle, while the shen ring represented eternal protection.
The shen ring symbolized infinity, while the palm ribs symbolized the passage of time. They were also present in temples to record cycles of time.
Nun and Naunet
Nun embodied the ancient waters that existed in the chaos before Earth bore creation.
Amun was created from Nun and rose on the first piece of land. Another myth states that Thoth was created from Nun, and the gods of Ogdoad continued his song to ensure that the sun kept traveling through the sky.
Nun was shown as a frog-headed man or a bearded green or blue man who wore the palm frond, a symbol of his long life, on his head and held another one in his hand.
Nun was also portrayed as rising out of a body of water while stretching out his hands, holding the solar bark.
The god of chaos, Nun, did not have a priesthood. No temples have been found under his name, and he was never worshipped as a personified god.
Instead, different lakes symbolized him in temples showing chaotic waters before the Earth was born.
Naunet is seen as the snake-headed woman who lived in the watery chaos along with her partner, Nun.
Her name was the same as Nuns with just an added feminine ending. More than an actual goddess, Naunet was the feminine version of Nun.
She was more of duality and an abstract version of a goddess.
Kek and Kauket
Kek stands for darkness. He was the god of the darkness of chaos before the Earth came into being.
The god of obscurity, Kek, was always hidden among the darkness. The Egyptians viewed this darkness as nighttime- a time without the light of the sun and a reflection of Kek.
The night god, Kek, is also associated with the day. He is called the 'bringer-in of the light."
This means that he was responsible for the time of night that arrived right before sunrise, the god of the hours right before the day dawned on the land of Egypt.
Kauket was a snake-headed woman who ruled the darkness with her partner. Like Naunet, Kauket was also the feminine version of Kek and more of a representation of duality than an actual goddess. She was an abstract.
Frogs have been a part of human culture for countless centuries. They have taken on different roles, from the devil to the mother of the unworldly.
Humans recast toads and frogs as main characters of different stories to explain the unfolding of the world.
Do you ever wonder who will populate our mythologies when these creatures no longer exist?
