Birds always fascinated human kind because of their beauty, power, and ability of flying. This influence is mainly seen in Ancient Egypt birds. Hieroglyphs are pictures that were used to write in the ancient Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs are more than just a way of writing, they are also pictures, and as such, they are meant to be aesthetically pleasing.
The ancient Egyptians personified many of their major gods as birds. It was because birds could fly and thus be in areas unattainable by humans or perhaps maybe they were viewed as being powerful for being able to live in the harsh desert conditions.
Along the Nile, some of the multitudes of bird-life included the falcon, kite, goose, crane, heron, plover, pigeon, ibis, vulture and owl. Many of these birds were, in fact, kept in sacred flocks by the ancient Egyptians and some individual birds were even elevated to temple animals. Even the souls (ba) of the ancient Egyptians were frequently depicted with the body a bird. Ibis was a white bird with black grits head, rock and tips of the wing pinions.
Thoth, the Egyptian god of wisdom or knowledge was always depicted as having the head of an Ibis. The Greeks viewed him as similar to the Greek god Hermes. As Thoth was one of the major Egyptian deities, the Ibis, like the Falcon was very sacred to the ancient Egyptians.
The scaring flight and aggression of the Falcon gave him a special position in the cult. As King of the air, the falcon became the sacred animal of the King of the Gods, Horus and also a symbol of divine Kingship. A man with hawk head and head dress with a sun disk Ra was, the sun god. He was the most important god of the ancient Egyptians.
The ancient Egyptians believed that Ra was swallowed every night by the sky goddess Nut, and was reborn every morning. A man with the head of a hawk – A hawk Horus was a god of the sky. He is probably most well-known as the protector of the ruler of Egypt. The Egyptians believed that the pharaoh was the ‘living Horus’.
One of the ancient Egyptian objects was the ba-bird. The ba is represented as a bird with a human head. The figure rests on a slightly tapered rectangular base which originally may have been attached to the top of a wooden sepulchral tablet or shrine, or perhaps the corners of a wooden outer box enclosing the coffin. These locations suggest places where the bird might alight. The ba was not a separate being, but a powerful aspect or expression of the same person that was within the person even before birth.
As the ba was not usually associated with the living, it was believed to become manifest at the time just at the point of death, before the resurrection. The ba of a noble and common person had the nature of a human body and performed all earthly functions. These bas of the dead represented past generations. The Egyptians, as do people of many cultures, believed people survived after death, so the ba was believed to live on into eternity.
