Ankh wedja seneb
(Unicode: 𓋹𓍑𓋴) | ||||||||
| ankh wedja seneb in hieroglyphs |
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The Ancient Egyptian phrase ankh, wedja, seneb (ꜥnḫ wḏꜢ snb) meaning "life, prosperity, health" is an epithetic formula which often appears after the names of Pharaohs or references to their household, or at the end of letters.
The phrase comprises three hieroglyphs: the triliteral sign for ankh, meaning "life", the biliteral sign wedj, and the alphabetic sign s.
The phrase's true grammatical form is difficult to reconstruct, though Gardiner suggests the symbols may represent verbs in the stative form.
- "Ankh", "to live," "life,"[1] was associated with the gods of Egypt, and Egyptian kings (pharaohs) aspired to achieve their responsibilities of governing and protecting life in Egypt.
- Wedja (written "utcha" in 19th century transcriptions) literally means "to be whole; to be intact,"[2] but also has the connotation of "prosperity" and "well-being."[3] Dominion is a second term that is implied with prosperity. The raising of the Djed pillar was symbolic of the pharaoh creating, and maintaining his kingdom. It is the reason some pharaohs campaigned beyond the Egyptian border, leaving a legacy for the next pharaohs to deal with.
- Seneb has many translations: "to be well," "to be healthy," and "to have 'soundness'": "to be sound."[4] Another word, also seneb has the determinative of a wall and means "to build," but with the connotation of "to build (soundly)."[5]
For the actions by the pharaoh Ptolemy V of the Rosetta Stone (196 BC), the gods reward him by (line 35):
| "the gods and goddesses have given him victory, and power, and life, and strength, and health [A.U.S.], and every beautiful thing of every kind whatsoever" (trans. Budge 2905) | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| ΔΕΔΩΚΑΣΙΝ ΑΥΤΩΙ ΟΙ ΘΕΟΙ ΥΓΙΕΙΑΝ ΝΙΚΗΝ ΚΡΑΤΟΣ ΚΑΙ ΤΑ ΑΛΛ ΑΓΑΘ[Α…] | ||||||||||||||||||||
References
- Erman, Johann Peter Adolf, and Hermann Grapow, eds. 1926–1953. Wörterbuch der ägyptischen Sprache im Auftrage der deutschen Akademien. 6 vols. Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs’schen Buchhandlungen. (Reprinted Berlin: Akademie-Verlag GmbH, 1971).
- Budge, E. A. Wallis, The Rosetta Stone, 1929, 1989 (Dover Edition); Dover Pub, N.Y.
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