“Eternity” in Hieroglyphs

Let’s read some hieroglyphs 𓊹𓌃𓏪!

Today we are going to look at the word for “Eternity – 𓎛𓇳𓎛.” Eternity 𓎛𓇳𓎛 was a concept central to ancient Egyptian 𓆎𓏏𓀀𓁐 religion and culture. 

There are two common ways to write “Eternity” – 𓎛𓇳𓎛 and 𓆖. The words for eternity (𓆖 & 𓎛𓇳𓎛) appear frequently in so many inscriptions 𓏟𓏛𓏥 – if you can recognize the words, you will be able to pick them out in any museum you visit! 

In a previous post I spoke about “𓆖,” so today we are going to focus on “𓎛𓇳𓎛.”

The symbol “𓎛 – wick” is a uniliteral phonogram which means that it only represents one sound. The sound that it represents is “ḥ.” 

The symbol “𓇳 – sun” is usually seen as an ideogram for “Ra.” The symbol “𓇳 – sun” can also be a determinative for sun, day, and time.

Since “eternity” is technically a measure of time, the proper way to write the word for eternity would be “𓎛𓎛𓇳,” with the sun disc acting as the determinative. However, 𓎛𓇳𓎛 is more aesthetically pleasing, so that is how the word is written. Technically, 𓎛𓇳𓎛 would be pronounced like “ḥḥ.”