Foreleg of ox explained

The Foreleg of ox hieroglyph of ancient Egypt is a hieroglyph; it is the nighttime constellation Ursa Major called as Maskheti constellation. It came to have many uses in ancient Egypt over its entire history.

Iconographic usage

Offered as "thigh-forward", "meat"

One of the major iconographic uses in ancient Egypt of the ox-foreleg was as part of the food offering to the individual being honored (the deceased or living), and engraved upon their steles. Often, besides lying on the top of the pile of food offerings, it is shown being presented to the honored individual, thigh first.

Offered as "hoof-forward", "strength"

Iconographically used as the symbolism of strength, power, dominion.

List of uses

A list of uses for the foreleg hieroglyph, with no order of importance actually implied:

• Foreleg of ox, a "choice cut of meat".
• Mortuary offering for ritual; the first item shown in the formulaic listing of items given to the deceased on the funerary stele (thigh, then fowl, bread, wine, beer, and linen, etc.).
• In ritual ceremony, the right and left forelegs of oxes is always "unfettered" while incapacitating the oxes, and are the sacrificed forelegs.
• Ideogram, or determinative–
  "thigh", "arm"
  'khepesh' , (h)pš).
• The "strong (human) arm", the strength implied by royal or divine gift.
• for "strength" (khepesh) in dedication ceremonies such as the Opening of the Mouth; also before mummy interment.
• the foreleg-thigh shape is equivalent to the power implied from the similar-shaped scimitar presented by deities.
• "The Foreleg of Ox" as Ursa Major constellation.

Rosetta Stone

Though the Foreleg of ox hieroglyph is not used in the Rosetta Stone directly, the strength (khepesh) of the scimitar is. In line R-6: "... and a statue of the god Osiris of the city Alexandria, giving to him, pharaoh Ptolemy V, a 'royal sword' (khepesh nesu) of victory";^[1] the word khepesh uses the scimitar hieroglyph as the determinative. The quote is part of the ten rewards to be given to Pharaoh Ptolemy V in the Rosetta Stone.

See also

• Gardiner's Sign List#F. Parts of Mammals (F23 and F24)
• List of Egyptian hieroglyphs
• Shoulder, cheeks and maw in Deuteronomy

References

• Budge. An Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary, E.A.Wallace Budge, (Dover Publications), c 1978, (c 1920), Dover edition, 1978. (In two volumes) (softcover,)
• Budge. The Rosetta Stone, E.A.Wallace Budge, (Dover Publications), c 1929, Dover edition(unabridged), 1989. (softcover,)

Notes and References

1. Budge, The Rosetta Stone, p. 156.