Hieroglyphics Trivia

1. What does the term "hieroglyphs" mean?

From Quiz Hieroglyphs, Anyone?

Answer: Holy writing

The word's etymology from the Greek is: hieros = holy or sacred and gluphein = to carve or to write. They were called holy or sacred because they were mostly used in religious contexts.

From Quiz Egyptian Hieroglyphic

Answer: sacred carvings

Hieroglyph comes from two Greek words meaning "sacred writing". This in turn came from the Egyptians' own word for their language meaning "divine speach".

From Quiz Winged Hieroglyphs

Answer: Two owls

The owl is, unusually, depicted facing the reader, perhaps because its huge eye are so characteristic. A number of owls lived in Egypt, notably the Pharaoh Eagle Owl, barn owl, little owl and Hume's tawny owl. Sixty-three standard hieroglyphs of birds or parts occur in Sir Alan Gardiner's classic list, including the crow and black kite. Apart from whole feathery bodies, detached heads, wings and feet were used as hieroglyphs.

From Quiz Hello to Hieroglyphs

Answer: The divine words

The Egyptian term was 'metu neter'. They called their language 'word of the mouth of Egypt'.

From Quiz Hieroglyphs, Anyone?

Answer: Jean Francois Champollion

Champollion (1790-1832) possessed the ideal qualities for succeeding in the decipherment: he had an extraordinary genius for languages (Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, Coptic and others), an outstanding visual memory, drawing skills, logical reasoning and finally, stubborness. He was plagued by ill health, poor finances, political turmoil, envy and jealousy from rival scholars, but he persisted on his quest on and off for almost 23 years, until he achieved success.

From Quiz Egyptian Hieroglyphic

Answer: a hieroglyph

One symbol is called a hieroglyph. The system of language as a whole is known as hieroglyphic - NOT hieroglyphics. Ideograms are specific hieroglyphs that represent the things they depict, and phonograms are hieroglyphs which represent sounds.

From Quiz Winged Hieroglyphs

Answer: A flail

The lanner falcon, or small peregrine falcon, with their unmistakable eye markings probably inspired the falcon form of the god Horus. The pharaoh assumed two Horus names when ascending the throne. At the other end of the spectrum was the lapwing, a species of plover migrating from Europe, serving as a symbol of the people under the king's rule. From the 18th dynasty, the lapwing was portrayed with arms uplifted in adoration.

From Quiz Hello to Hieroglyphs

Answer: Thoth

Frequently depicted as ibis-headed, the god Thoth was known as 'the divine scribe', acting as clerk in the heavenly courts, recording verdicts and writing letters.

From Quiz Hieroglyphs, Anyone?

Answer: Cartridge

Cartouche is the oval shape that encircles the names of the pharaohs. In French it means cartridge. The French soldiers who arrived in Egypt with Napoleon in 1799, noticed these oval shapes in the inscriptions on the monuments and called them cartouches because they reminded them of their ammunition.

From Quiz Egyptian Hieroglyphic

Answer: determinatives

Determinatives are symbols that are used to determine the sense of a word. For example, the word 'wn' in ancient Egyptian could mean either 'light' or 'hurry' depending on what sign is placed at the end of the word. If a sun with rays is put at the ending, this would indicate that light is meant. If legs are put at the ending, hurry is meant. Determinatives are not meant to be pronounced, but only serve to assist the reader.

From Quiz Winged Hieroglyphs

Answer: Eternal speech

The ibis is still a well-known symbol of river life. The Egyptians associated it with Thoth because its long beak reminded them of a writing instrument. Ibis species such as sacred, glossy, wattled and hermit strutted among the reeds. Hieroglyphs show the ibis proudly posing, standing on a fish just caught or atop a nome standard.

From Quiz Hieroglyphs, Anyone?

Answer: Cleopatra's

The Rosetta Stone, discovered by Napoleon's soldiers, had three inscriptions in two languages, Egyptian and Greek, and three scripts: hieroglyphic, demotic and Greek. Demotic was a cursive form of hieroglyphic, from the Greek "demos" = common people. The scholars noticed two cartouches in the hieroglyphic script, and the names of Cleopatra and Ptolemy in the Greek script. The decipherment of these two royal names was the first step on the long road ahead.

From Quiz Egyptian Hieroglyphic

Answer: The noun ends with the symbol of the bread loaf (t)

Feminine nouns end with a bread loaf, transliterated as 't'. Plural masculine nouns end with a quail chick, transliterated as 'w'.

From Quiz Hieroglyphs, Anyone?

Answer: A combination of all three

Champollion's genius was to realize that hieroglyphs included all these different characters. Up to then, all the other scholars and he himself, had followed the theory that hieroglyphs were primarily ideograms, each representing a single word.

From Quiz Egyptian Hieroglyphic

Answer: Hieratic

Hieratic was in effect a form of cursive writing; it is a faster way to write what would otherwise be very detailed hieroglyphs. Hieratic is often far removed from the original hieroglyphic and it may be difficult to see the relation between a hieratic symbol and the original hieroglyph. Coptic developed from early Christians in Egypt - they spoke the Egyptian language, but did not want to associate their religious writings with 'pagan' symbols, and so began writing Egyptian using the Greek alphabet. Demotic is late stage Egyptian which was commonly spoken near the end of the civilization. Majescule simply means upper case ...

From Quiz Winged Hieroglyphs

Answer: Suffering

The Egyptian word for sparrow was 'menet'. It is not known how swallows acquired their unpleasant reputation. One explanation is that the desert swallow was associated with Seth, god of the desert and of chaos.

From Quiz Hello to Hieroglyphs

Answer: into the face

Although hieroglyphic texts can be read from the right or the left, the trick is that the reader must always search for a face and then read in the same direction the face is looking.

From Quiz Egyptian Hieroglyphic

Answer: Left to right, right to left, or in columns

When you are looking at a text, read into the faces of the animals.

From Quiz Hello to Hieroglyphs

Answer: Bound papyrus roll

A bound papyrus roll probably carries the meaning of something that can not be touched or seen, just like an abstract noun such as honesty or insight.

From Quiz Hieroglyphs, Anyone?

Answer: A clarifier

The absence of vowels could pose a problem of interpretation in some cases. If, for example, in English we had the two letters d and r, they could read either deer or door. In a similar situation, the Egyptians added the determinative at the end of the word, a special character that clarified whether the word represented an idea, an object, an animal or a person, as the case may be. Determinatives have no phonetic value.

From Quiz Egyptian Hieroglyphic

Answer: Read into the faces of the animals

The direction in which the animals face is almost always the direction you read into, with the exception of a few religious texts.

From Quiz Winged Hieroglyphs

Answer: A goose laid the primordial egg

The earth god Geb was portrayed with a goose sitting on his head. Called 'The Great Cackler', the goose lay the egg that hatched the sun at the beginning of time. The Egyptian museum in Cairo houses the masterful painting known as 'Geese of Meidum'. Originally from the 4th dynasty tomb of Nefermaat and his wife Atet, six geese waggle happily along, of the species white-fronted, bean and red-breasted.

From Quiz Hello to Hieroglyphs

Answer: mother

The vulture was the sign for the Theban goddess Mut, the consort of Amun. She proclaimed: "I am the mother of all mothers."

From Quiz Egyptian Hieroglyphic

Answer: A form of ancient Egyptian is still used today, so it is not a dead language

Coptic is the final stage of the Egyptian language, and was commonly spoken until at least the 17th century. Egyptians began using the Greek alphabet in the 1st century, and this new system became known as Coptic. Coptic flourished as a literary language from the second to thirteenth centuries, and is used as the official liturgical language of the Coptic Orthodox Church. Revitalization efforts have been underway since the nineteenth century, but many linguists claim it never truly became extinct. This would make Egyptian the oldest and longest living language in the world.

From Quiz Winged Hieroglyphs

Answer: fear

Wigeon ducks and mallards were found along the Nile, together with birds such as cranes, coots, herons, snipes and sandpipers.

From Quiz Hello to Hieroglyphs

Answer: lion

The letter L was added relatively late in the history of hieroglyphic writing to accommodate the foreign syllables of the Greek dynasties and their pharaohs.

From Quiz Hieroglyphs, Anyone?

Answer: From bottom to top

Ancient Egyptians liked harmony and symmetry and paid attention to the spaces they inscribed. For instance, in a doorway, they wrote horizontally at the top, and vertically on the sides. To decide whether to read the horizontal lines from left to right or from right to left, the heads of the living creatures represented are always turned toward the beginning of the sentence.

From Quiz Egyptian Hieroglyphic

Answer: The idea that sounds can be represented by symbols

In the earliest forms of writing, pictographs (signs meaning exactly what they depict) were used exclusively. This becomes problematic for writing abstract words which have no clear method of represenation. For example, if we wanted to used pictographs to write the word 'eye', we would draw a picture of an eye. But it becomes more difficult when we want to write more abstract words like 'love' or 'hate'. The rebus principle is the idea that sounds can be represented by symbols - the word 'apple' bears no resemblance to the fruit, but rather each letter represents the spoken word 'apple'. This discovery allowed for much easier writing, and is considered one of the most important discoveries of mankind.

From Quiz Winged Hieroglyphs

Answer: Vulture

Five types of vulture are found in Egypt. The Egyptian vulture is white or buffy and a solitary scavenger. The bird served as the symbol of the feminine, as opposed to the scarab that represented the masculine. The protective goddess Nekhebet was a vulture, sporting the white crown of Upper Egypt, while the goddess Mut used the symbol of a vulture to reinforce her claim as 'mother of all mothers'. Just keep in mind that Isis was sometimes depicted with the wings of a kite.

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Last Updated Oct 18 2025 5:51 AM

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