In Gothland, where Thor was worshiped above and more than the other gods, the Scarabæus (Geotrupes) stercorarius was considered sacred to him, and bore the name of Thorbagge—Thor’s-bug. “Relative to this beetle,” says Thorpe, “a superstition still exists, which has been transmitted from father to son, that if any one finds in his path a Thorbagge lying helpless upon its back, and turns it on its feet, he expiates seven sins; because Thor in the time of heathenism was regarded as a mediator with a higher

power, or All-father. On the introduction of Christianity, the priests strove to terrify the people from the worship of their old divinities, pronouncing both them and their adherents to be evil spirits, and belonging to hell. On the poor Thorbagge the name was now bestowed of Thordjefvul or Thordyfvel—Thor-devil, by which it is still known in Sweden Proper. No one now thinks of Thor, when he finds the helpless creature lying on its back, but the good-natured countryman seldom passes it without setting it on its feet, and thinking of his sin’s atonement.”[49]

A common symbol of the Creator among the Hindoos (from whom it passed into Egypt, and thence into Scandinavia, says Bjornstjerna) was the Scarabæus (Ateuchus) sacer, commonly called the Sacred-beetle of the Egyptians.[50] Of this insect we next treat at length.

Of the many animals worshiped by the ancient Egyptians, one of the most celebrated, perhaps, is the insect commonly known as the Sacred-scarab—Scarabæus sacer. This name was given it by Linnæus, but later writers know it as the Ateuchus sacer.[51] The insect is found throughout all Egypt, in the southern part of Europe,[52] in China, the East Indies, in Barbary, and at the Cape of Good Hope.[53]

The Ateuchus sacer, however, is not the only insect that was regarded as an object of veneration by the Egyptians; but another species of the same genus, lately discovered in the Sennâri by M. Caillaud de Nantes, appears to have first fixed the attention of this people, in consequence of its more brilliant colors, and of the country in which it was found, which, it is supposed, was their first sojourn.[54] This species, which Cuvier has named Ateuchus Ægyptorum, is green, with a golden tint, while the first is black.[55] The Buprestis and Cantharus, or Copris, were also held in high repute by the Egyptians, and used as synonymous emblems of the same deities as the Scarabæus. This is further confirmed by the fact of S. Passalacqua having found a species of

Buprestis embalmed in a tomb at Thebes.[56] But the Scarabæus, or Ateuchus sacer, is the beetle most commonly represented, and the type of the whole class; and the one referred to in this article under the general name of Scarabæus, unless when otherwise particularly mentioned.

The Scarabæus, according to the beliefs of the ancient Egyptians, was sacred to the Sun and to Pthah, the personification of the creative power of the Deity; and it was adopted as an emblem or symbol of—

  1. The World.—According to P. Valerianus, the Scarab was symbolical of the world, on account of the globular form of its pellets of dung, and from an odd notion that they were rolled from sunrise to sunset.[57]
  2. The Sun.—P. Valerianus supposes this insect to have been a symbol of the sun, because of the angular projection from its head resembling rays, and from the thirty joints of the six tarsi of its feet answering to the days of an (ordinary) solar month.[58] According to Plutarch, it was because these insects cast the seed of generation into round balls of dung, as a genial nidus, and roll them backward with their feet, while they themselves look directly forward. And as the sun appears to proceed in the heavens in a course contrary to the signs, thus the Scarabæi turn their balls toward the west, while they themselves continue creeping toward the east; by the first of these motions exhibiting the diurnal, and by the second the annual, motion of the earth and the planets.[59] Porphyry gives the same reason as Plutarch why the beetle was considered, as he calls it, “a living image of the sun.”[60] Horapollo assigns two reasons for the
  3. Scarab being taken as an emblem of the sun. He tells us there are three species of beetles: one of which has the form of a cat, and is radiated;[61] and this one from a supposed analogy the Egyptians have dedicated to the Sun, because, first, the statue of the Deity of Heliopolis (City of the Sun) has the form of a cat![62] In this, however, Wilkinson asserts, that Horapollo is wrong; for the Deity of Heliopolis, under the form of a cat, was the emblem of Bubastis, and not of Rê, a type of the sun; and the presence of her statue is explained by the custom of each city assigning to the Divinities of neighboring places a conspicuous post in its own temples; and Bubastis was one of the principal contemplar Deities of Heliopolis.[63] The second reason of Horapollo is, that this insect has thirty fingers, which correspond to the thirty days of a solar month.[64]
  4. The Moon.—The second of the three species of beetles, described by Horapollo, has, according to this writer, two horns, and the character of a bull; and it was consecrated to the moon; whence the Egyptians say, that the bull in the heavens is the elevation of this Goddess. This statement of beetle “with two horns” (the Copris Isidis) consecrated to the moon, Wilkinson says is not confirmed by the sculptures where it is never introduced.[65]
  5. It is said the Egyptians believed that the pellet of the Scarabæus remained in the ground for a period of twenty-eight days. May not this have some connection with their choosing the insect as a symbol of the moon which divides the year into months of twenty-eight days each; or, of the month itself (of which we shall notice it was also a symbol) for the same reason? I have seen, too, a Scarabæus engraved upon a seal, the joints of whose tarsi numbered but twenty-eight.
  6. Conformable to this supposition, the following quotation may be given from that chapter of the Treasvrie of Auncient and Modern Times devoted to the “Many meruailous (marvelous) properties in sundrie things; and to what
  7. Stars and Planets they are subjected naturally,” where we find mention of the Scarab as being subject to the moon: “The Scarabe, which is otherwise commonly called the Beetle-flye, a little old Creature, is maruelously subject to the Moon, and thereof is found both written, and by experience: That she gathereth or little pellets, or little round bals, and therein encloseth her young Egges, keeping the Pellets hid in the ground eight and twenty daies; during which time the Moone maketh her course, and the nine and twentieth day shee taketh them forth, and then hideth them againe vnder the Earth. Then, at such time as the Moone is conioyned with the Sunne, which wee vsually tearme the New Moone: they all issue forth aliue, and flye about.”[66]
  8. Mercury.—The third of the three species of beetles, described by Horapollo, has one horn, and a peculiar form; and it is supposed, like the Ibis, to refer to Mercury.[67]
  9. A Courageous Warrior.—As such they forced all the soldiers to wear rings, upon each of which a beetle was engraved, i.e. an animal perpetually in armor, who went his rounds in the night.[68] Plutarch thus alludes to this custom: “In the signet or seal-ring of their martial and military men, there was engraven the portraeture of the great Fly called the Beettil;” and assigns this curious and ridiculous reason, “because in that kinde there is no female, but they be all males.”[69] The custom is also mentioned by Ælian;[70] and some Scarabs have been found perfect, set in gold, with the ring attached.[71] The Romans adopted this emblem and made it a part of some legionary standards.
  10. Pthah, the Creative Power.—Plutarch says, that in consequence of there being no females of this species, but all males, they were considered fit types of the creative power, self-acting and self-sufficient.[72] Some, too, have supposed that its position upon the female figure of the heavens, which encircles the zodiacs, refers to the same singular idea of its generative influence.[73]
  12. Pthah Tore, another character of the creative power.[74]
  13. Pthah-Sokari-Osiris.—Of this pigmy Deity of Memphis, it was adopted as a distinctive mark, being placed on his head.[75]
  14. Regeneration, or reproduction, from the fact of its being the first living animal observed upon the subsidence of the waters of the Nile.[76]
  15. Spring.[77]
  16. The Egyptian month anterior to the rising of the Nile, as it appears first in that month.[78] It also may have been a symbol of a lunar month from an above-mentioned belief, namely, that its pellets remain twenty-eight days in the ground. It is sometimes found with the joints of its tarsi numbering but twenty-eight instead of thirty, hence the supposition is that it was held as a symbol of a lunar, as well as a solar, month.
  17. Fecundity.—Dr. Clarke informs us that these beetles are even yet eaten by the women to render them prolific.[79]
  18. With the eyes pierced by a needle, of a man who died from fever.[80]
  19. Surrounded by roses, of a voluptuary, because they thought that the smell of that flower enervated, made lethargic, and killed the beetle.[81]
  20. An only son; because, says Fosbroke, they believed that every beetle was “both male and female.”[82] Was it not because they imagined these insects were all males, as above stated upon the authority of Plutarch, and hence the analogy in a family of an only son since it could be but of the masculine gender?

The Scarabæus was also connected with astronomical subjects, occurring in some zodiacs in the place of Cancer; and with funereal rites.[83]

To no place in particular, as the dog at Cynopolis, the