The locust mentioned in the pyramid texts, Coffin texts and Book of the Dead. It is also appear in the New kingdom texts. In the Ptolemaic period the locust appear in the texts with new purpose. That is representing the core of this paper. This all mean that the ancient Egyptians notice the behavior of that insect and connects between it and some religious thoughts. That what will this paper discuss throw examine number of texts.

Keywords: locust, grasshopper, sauterelle, heuschrecken, grashüpfer

Locust has a numerous studies that deal with the insect and its behavior. And the significance of locusts was discussed in many articles.¹  In pyramid texts the king was flying to the sky as locust.²  Locust appears in coffin texts.³  In the Book of the Dead locust linked with a palace called sxt n snHmw “the field of locusts or grasshoppers”.⁴   In the New kingdom Egyptian texts it is usually the defeated enemies who are compared with locusts; for example, in inscriptions of Ramses II and of Merneptah.⁵  Locust also has a positive metaphor by compare the army of Egyptian king with locust in their multitude. The locusts’ swarms could consist of billions of locusts covering several hundred square kilometers, and they were capable of travelling great distances in a single day. Although the image of locusts’ swarms descending upon fertile fields is an obvious metaphor, further meanings have been explored by other scholars.⁶  The image of the locust can be both favorably used to describe the multitudinous Egyptian army and negatively applied to enemy forces. The locust also appears in the holy books as a plague and divine punishment; in the holy Bible, the Gospel and the holy Quran.

“Else, if thou refuse to let my people go, behold, tomorrow will I bring the locusts into thy coast.” Exodus 10: 4-5

“And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the land of Egypt for the ocusts, that they may come up upon the land of Egypt, and eat every herb of the land, even all that the hail hath left.” Exodus 10: 12

“The east wind brought the locusts. And the locusts went up over all the land of Egypt, and rested in all the coasts of Egypt: very grievous were they; before them there were no such locusts as they, neither after them shall be such.” Exodus 10: 13-14.

And the Lord turned a mighty strong west wind, which took away the locusts, and cast them into the Red sea; there remained not one locust in all the coasts of Egypt.” Exodus 10: 19.

“All thy trees and fruit of thy land shall the locust consume.” Deuteronomy 28: 42 “If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land.” Chronicles 7: 13.

“That which the palmerworm hath left, hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left, hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left, hath the caterpillar eaten." Joel 1:4.

“And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you”. Joel 2:25.

“Therefore we sent upon them widespread death, and the locusts and the lice and the frog and the blood, clear signs; but they behaved haughtily and they were a guilty people.” The holy Quran - Al- Araf - Verse 133.

“Their eyes cast down, going forth from their graves as if they were scattered locusts”. The holy Quran - Al-Qamar - Verse 7.

Some texts mentioned locust as a food: 7 Ovid R. Sellers, "Stages of Locust in Joel," The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures 52, no.2 (Jan., 1936), P.81-85.

“And the same John had his raiment of camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey.” Matthew 3: 4.

“And John was clothed with camel’s hair and with a girdle of a skin about his loins; and he did eat locusts and wild honey.” Mark 1: 6.

Amulets in the form of a locust made from glazed steatite and glazed composition occur in both the late Old kingdom and eighteenth dynasty and are carefully and naturalistically shaped yet a series of cornelian examples, probably contemporary with the former, are so stylized that they resemble a pair of aero plane wings with only an inverted ‘V’ at the central point representing the legs and a few striations at the front for the head. Because of the reproductive qualities of this insect, the amulet probably bestowed fertility, although its swarming behavior may also have led to connotations of plenty or riches. However, Utterances 467 and 627 of Pyramid Texts both speak of ascent to heaven in the locust’s form, suggesting that the amulet had a purely funerary function.⁷

¹The ancient Egyptian artistic representations of locusts and literary references to them have been gathered with exhaustive thoroughness by Dr. Ludwig Keimer in: Pendeloques en forme d'insectes faisant partie de colliers égyptiens. ASAE. 1932;32:129–150; 1933;33:97–130, 193–200; 1937;37:143–172. And for more about locusts see:

Meeks D. De quelques insectes égyptiens entre lexique et paléographie, Perspectives on Ancient Egypt, supplément aux annales du Service des antiquités de l’Égypte, 2010;40: 273‒304.

LGG,VI, P.392.

Guershon M, Ayali A. Innate Phase Behavior in the Desert Locust. Schistocerca gregaria, Insect Science. 2012;19(6):649–56.

Scott K. Locust Imagery and the Problem of Genre in the Book of Joel. MA thesis, University of North Carolina; 2014. p. 97–103.

Ahmad Abo elmagd. Dehumanization of the Other: Animal Metaphors of Defeated Enemies in the New Kingdom Military Texts. JARCE. 2016;52:329–341; the parte about locust, p. 333‒334.

John A. Joel's Locusts in the custs in the light of near eastern parallels. JNES. Henri Frankfort Memorial Issue. 1955;14(1): 52‒55.

Eva Panagiotakopulu. Environment, insects and the archaeology of Egypt. Cairo: The Supreme council of Antiquities, 2009. 2:347‒360.

Ovid R. Sellers; Stages of Locust in Joel; the American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures. 52(2):81‒85.

Houlihan PF. The animal world of the Pharaohs. Cairo; 1996:187‒194.

Kritsky. Gene, Beetle Gods, King Bees and Other Insects of Ancient Egypt. KMT 4.1. 1993. p. 32‒9.

²Pyr. § 891 d ; 1772 b-c.

³CT, VII, 244 d.

⁴BD, Chapter 125. “I have rested in the northern city, in the field of locusts.”

⁵KRI II 19 § 51; M. Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature II : The New Kingdom (Berkeley,1976), P.64. ; KRI IV, 11.74, lines 9, 10; C. Manassa, The Great Karnak Inscription of Merneptah: Grand Strategy in the 13th Century BC. (New Haven, 2003), P.72.

⁶Wilson, P.; a Ptolemaic Lexicon, P.867, where she notes the metaphorical nature of the word for the plural form represents “the multitude” or “an infinite number of things.”

⁷[7]Carol Andrews. Amulets of Ancient Egypt. London: British museum press; 1994. 66 p.

Locust has the code L4 according to Gardiner’s list. It has three shapes:

The clearest sign is which found in JSesh an open source hieroglyphic editor.⁸

⁸Rosmorduc Serge.

The locust has the name snHm.⁹ In the New kingdom texts the word is written sA-nHm as if it were 'son of one who takes', 'son of seizing' referring to the destructive nature of the creature.¹⁰  In Ptolemaic texts the word has many of orthographies in writing: Phonetic value of locust sign (Table 1) (Table 2):¹¹

⁹Locust or grasshopper as it is sometimes referred to called canne\ in Coptic. See: Černy J. Coptic Etymological Dictionary. Cambridge: 1976. 155 p.

¹⁰Wb. III 461 (6‒8), Wilson P. A Ptolemaic lexicon. 867 p

¹¹Valeurs Phonétiques. P. 391‒92; Kurth D. Einführung ins Ptolemäische. Band I, eine Grammatik mit Zeichenliste und Übungsstücken, Backe-Verlag, Vol. I, 2007. 298 p. Kurth D. A Ptolemaic Sign-List: Hieroglyphs Used in the Temples of the Graeco-Roman Period of Egypt and their Meanings, Hützel, 2010. 119 P, Leitz Chr.; Quellentexte zur ägyptischen Religion I, Münster 2004. 166 p.

1. Dendara III 176,4-5
aSA mnftyw (a).k mi snHmw, msw.k mi SA.I (Horus-Behdety) make your infantry soldiers as numerous as locusts, and your children as numerous as grains of sand.
2. Dendara IV 18,4-6


@nk Hrw-a (b), Dd mdw: Nb nHH, Sn.k HA.k, ist (c ) mi snHm, ir.sn nht.k ra-nb Offer the elixir, Utterance: lord of eternity, your circle of protection is behind you, the combatants are like locusts, they protect you every day.

3. Dendara V 56,12-1


[Nswt-bity anx](d) ms-xaw, an Hr-nb n mAA.f, nb SAw sxpr rnpwt, sTHn SA Xr wADwAD, Sn(w) (e).f HA.f twt.sn r snHm, @r-bHdty nTr aA nb pt.[King of Upper and Lower Egypt, live] brightness, rejoice everyone for seeing him, lord of vineyards to create the fresh plants, to make bright the vineyard carrying vines, your circles of protection are behind you, they are numerous more than locust, Horus-Behdety the great god lord of the sky.

4. Dendara IX 152,4-5

@nk Hrw-a, Dd mdw: Hrw-a n nb BHdt sAb-Swt, Sn (f).k HA.k (g) mi snHm. Offer the elixir, Utterance: the elixir for the lord of Behdet, him of the dappled plumage, your circle of protection is behind you as numerous as locust.

5. Dendara XII 265,7-9


+d mdw in @r-bHdty nTr aA nb pt sAb-Swt pr m Axt aXm Sps sHb Snbty nTr wr sr nTrw, Snw.f HA.f , Snwt.f (h ) r gs.f iw.sn wr.tw mi snHm, nfr Hr bnr mrwt psD m pt m ra-nb. Utterance by Horus-Behdety, the great god, lord of the sky, him of the dappled plumage, who comes forth from the horizon, the noble falcon image, to make festive the falcon image, the great god, prince of gods, his circles of protection are behind him, his followers are beside him, they as numerous as locust, beautiful of face, sweet of love, who shine in the sky in every day.

6. Dendara XIV 136,2-3


Wdn Hrw-a, Dd mdw: ixt wrt prt m Knmt ( i ) mw( j ).f bnr.tw r Snbt.k nHH r.k, HqA.n.k tAwy, Snwt.k m snHm Offer the elixir, Utterance: great offerings comes from Kharga Oasis, its water (i.e. wine) is sweet for your chest, eternity for you, and you rule the two lands, your followers as numerous as locust.

7. Dendara XV 298,6-7


@nk Hrw-a, Dd mdw: Hrw-a r SASAyt.k Snbt sAb-Swt Sn HA.k m snHm, nTr aA m Haa, ntf nb nHH Xnm bA.f m Axt. Offer the elixir, Utterance: the elixir for your throat, falcon him of the dappled plumage, the circle of protection is behind you as numerous as locust, the great god in rejoice, he is lord of eternity, his Ba united with the horizon.

8. Mammisi Dendara 24,5-6


jwAw, wnDww n rx(k ) Tnw.sn, qbHw jm.s m dm agAt, DAt mnt(L ) aA r snHm. Cattle and short horned cattle their numbers are not known (i.e. numberless), the water birds (i.e. prey birds) inside it are sharp of talons, crane bird and pigeon are numerous more than locust.

9. Edfou IV 3,3

jwAw, wnDww wr.tw r snHmw. Cattle and short horned cattle are more numerous than locusts.

10. Edfou VI 132,13


Nswt-bjty (¼ sA-Ra (Ptwlmys anx Dt mry PtH¼ nTr nfr jty nb nHH Sn HA.f m snHm. King of Upper and Lower Egypt (¼ son of Re) Ptolemy live forever. Beloved of Ptah¼ the good god, the sovereign lord of eternity, the circle of protection is behind him as numerous as locust.

11. Edfou VI 133,8


Rdj (m ) jArrt-r-mw jn nswt Dd mdw sA-Ra (snHm ¼ ntf nb nHH Sn(wt) HA.f m am mjn wgj jArrt @r-bHdty nTr aA nb pt. Presenting grapes and water by the king, Utterance, son of Re (¼ he is lord of eternity, his circle of protection is behind him as numerous as locust, drink grape juice and chews grapes.

12. Edfou VI, 345,18

Wr pHtj Hr ptrt(n ) <Snwt>.f HA(.f ) m snHmw. Great of strength in battlefield (i.e. arena), his <followers> are behind (him) as numerous as locusts.

13. Edfou VII 71,2-7

!Ayw(o ).s r snHmw, xntS.s AxAx.tj m Smaw mHw, sS.s jrw Xr sSn nHmt. Its birds are more numerous than locusts; its fields are flourishing with cereals of Upper and Lower Egypt, all its basins are filled with lotus buds and flowers

14. Edfou VII 123,6-7


Wnn nb nHH(p ) wbn.ti m BHdt, Snwt.f HA.f m snHmw, Hr Ssp ixt.f Hr sam Xrt.f Hr sHtp ib.f m irt-@r. Lord of eternity shine in Behdet, his followers around him as locusts, receiving his things, eating his rations, and pacifying his heart with Eye of Horus (i.e. wine).

15. Edfou VII 200,4-5

+d mdw jn @r-bHdtj, nTr aA nb pt, wr pHtj xnt WTst-@r, aSA mnftyw mj snHmw, hb ptrt jnj pHwj n thj.(q) Utterance by Horus-Behdety, the great god lord of the sky, great of strength inside Edfou (i.e. throne of Horus), numerous of infantry soldiers like locusts, treading the battlefield, to bring an end to one who attacks.

16. Edfou VII 284,3-5

am.n.k mw ntj wgj (r ) jArtt, mSa [.k HA.k] (s ) mj snHmw. You drink water and chew grapes, [your] army [behind you] as numerous as locusts.

17. Esna III n°. 208, 69
n Wsjr m rn(w).f nbw . For Osiris in all his names.

The word read as mnftyw¹²and it is different aboutwhich read as mSa<¹³ mean “army”, the different is in what the soldier holds in his right and left hand. mnftyw are infantry of the army rather than chariotry. At Edfou, the word refers in general to soldiers of Horus, whose main function is to protect him.¹⁴  The elixir Hrw-ais a kind of aromatic beverages. Grapes are the main ingredient and water. Hrw-a was prepared at the first victory of Horus and it gives strength and vigour. Its red colour associates it with the drink which made Sakhmet drunk at the destruction of Mankind.¹⁵  Elixir appears as an offering only in temples of the Ptolemaic period. Thirty examples are known, at Philae, Edfou and Dendara The reddish colour evokes the blood of enemies spilled into the water; moreover, the potion is offered only to Horus.¹⁶  The recipient in eight of the rights at Edfou is Horus. Behdety and in one Re of Behdet and Horakhty, but in all cases the warlike attributes of the recipient are stressed, so that it seems the drink was supposed to improve performance in battle perhaps as 'Dutch courage'.¹⁷

The elixir Hrw-a was also the male equivalent of the femalemnw drink which referred to as the inebriation of goddesses.¹⁸  The locust related with the elixir Hrw-a as it mentioned in the most of elixir offering scenes. The wordcould be correct into . The word ist was used to denote a band or company of men performing various tasks, from field work and transport, to helping in a slaughter house. It also refers to a group of soldiers [Schulman, Military Rank, 25 and 43] and came to be the crew of a ship and the crew of the sun boat of Re. Depending upon context ist can imply slightly different meanings.¹⁹  The lacuna can complete with or read as Nswt-bity anx.²⁰ The sign is a tied loop of cord forming an unending, eternal circuit and so Sn can be a circuit or circumference of some concrete object. It is the concept of a circle being a 'whole' 'complete', without end in space and total in time. Most of the phrases using Sn refer to universal 'wholes' implying that the earth, sky, sun; moon and underworld were seen as being part of an unending circuit. The Sn-sign is also a sign of protection - for it is a barrier without breaches and a safe place for anything inside it - such as the name of the king.²¹

1. The sign should be correct into read as k
2. The sign should be correct intoread as .k
3. In court circles the title may have applied to the trusted advisors,
4. Counselors and bodyguard of high officials and the king. At Edfou Snwt usually refers to the followers of a god. In origin it may be those who are 'around' or who 'enclose' the king or god and therefore in origin is a participle from Sni ‘to enclose'²²
5. Knmt refers to Kharga Oasis.²³It was a famous place which produces wine with the otherplaces such as “Baharia  Oasis”, “Nebsheh”, “Pelusium” and “Lake of Mariut”.²⁴
6. The word should be correct into read as mw.f .
7. The sign read as n rx²⁵ this reading is a rare phonetic value in Ptolemaic texts.
8. DAt and mnt are two kinds of birds. The word dAt written in disorganization orthography as and it should write as . It appear in parallel texts as ²⁶ .²⁷  The DAt bird is “the crane” referred to as Crane Grus grus.²⁸  In other hand mnt refer to pigeon.²⁹  The two birds appear together as an offering:
9. 
10. DAt mnt: The crane and pigeon³⁰
11. The Crane bird also appears with the rAw-gees
12. 
13. rAw Hna DAt: The gees with cranes.³¹
14. The sign read as rdj “to offer”.³²
15. ptrt reefer to the arena or battlefield.³³ The word was written in disorganization orthography, it appear in document n°.15 as .³⁴  The earliest examples of the word are prj from D.18 are spelled .³⁵
16. In Ptolemaic texts the word is usually written ptr(t) and used in war contexts. There are some synonyms of the word such as:
17. pgA ³⁶
18. mtbr ³⁷
19. mTwn ³⁸
20. rA-pDt ³⁹
21. rA-DAt / rA-wDAt ⁴⁰
22. The lacuna in the word hAyw could be complete as . The word hAjw derives from the verb hAj 'to descend, go down’; a reference to birds in flight and it is often associated in puns with hAyt 'heaven'. It does not seem to refer to a specific species.⁴¹
23. This sign read as nHH it could also be written in the forms; or .⁴²
24. The idiom “jn pHwj n thj ” mean “to bring an end to the one who attack”.
25. It is a metaphorical meaning for destruction of the enemies. The idiom used always with the synonyms words of enemas such as xftjw; sbjw; XAkw-jbw ; snTjw and etc.
26. The lacuna in the word wgi could be complete as . ⁴³
27. The lacunacould be complete as.

¹²Valeurs Phonétiques, P.30.

¹³Valeurs Phonétiques, P.29 ; Kurth, D. ; Einführung ins Ptolemäische, Band,I, eine Grammatik mit Zeichenliste und Übungsstücken, Backe-Verlag, 2007, P.131 ; Leitz, Chr.; Quellentexte zur ägyptischen Religion I., Münster, 2004, P.153.

¹⁴Wilson, P. , a Ptolemaic lexikon, P. 430.

¹⁵Wilson, P. ; a Ptolemaic Lexikon, P.670.

¹⁶Cauville, S.; Offerings to the gods, P.48-49.

¹⁷Wilson, P. ; a Ptolemaic Lexikon, P.670.

¹⁸Cauville, S.; Offerings to the gods, P.50

¹⁹Wilson, P. ; a Ptolemaic Lexikon, P.112.

²⁰Cauville S, Dendara, V-VI, Traduction, les cryptes du temple d’Hathor, Vol. I, in: OLA, 131, Leuven, 2004, P.142

²¹Wb. IV 491 (6)-493 (7) ; Wilson, P. ; a Ptolemaic Lexikon, P.1015.

²²Wb. IV 511(1)-512(7) ; Wilson, P. ; a Ptolemaic Lexikon, P.1019 ; EL-Sayed, R.; Quelques précisions sur l’histoire de la province d’Edfou à la IIe Période Intermédiaire (étude des stèles JE 38917 et 46988 du musée du Caire), in : BIFAO, 79 (1979).P.194-195, note[n].

²³Gauthier, H.; DG, V, P.204-205.

²⁴Gaber Amr.  The Central Hall in the Egyptian Temples of the Ptolemaic Period. Durham University; 2009. 281 p.

²⁵Valeurs Phonétiques, Fairman H. An Introduction to the study of Ptolemaic signs and their Values. BIFAO. 1945;43(1):381,73.

²⁶Edfou,V,359,7.

²⁷Edfou,VII,311,10.

²⁸Wb. V 516(9-13) ; Wilson, P. ; a Ptolemaic Lexikon, P.1220.

²⁹Wb. II 68(2-4) ; Wilson, P. ; a Ptolemaic Lexikon, P.438.

³⁰Edfou,V,359,7.

³¹Edfou,VII,311,9-10.

³²Valeurs Phonétiques, P.232.

³³Wb. I 565 (6) cf. Wb. I 532 (1); Wilson, P. ; a Ptolemaic Lexikon, P.438.

³⁴See document n°.15, Edfou VII 200,4-5

³⁵Urk IV 1290,7 ; Urk IV 890,12.

³⁶Wb. I 562 (14‒17); Wilson, P.; a Ptolemaic Lexikon, P.377

³⁷Wilson, P. a Ptolemaic Lexikon, P.475.

³⁸Wb. II 175 (12-13); Wilson, P. ; a Ptolemaic Lexikon, P.477.

³⁹Wb. II 397 (9); Wilson, P. ; a Ptolemaic Lexikon, P.573.

⁴⁰Wilson, P. a Ptolemaic Lexikon, P.573.

⁴¹FCD P. 157 (species of wild-fowl); Wilson P. A Ptolemaic Lexikon. p. 599‒600.

⁴²Valeurs Phonétiques, P.119.

⁴³Wilson P. A Ptolemaic Lexikon. 269 p.

From the examination of documents it is noticed that locust appear frequently in elixir offerings. Among 17 documents linked with locust, 11 of them were elixir offerings [Docs.1‒16]. Two of them were equivalent beverage to elixir one as wnS “wine” [Doc.3] and the other as jArrt-r-mw “grapes with water” [Doc.14]. In the texts of elixir offerings the warlike attributes of the recipient are stressed. Another point was to focus on the numberless of soldiers by compare with locusts swarms. So that it seems the drink was supposed to improve performance in battle perhaps as 'Dutch courage'. And locusts play a metaphoric role in increase soldiers’ numbers. That is what makes locusts appear in the most of elixir scenes (Table 3).

Locust was mentioned in Ptolemaic texts for metaphorical propose. The metaphorical nature of the word for the plural form represents “the multitude” or “an infinite number of things”. The texts used locust as a simple method to focus on the idea of unlimited. The texts compare between locust and different words such as soldiers, followers, army, and circle of protection. The locusts appear frequently in elixir offerings. It linked with elixir of courage as they complete each other. The elixir improves performance in battle and locusts metaphorically reflex the unlimited number of soldiers. They are together guaranteeing the victory. The texts give number of synonyms for the arena or battlefield.

None.

Author declares that there is no conflict of interest.