The Oldest Ouroboros Depiction

by Dirk Gillabel
www.soul-guidance.com

Ouroboros, or the serpent which bites or swallows its own tail, is a well known
symbol in esoteric doctrines. It is a symbol for death and rebirth, renewal of life,
and also a symbol for the cosmos or endless cycles in the universe.
Ouroboros was a well known symbol in alchemy. The following is a 1478 drawing
by Theodoros Pelecanos, of an alchemical tract attributed to Synesius:
The first known appearance of the ouroboros motif is in the Enigmatic Book of the
Netherworld depicted on the second gilded shrine of Tutankhamun. It dates from
the 14th century BC:

the second gilded shrine of Tutankhamun

Tutankhamun was the son or grandson of Akhenaten. The Akhenaten family, who
all had elongated heads, had broken with a long tradition of a multiple gods
pantheon, that had become a very profitable business for the priesthood.
Akhenaten (and Nefertiti) broke with a lot of traditions, They established a new
capital in a place they called Akhetaten (now called Amarna), away from the
control of the priesthood. Their art-style broke with long-established Egyptian
conventions. Unlike the strict idealistic formalism of previous Egyptian art, it
depicted its subjects more realistically. Most important is that they replaced the
multi-gods pantheon with a single sun god, representing the inner divine self in
each one of us.
Akhenaten, Nefertiti, and Princesses Meretaten, Mekeaten, and Ankhesenpaaten
worshiping the Aten as a family.

Tutankhamen's tomb is very unusual. It is too small for a royal tomb. Recently it
has been suggested that there are two more chambers which were sealed off and
painted over. It is quite possible that this tomb was originally the tomb of
Nefertiti, and that the priesthood moved the mummy of Nefertiti into those back
rooms, sealed of their entrances, and used the tomb for the mummy of
Tutankhamen. It has also been remarked that the chaotic way the furniture and
other funerary objects were placed in the tomb, shows that they were dumped
rather hastily, and not in accordance with the usual respectful burial rites.
Furthermore there is also evidence that a lot of the objects originated from a
female pharaoh. It is quite possible that most of the objects belonged to Nefertiti,
and that they came from the palace in Amarna. The priesthood hated the
Akhnenaten family so much that after the death of Tutankhamen, they broke
down the entire Amarna palace to its foundation. So, it is possible that they
dumped the palace furniture into the tomb at Nefertiti's death or at
Tutankhamen's death.
Knowing that the Akhenaten family held a different belief system, it is quite
interesting that a new symbol shows up in the funerary text on the second golden
shrine of Tutankhamen.
The outside of the second gilded shrine shows scenes and text that are part of a
netherworld book that is rather unique and cryptographic. That is why it is called
the Enigmatic Book of the Underworld. The texts which accompany some of the
illustrations are cryptographic in order to preserve the secrecy of the formulas.
We find this also in some some of the Ramesses tombs. The different underworld
texts where not only a guide for the deceased soul, they were also used for
initiatory purposes. Of course, they required an initiate or priest to explain or
interpret the correct meaning of the symbols and text. That is why modern day
interpretation of theses funerary texts is only sketchy and superficial.
The scene and text shows a strong relation to the death and rebirth of the sun,
which is of course not surprising because of the sun worship of the Akhenaten
family.
The following pictures shows the entire scene of one of the panels:

Below is a close-up of the mummy with the two ouroboros serpents, one around
the feet and one around the head, with a solar disk in his belly, and the ram
headed bird inside of the solar disk. The ram headed bird is a symbol for the sun
god Ra. Maybe also of interest is that this solar disk is at the level of the solar
plexus chakra.
It is rather unusual that the ouroboros serpent shows up not once but twice, and
on the same figure. It is also quite unusual that the figure is so large, showing
that he, or what he represents, is quite important. Some see the figure as Osiris
and Ra. Osiris is then the god that dies, and is born again as the sun god Ra. But
is is also possible that the figure is symbolic representation of the the dead
pharaoh who is undergoing the rebirth process. This is furthermore enhanced by
the ouroboros around the feet and around the head, which are the two ends of
the body.
Here are close-ups of the two ouroboros serpents:
Images credits:
Tour Egypt
Wikimedia Commons: shrine, detail head, detail feet