Hieroglyphs Addenda · Signs
cobra
| Name | I10 |
|---|---|
| Reads | ḏ |
| Means | cobra at rest |
| Taught in | 04 · Your first signs |
Where it comes from
A cobra at rest — hood folded, body looped along the ground. It writes ḏ (the “dj” of “adjust”), and its great word is ḏd, “to say”: the verb that opens nearly every speech in Egyptian narrative.
How to remember it
The cobra speaks first: ḏd, “say,” begins with it, so every storyteller’s “then His Majesty said…” starts with a snake. Watch for the coil and hood — someone is about to talk.
In the wild
urn:nabu:aes:bbawhistbiospzt:XSMWRMUR4NB6XEXIJVRVHJK2R4:IBUCENVQliJVjULwvCZ2iqEPMrs
· license: attribution.
Piece by piece:
- ḏd — says: this cobra, then the hand
- ḥm≡f — His Majesty: the fuller’s club with its stroke, the viper for “his”
The formula that opens royal speech from the Old Kingdom to the end — cobra first. The sign is taught in 101’s chapter 04 and the formula in 102’s chapter 02.