Min symbol (hieroglyph)

The horizontal form of the Min symbol, (consisting of two opposing-faced arrows), is shown on the Min Palette in an archaic form. Centered vertically overlaying the Min hieroglyph is a vertical "crook" or staff, the version of the 'straight staff' (see Crook-staff (Luwian hieroglyph)). The symbol appears on the Min Palette, a Late Predynastic, Naqada III palette, dating to 3250-3100 BCE, from El-Amra. According to Budge, the curved staff may symbolically represent the male organ, and the double arrows the female organ. ==Classical forms==

The classical (and later) official character for the god Min was: R22:R12 The hieroglyph gives the god's name Mnv, and its phonetic value is hm, as in the city of hm (the Greek Letopolis, and today’s Ausim in the Nile Delta). A further descriptive variation, in which the god is additionally shown in his ithyphallic state, is:R22:R12-C8 ==Early examples==

File:God Min, Temple of Koptos, circa 3300 BCE (reconstruction drawing and existing pieces I, II and III).png|Reconstruction of the Koptos colossi, pre-dynastic colossal statues of the God Min, Koptos, Late Naqada II- Early Naqada III, about 3300 BCE. File:Min II, right sash inscriptions.jpg|Engravings with the character for Min, with sawfish blades and shells, on one of the Koptos statues. File:Mudstone palette with hieroglyphs in relief. Late Predynastic, Naqada III. 3250-3100 BC. From El-Amra.jpg|Mudstone Min palette with hieroglyphs in relief. Late Predynastic, Naqada III. 3250-3100 BC. From El-Amra ==References==