Editing Khepri (section)

==Religion==
Khepri was a [[solar deity]] and thus connected to the rising sun and the [[Ancient Egyptian creation myths|mythical creation of the world]].<ref name="Popielska-Grzybowska"/> The god and the scarab beetle represented creation and rebirth.<ref name="Popielska-Grzybowska" /><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1kk66gk |title=Studies in Aegean Art and Culture: A New York Aegean Bronze Age Colloquium in Memory of Ellen N. Davis |date=2016 |publisher=INSTAP Academic Press |isbn=978-1-931534-86-4 |doi=10.2307/j.ctt1kk66gk |jstor=j.ctt1kk66gk}}</ref> There was no [[Cult (religious practice)|cult]] devoted to Khepri, as he was seen as a manifestation of the more prominent solar deity [[Ra]]. The scarab god was however included in the [[Creationism|creationist]] theory of [[Heliopolis (ancient Egypt)|Heliopolis]] and later [[Thebes, Egypt|Thebes]].<ref name="van Ryneveld-2">van Ryneveld, Maria M. ''The Presence and Significance of Khepri in Egyptian Religion and Art'', University of Pretoria (South Africa), Ann Arbor, 1992''. {{ProQuest|304016142}}.''</ref> Often, Khepri and another solar deity, [[Atum]], were seen as aspects of Ra: Khepri represented the morning sun, Ra was the midday sun, and Atum represented the evening sun.<ref name="Wilkinson3"/> As a deity, Khepri's four main functions were creator, protector, sun-god, and the god of resurrection.<ref name="van Ryneveld-2" /> The central belief surrounding Khepri was the god's ability to renew life, in the same way he restored the sun's existence every morning.<ref name="van Ryneveld-2" />  Mummified scarab beetles and scarab amulets have been found in [[Pre-dynastic Egypt|pre-dynastic]] graves, suggesting that Khepri was respected early on in the history of Ancient Egypt.<ref name="van Ryneveld-2" />{{Ancient Egyptian religion}}