Few plants are more celebrated in Egyptian mythology than the blue lotus, a stunning water lily that stars in some of archaeology’s most significant discoveries.
Nymphaea caerulea flowers, also known as Blue Lotus. Source: Public Domain
This week’s topic is a little bit of a random one but is something you will have seen throughout Egyptian collections in museums, architecture and myths. The lotus isn’t the botanical term for this plant but the one used by Egyptologists to refer to the water lily or seshen in ancient Egyptian. Which also served as the emblem of Upper Egypt alongside the white crown. Along with the lotus, there is a counterpart for Lower Egypt is the papyrus plant.
Botanical Aspects and Identification
During the Pharaonic period, there were two kinds of lotus; the white Nymphaea Lotus and the blue Nymphaea coerulea. The white lotus has white petals that are bluntly pointed and very large flowers whereas the blue lotus has pointed petals and a slightly smaller flower. Later the around 525 BC a third type Nelumbo nucifera from India.
The true Egyptian blue lotus flower (which is considered a liliy technically) is often confused with other blue lotuses with similar looks and behaviour but is not identical. Nymphaea caerulea is often confused with Nelumbo nucifera. These are two plants from separate genera, growing in different conditions and having distinct chemical and physical qualities.
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What worked in the flower’s favor was the roots being able to flourish in nutrient-deficient mud that lacks oxygen. The blue flowering species is small and round, and floats on top of lakes or bodies of water. Its flower buds rise to the surface over a two-to-three-day period, then open at around 9:30am and close in the early afternoon at 3:00pm when they reach maturity.
Mythological and Religious Significance
The ancient Egyptians regarded the blue lotus (or blue water lily) as a symbol of creation. In ancient Egyptian mythology, the blue lotus was the first object to emerge out of chaos. Temple priests connected this cycle to the myth of creation. The creation god was born in the womb of a lotus flower which sprouted from Nun, the first water. His tears created humanity, and he was closely related to the sun god RA.
The lotus also had a mythological significance as a symbol of rebirth and the emblem of the god Nefertem. In some version of the Egyptian creation story, the sun god emerged from a blue lotus that rose up from the primaeval waters of Nun. Specifically, the Hermopolitan cosmogony was influenced by the behaviour of the blue lotus, which in the morning opens, revealing a ball of golden-yellow stamens: theologians saw in this the image of the solar disk leaving the Nun (the primordial ocean) every morning, as it did on the first day of the world. Therefore its connection to rebirth and creation is strongly tied to this version of the creation myth.
Furthermore, the lotus grows in still water only rising above the water and open their petals when the sun is shining. The lotus is also pollinated by beetles which links it with the god Khepri, the beetle god of the dawn. From around the 14th Century the newly risen sun god Ra could be shown as a naked child sitting on or inside and lot and holding one finger to his lips.
Sacred Lotus Columns, Temple of Karnak, Egypt, ca. 1899. Photograph.
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The God Nefertem
That move nicely onto a deity also strongly connected to the lotus flower: Nefertem. Nefertem is the primaeval god of the lotus blossom and secondarily the god of perfumes. As the patron god of fragrances and healing he presided over the art of medicine.
He is usually depicted as an anthropomorphically male god wearing a lotus blossom on his head. Sometimes the lotus headdresses are shown with two upright plumes and twin counterpoises that hang at their sides. He usually wears alongside this distinctive headdress a short kilt and sometimes shown with a khepesh sword- more likely the latter element reflecting his epithet ‘protectors of the two lands’. Nefertem can also be shown as a child seated on a lotus blossom, similarly to the sun god Ra, or his head is shown emerging from a lotus.
An example of this type of depiction comes from a wooden sculpture found in the tomb of King Tutankhamun. Where the head of the god is instead replaced by that of the king emerging from the lotus, strengthening the dead’s connection to rebirth in this funerary context.
Painted wooden sculpture of King Tutankhamun his head appearing out of a lotus like Nefertem.
Usage in Daily Life and Art
In ancient Egypt, men and women are seen frequently smelling the lotus flower and adorning their clothes and body with its petals. The Egyptian blue lotus was the most popular scented flower in ancient Egypt and had a deep spiritual connection to daily life.
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The blue lotus is the variety most commonly shown in art. Banquet goers in tomb scenes are often shown with lotus blossoms being offered to them, holding them to their noses and wearing the blooms on their heads. In addition to this, the dead represented on these tomb walls with get the benefit of the lotus’s perfume and by extension the new life as followers of Ra tying into the lotus and creation myth that I will explore a little later.
The lotus also formed part of dress and jewellery. Alongside wearing garlands of fresh flowers in a banquet setting women often sewed the gently fragrant flowers into the seams of their hair.
Banquet goers are shown in the tomb of Nebamun wearing and smelling lotus plants.
But these plants didn’t just influence art. Much of ancient Egyptian architecture takes inspiration from the native Egyptian plant life. The capitals of columns show both papyrus, palm, lotus blooms and a combination. These columns not only support the roof of these temples but also help to create the small-scale version of the cosmos. These columns mimicking the marshy and mysterious waters of Nun from which the universe emerged from.
The Blue Lotus in the Book of the Dead
To simplify life, a comprehensive corpus of texts was written that combined magic, medicine, and religion, including the famous "Egyptian Book of the Dead." In fact, The Egyptian Book of the Dead is one of the primary sources to study this plant, along with some papyri - the Ebers papyrus from 1500 BC in particular.
The Egyptian Book of the Dead mentions and portrays the nymphaea plant in several chapters, always in relation to magical and religious rituals. In these depictions, the hallucinogenic plant mandragora, which has anticholinergic neurotransmitter blocker) properties, is often shown alongside the nymphaea. This highlights the knowledge the ancient Egyptians possessed about the effects of various plants, despite their lack of technology to explain it.
Entheogenic and Psychoactive Properties
The Nymphaea Caerulea was considered a symbol of life and immortality in ancient Egypt, which used its entheogenic qualities to communicate with the divine. Entheogens are mind-altering substances that alter perception, behavior, and cognition of an individual. They are used often by spiritual and religious groups across the world, across cultures, to connect with a higher divinity.
The depiction of Blue lotus flowers alongside temple scenes of celebration and ceremonial rituals has given rise to the mythical powers of this beautiful flower. The sparse written text related to its uses and importance has opened the door to interpretations and speculation. After all, if it was that important and prevailing, it must have been useful in some way, not just a pretty flower to look at and smell.
It contains two alkaloids - apomorphine and nuciferine. Apomorphine, a non-selective dopamine agonist, is primarily utilized in treating Parkinson's disease as it boosts dopamine receptors and improves motor function. Over the last 2 decades, it has emerged that apomorphine is an excellent treater of erectile dysfunction as well. On the other hand, nuciferine is known to block dopamine receptors.
The Egyptian Blue Lotus Is Not What You Think
Modern Research and Availability
Online, products branded as the blue lotus promise calm moments and psychedelic trips. An online search for the Egyptian blue lotus turns up dozens of sellers offering all manner of options purporting to be the real deal.
Liam McEvoy, a fourth-year UC Berkeley student, has dived deep into the wild world of rare plant procurement on Reddit to look for the plant in the present and studied hieroglyphic translation to search for it in the past. McEvoy’s mission to understand the blue lotus started with a journey down a YouTube rabbit hole.
That authentic Egyptian blue lotus has become incredibly rare, with the construction of the Aswan dam on the southern Nile dramatically altering its native environment. The plant is now considered to be threatened and on the verge of being endangered.
| Compound | Effects | Uses |
|---|---|---|
| Apomorphine | Dopamine agonist, improves motor function | Treatment of Parkinson's disease, erectile dysfunction |
| Nuciferine | Blocks dopamine receptors | Potential antipsychotic and antidepressant applications |
McEvoy believes it’s the only university botanical garden in the country with a living Egyptian blue lotus. Last summer, Liam McEvoy harvested flower samples from an Egyptian blue lotus at the UC Botanical Garden’s recently opened Virginia Haldan Tropical House.
“The stuff being sold online is not the same, and our findings suggest the blue lotus is actually unique in comparison to other water lilies,” McEvoy said. McEvoy’s findings add new depth to prevailing understandings about ancient Egypt and about questionable lotus-laced supplements sold online today.
In ancient times, the ceremonial beverage du jour may have been a potion of oil and wine steeped with lotus flowers.
Once a flower seen on the banks of the Nile all over Egypt, the blue lotus is now an endangered species rarely seen in its native land. However, there is one location in Mallawi, south of Cairo, on the site of the ancient city of Amarna. New Hermopolis is an eco-lodge set to revive the ancient city of Thoth (the god of wisdom) and is the passion project of Dr Mervat Nasser. She grew a small number of Blue lotus flowers in a pond among native sycamore and olive trees.
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