𓁷

Representing a man’s face with a squared-off beard, one of the few hieroglyphs depicted in frontal view. Compare the Chinese character 面, 𦣻. The elements of the face tend to be somewhat flattened and exaggerated. Although the face is male, the skin is traditionally colored yellow, as if female, rather than the expected red; compare 𓂉, which is also often yellow. The hair is conventionally black; the beard is typically also black, but sometimes it is yellow as if it has been reinterpreted as the neck. The phonogrammatic value of ḥr is derived by the rebus principle from the glyph’s use as the logogram for ḥr (“face”).

(ḥr)

1. Biliteral phonogram for ḥr.
2. Logogram for ḥr (“face; upon”).

• Gardiner, Alan (1957) Egyptian Grammar: Being an Introduction to the Study of Hieroglyphs, third edition, Oxford: Griffith Institute, →ISBN, page 450
• Henry George Fischer (1988) Ancient Egyptian Calligraphy: A Beginner’s Guide to Writing Hieroglyphs, New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, →ISBN, page 18
• Betrò, Maria Carmela (1995) Geroglifici: 580 Segni per Capire l'Antico Egitto, Milan: Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A., →ISBN
• David Nunn, A Palaeography of Polychrome Hieroglyphs (Université Libre de Bruxelles - Faculté de Philosophie et Sciences sociales, 2020)