A shen ring is a circle with a line at a tangent to it, which was used in hieroglyph as a stylised loop of a rope. In particular, the circle represented eternity, as circles did in many ancient cultures (e.g. the wedding ring). In numerical use, a circle represented infinity, all, or everything.

The stretched "shen ring", the cartouche

The symbol could be stretched to contain other objects, which were then understood as being made eternal by the shen ring. Indeed, when it contained a name, the symbol became the cartouche. The word shen itself means, in Egyptian, encircle.

Shen ring uses in iconography

The Shen ring is the 'shenu'.

• The Goddess Heget, (the 'Frog'), is often seated on a shenu.
• For Eternity, the renpit, papyrus stalk is usually based on top of a Shen ring. See the Egyptian god Huh. (Senusret I has a famous Lintel relief showing this.)
• The Shen ring is often attached to various types of staffs, the staff of authority, or power, symbolizing the Eternal authority of that power.
• The Goddess Isis, and the Goddess Nekhbet are often shown kneeling, with their hands resting upon a shenu.
• The Hawk (Horus), and the Vulture (Goddess Mut) have the shenu in their talons, wings outstretched, over the scene portrayed. The "Horus with Outstretched Wings", shenu's in its talons, is an example from the Louvre of a Pectoral Brooch, possibly for royalty.

Image:Grey Shen ring.gif|Shen ringImage:Egypte louvre 052.jpg|Artifact at the Louvre Museum, FranceImage:Heh.svg|God HuhImage:Egypt.Nekhbet.01.jpg|Detail of pillar at the Temple of Kom OmboImage:Egypte louvre 211 stele.jpg|Stela at the LouvreImage:Ra-harphist.jpg|Stela of Harpist and god Ra

See also

• Huh