Seti I Pushes Khepri

Temple of Seti I. Abydos.

Khepri's job is to push the rising sun across the heavens, just as the scarab beetle (Khepri's sign) pushes a ball of dung across the desert floor. As the beetle's children are born from the dung that nourishes them, so the sun gives life to all mankind. Seti's gesture in this relief seems to echo Khepri's activity.