What is the story of the Ankh?

Answer 1

Most of the "story of the ankh" is modern invented nonsense that has no connection at all with ancient Egypt.

First of all the hieroglyph today called "ankh" did not have that name in ancient times. The sign itself probably depicts a sandal-strap, a word which has the consonant skeleton '+n+kh, sometimes written anx (where a represents a glottal stop, not a vowel). This word in ancient Egyptian was used to write the word for "life", since it shared the same consonants (but different vowels). This would be like us using the word hat to represent the word hot because they share the same consonants.

Because the Egyptians considered that there was a life after death, the sign for life was used to represent both life on earth and life after death in the Land of the West, where all souls went - for that reason the symbol for life is seen carried by gods and goddesses, as well as all over the tombs of the dead.

In much more recent times the "ankh" symbol has been hijacked by hippies, pagans, fake witches, druids and all manner of loonies to use as a kind of anti-Christian or alternative religion symbol, giving it all manner of fake and arcane meanings that it never had in ancient times. In the 1976 Warner Brothers film "Logan's Run" it was used as a key by those looking for sanctuary from the oppressive regime in the "city" - another case of hijacking and ignoring the real meaning of the sign. Since then it has frequently been used as an everyday item of jewellery by people who know the movie but know nothing at all about history.