Va'era - Frogs

A slightly humourous illustration for Torah portion Va'era in which the first two plagues occur - Nile water is turned to water after which Egypt is overrun frogs. Features the image of a frog with human legs dangling from its mouth and the striped blue and gold headdress which Paroh (Pharaoh) is generally depicted as wearing, discarded on the ground. The image is superimposed on a background resembling the wall of desert ruins. The Egyptian goddess of fertility and childbirth Heket was depicted as a frog or a woman with the head of a frog. On temple walls she was typically in anthropomorphic form, while on amulets Heket was usually in animal form. The frog was an appropriate symbol of fertility as frogs and toads were very common in the Nile delta region. As a plague frogs could thus be seen as foreshadowing the later destruction of Egyptian firstborns.