Because the scorpion is dangerous, its name is often avoided to prevent it being “invoked,” and euphemisms are used. With the sting always unsheathed, it embodies brute aggression; the text also claims the female gives birth once and the young destroy the mother by digging out. In Ancient Egypt it was a hieroglyph and sacred to the Goddess Selket, shown as scorpion-bodied with a woman’s head, or a woman with a scorpion on her head.