Khepera – a form of the sun-god Ra. Khepera is frequently depicted as a scarab-headed figure because his rolling of the sun around its orbit echoed the way in which the scarab or dung beetle rolls a ball of dung containing its eggs, hiding it in a hole in the earth; when the eggs hatch, the newborn scarabs emerge from their hole. Khepera is particularly associated with the rising sun, which emerges from the earth anew each morning after its nightly passage through the underworld.
