The Egg as a metaphor

Defenestrate your mind and let it fill with the golden yokeyness of Eggs.  Eggs despite their hard shell, are surprisingly flexible when it comes to metaphor and literary use. Found in legends, allusions, metaphors and even riddles eggs are definitely worth cracking open and taking a look at.

 The egg as universe

At the beginning of the beginning there was but an egg. This belief spans multiple cultures including Vedic, Greek, Egyptian, Phoenician, Chinese, Norse, Finnish, Polynesian, and Dogon mythology. This egg takes three major forms: a cosmic egg that hatched the entire universe, a world egg that brought about the creation of the earth or a deity egg that hatched the creator of the universe or earth or life on earth.

As a fun mind-flex, you can easily compare an egg to a planet. The shell is the crust and mantle, hard and unyielding yet not truly unbreakable. The white is the liquid outer core encasing the yolk which is the core of our planet. A planet has never tasted so delicious sunny side up.

The egg is the beginning and probably the end too.

Used as a sign of both renewal and fresh starts the egg is an important part of any well-balanced mythology. The Phoenix, a very familiar legendary bird, begins and ends its life as an egg. Phoenix’s represent not just rebirth but also the sun. Every morning the moon-egg hatches giving birth to the sun-phoenix and every night the sun-phoenix returns to the moon-egg

I have a wonderful time imagining a bird fighting its way out of the moon to soar triumphantly across the sky. As the bird reaches the other side of the world it grows weary and perches upon the stars. Wrapping its fiery wings around it. Its temperature cools, ice builds up upon the curled figure and the moon is born again.

Y’all read the hobbit right?

Popularised by JRR Tolkien’s book most people are familiar with the “Egg riddle”. Just in case:

A box without hinges, key, or lid, yet golden treasure inside is hid.


One of Bilbo’s riddles for Gollum from the Hobbit published 21 sept 1937

This riddle is so perfect for an egg but the metaphor of yolk as treasure can be pushed farther! Eggs are very high in protein, one large white egg contains 20 grams of protein. The appropriate amount of protein is incredibly important to remain healthy and energized. Every egg is a tiny chest of delightful protein to help you get through your day. What a lovely treasure that is. By the way Hardboiled large white eggs are only 90 calories. That has nothing to do with the metaphor, it’s just a fun fact.

Feel free to leave me a comment telling me how eggcelent my dissertation was on eggs. That’s right it is time to crack open the egg puns. You think I’m yoking? This won’t be over easy and If you don’t like egg puns you can go straight to shell. Although you can look at the sunnyside, I’m starting to scramble to come up with any more puns. This was a wisk I had to take though, for all the good yolk out there that love every pun.