SEKHMET (Sekhet, Sakhmet, Nesert)
Symbols: lioness, cobra, Udjat (Eye of Horus)
Cult Center: Memphis
Myths: "the Story of Re"
Sekhmet was the lioness-headed goddess of war and destruction. She was the sister and wife of Ptah. She was created by the fire of Re's eye. Re created her as a weapon of vengence to destroy men for their wicked ways and disobedience to him (see The Story of Re).
Having once unleashed her powers for the destruction of mankind, the Egyptians feared a repeat performance by Sekhmet. The Egyptian people developed an elaborate ritual in hopes she could be appeased. This ritual revolved around more than 700 statues of the goddess (such as the one to the left). The ancient Egyptian priests were required to perform a ritual before a different one of these statues each morning and each afternoon of every single day of every single year. Only by the strictest adherence to this never-ending ritual could the ancient Egyptians be assured of their ability to placate Sekhmet.
She is generally portrayed as a woman with the head of a lioness surmounted by the solar disk and the uraeus. The name "Sekhmet" comes from the root sekhem which means "to be strong, mighty, violent".
She was identified with the goddess Bastet, and they were called the Goddesses of the West (Sekhmet) and the East (Bastet). Both were shown with the heads of lionesses although Bastet was said to wear green, while Sekhmet wore red.
The ancient Egyptian goddess Sekhmet is known as the Eye of Ra. She is the power that protects the good and annihilates the wicked. Sekhmet is the wrathful form of Hathor (goddess of joy, music, dance, sexual love, pregnancy and birth). With leonine head, female human body and the strength of her father, she is the noontime sun --- intense blinding heat.
In Tibet she is known as Senge Dong-ma, lion-headed dakini, "Guardian of the Secret Tantric Teachings". She is called Simhavaktra, in India where she also has a male reflection in the lion-headed incarnation of Vishnu, Narasimha. Pure shakti, she is doubtless a close relative to lion-mounted Durga, "Keeper of the Flame". Indeed, another Egyptian title for Sekhmet is Nesert, the flame. In the ancient Near East she was called Anat, Ashtoreth and Astarte.
To the Old Kingdom Egyptians, Nu was the divine father of the primordal waters from whence Ra, the sun, came forth. Ra gave birth to Shu, god of the wind, and Tefnut who was called "the spitter" because she sent the rain. Together Shu and Tefnut were the Twins of our heavenly constellations. Tefnut and Sekhmet both have human female form with a head of the lion and both are recorded as daughters of Ra by the Egyptians. Sekhmet is perhaps a later manifestation of Tefnut, but in any event they are one and the same.
Sekhmet, goddess Hathor, is the daughter he plucked from his head and sent out into the universe to avenge his anger. Nu spoke, "Let thine Eye go forth against those who are rebels in the kingdom." Then the gods spoke together, "Let thine eye go forth against these rebels. When It cometh down from heaven, no human eye can be raised against it."
Sekhmet/Hathor, in the form of a lioness, hurled herself upon the men who had rebelled against Ra. She attacked them with such fury that the sun god feared she might exterminate the entire human race and begged her to stop the carnage. She had no ears to hear it. So Ra spilled 7,000 jugs containing a magic potion composed of beer and pomegranate juice in her path. Sekhmet, mistook the red liquid for human blood, lapped it up and become too drunk to continue the slaughter.
On the feast day of Hathor/Sekhmet as many jugs of reddened beer were offered as there were priestesses of the sun.
Mistress and lady of the tomb, gracious one, destroyer of rebellion, mighty one of enchantments. Her body draped in red, Sekhmet faces West; her sister-daughter Bast in green, personification of the domestic cat, faces East.
Sekhmet is the triad goddess of Memphis with her husband Ptah, god of arts and crafts. Nefertum was their son and the third member of the triad. Ptah is the creative potter-god who shaped the world and heavens assisted by the seven wise worker-dwarfs of Khnemu.
2006-07-06 20:58:45
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answer #1
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answered by Dark 3
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Ma´at. The feather is the emblem of the Egyptian Goddess embodying justice, Ma'at. Egyptians believed that at the time of death, the feather was weighed against the heart of the deceased. A heart made heavy by sin outweighed the feather and was devoured by Ammit, but a light heart meant the individual was free from sin and entitled to join Osiris in the underworld.
2006-07-06 23:04:19
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answer #2
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answered by dea_sulj 2
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Taweret (Taueret, Taurt, Toeris, Ipy, Ipet, Apet, Opet, Reret) - The Great Female - was the ancient Egyptian goddess of maternity and childbirth, protector of women and children. Like Bes, she was both a fierce demonic fighter as well as a popular deity who guarded the mother and her newborn child. Although Maat is a close second. Maat, Goddess of True Order, brings Balance Maat's ostrich plume represents the delicate balance between order and chaos in the universe as well as in the human soul. The daughter of Ra, she administered law and justice.
2006-07-06 19:43:50
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answer #3
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answered by Rico Toasterman JPA 7
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Hathor, Goddess of Love, Music and Beauty...
Hathor (Het-Hert, Het-Heru, Hwt-Hert, Hethara), meaning "House of Horus [the Elder]", was a goddess of many things, from the celestial to the alcoholic! She was a celestial goddess, The Mistress of Heaven. A goddess of love, music and beauty as the Goddess of Love, Cheerfulness, Music and Dance. She was known as the Mother of Mothers and the Celestial Nurse who presided over women, fertility, children and childbirth. Yet she was also a goddess of baser things - she was the Vengeful Eye of Ra, the Lady of Drunkeness, and a goddess of the dead as Lady of the West. As Lady of the Southern Sycamore, the sycamore was sacred to her. It was from the sycamore tree that she was thought to hand out good things to the deceased in the afterlife, and so she was thought to be a friend to the dead.
2006-07-07 12:48:36
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answer #4
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answered by LongAgo 5
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Isis
2006-07-07 01:59:27
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answer #5
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answered by kameryn12104 1
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wow favorite goddess, no one ever asks such a simple question...it's refreshing.
my favorite in stories and myth meanings and such are Isis and Ma'at. They are just too cool chickees
2006-07-06 19:40:40
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answer #6
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answered by Anonymous
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isis. can't remember the names of the rest
2006-07-06 19:42:54
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answer #7
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answered by Anonymous
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my fav is isis the goddess of fertility
2006-07-06 19:28:05
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answer #8
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answered by Anonymous
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Cleopatra i know shes not technically a goddess but she shouldve been
2006-07-07 07:56:12
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answer #9
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answered by brittany t 2
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isis
2006-07-06 19:40:49
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answer #10
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answered by shunya 2
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