The pantheon of Egyptian gods is distinguished by the abundance and variety of characters. Among them is Osiris, treacherously killed by his own brother and resurrected thanks to the efforts of the beautiful wife of Isis. There is the mighty Horus, a god, often depicted as a falcon, who challenged the all-powerful Set, his own uncle, and managed to defeat him in a fair fight. The jackal-headed Anubis accompanied the dead to the underworld. There are also several little-known gods and goddesses, with one of which, Sekhmet, we offer to get acquainted.
Description
The goddess Sekhmet patronized war and the hot sun, her main epithets are “powerful”, “ruthless”, “severe”. She personified the destructive power of the hot sun, was the mistress of the desert. The Egyptians believed that the goddess was familiar with magic and could cast spells. Often portrayed as a woman with the head of a lioness. On separate frescoes or sculptures, she is represented as a lioness or a lion-like goddess with a cobra.
Destination
The Goddess Sekhmet plays a huge role in the mythology of the Ancient OneEgypt. At different times it had a different purpose:
- Considered the patroness of war.
- She was the goddess of heat, desert and drought.
- Represented as the mistress of pestilence and epidemics.
- She had healing skills and could heal people, so she was considered the patroness of healers.
- Perceived as the patroness of the army, she accompanied the pharaoh during campaigns, bringing success to his army. Therefore, Sekhmet's anger was terrible - military victory could not be expected.
- It was also believed that with her fiery breath, the harsh goddess destroyed all life in order to give birth to new life.
- The Book of the Dead describes Sekhmet as the protector of Ra from the evil serpent Apep.
Besides this, Sekhmet was considered the patroness of the capital of Egypt, Memphis, so the cult of the goddess was especially popular in this city. She was also revered in Heliopolis. The feast of the goddess was January 7th.
Love
It is known that the goddess Sekhmet was one of the most bloodthirsty deities of the country of the pyramids. So, in one of the myths, angry at people who became irreverent with the gods, the great Ra tore out his eye and threw it to the ground. The eye of God turned into a stern Sekhmet, she began to destroy objectionable humanity with pleasure. When the gods poured red wine on the ground, the lioness goddess, mistaking it for blood, greedily attacked the drink and began to drink it. Only drunk and asleep, she stopped the bloodshed. According to another version of the myth, beer was poured, which acquired a blood-red hue due to the characteristicsEgyptian soil.
In the era of the Middle Kingdom, the goddess was credited with protecting Egypt from external attacks, so Sekhmet was depicted with burning arrows. Often it was to this goddess that the priests turned when it was necessary to protect the Egyptian land from the invaders. However, in anger, she was terrible, she could send pestilence or epidemics on people, her breath caused winds from the desert, entailing drought and heat. Therefore, the rulers of the country of the pyramids tried to appease the wayward goddess with rich sacrifices and the construction of temples. It was also believed that she patronizes the capital of Egypt - Memphis and all of Upper Egypt.
Mythology ascribes amazing power to Sekhmet, so even the negative representatives of the pantheon, Set and the serpent Apep, feared her wrath.
Place in the pantheon
Sekhmet, according to Egyptian mythology, was the daughter of solar Ra, the wife of the creator god Ptah. In later eras, she was often portrayed as the winner of all those who dared to challenge the gods.
She is a representative of the so-called Creative (Solar) Triad of Egypt, which also included the following deities:
- God Ptah, husband of Sekhmet, demiurge (creator), almost never mentioned in prayers, but revered as the creator of all things.
- Nefertum, patron of vegetation.
The triad enjoyed the greatest honor in Memphis and was perceived as the patroness of the pharaohs. Each of the deities of the Triad symbolized its element. So, Sekhmet was identified with fire, her husband Ptah withelement of the earth, so the union of the spouses symbolized the unity of the creative and destructive principles. Nefertum symbolized the water element. Interestingly, the sacred animal of this young god of vegetation was also a lion and was often depicted as a lion-headed, like his warlike mother.
Sacred animals, attributes
The main sacred animal of the bloody goddess was a lion, so in Heliopolis, where her temple was located, these animals were kept by priests. Killing a lion was unacceptable. Since Sekhmet was sometimes identified with the goddess Hathor, another sacred animal was the cat. The goddess was the eye of Ra, she herself patronized the hot star, so she was often depicted with a solar disk on her head. In her hands was a sharp sword, a dagger, and later burning arrows. In many images, the goddess holds an ankh in one hand and a papyrus scepter in the other.
The color of the goddess Sekhmet, the patroness of Memphis, is sunny orange, similar to the color of a scorching star at its zenith. Its tree was considered to be juniper, the berries of which were used by healers, the stone was flint, from which in those days the simplest surgical instruments were made, including devices for embalming. Therefore, it can be noted that in the minds of the ancient Egyptians, the lioness goddess was directly related to medicine. She could both reward humanity and destroy the recalcitrant, sending an epidemic.
Temples of Sekhmet
Since the goddess Sekhmet was one of the most reveredrepresentatives of the Egyptian pantheon, a large number of temples were built for her. Often sanctuaries were erected in the desert, where the sacred animals of the mistress lived - wild lions.
The following historical fact is known: Pharaoh Amenhotep the Third, wanting to appease the goddess and save his country from a terrible epidemic, ordered to make about 700 of her statues.
To this day, the temple in Karnak has survived in good condition, among the main decorations of which is the statue of Sekhmet with a solar disk on his head.
Cult of the Goddess
According to scientists, human sacrifices in Ancient Egypt are connected with the name of this severe and tough goddess. However, the cult of Sekhmet also benefited the inhabitants of the country of the pyramids. So, the goddess was revered as the conqueror of healing, so medical science was actively developing in her temples, and the priests were often good healers for that time.
In the largest temples of the Egyptian goddess Sekhmet, a special Greek caste, red priests, were trained, who were taught secret knowledge from the field of surgery, medicine and even exorcism.
Goddesses identified with Sekhmet
The mythology of Egypt is complex, because it was created over many centuries, repeatedly subjected to modification. That is why the goddess Sekhmet was often identified with other deities of the pantheon. First of all, this is Bastet, the cat goddess, the patroness of love, family life and the hearth. A version was put forward that Bastet is a peaceful version of Sekhmet. What do goddesses have in common:
- Bothwere daughters of Ra.
- Both were often depicted with the heads of lionesses. Later, when the cat was tamed, Bastet took on the form of a pet.
- Bastet was revered as the goddess of war in some cities.
- The sacred animals of both goddesses belong to the cat family.
The second representative of the Egyptian pantheon, with whom Sekhmet was identified, is the goddess Hathor, the patroness of wine and fun, who initially had a completely independent character and was depicted in the form of a cow or a woman whose head was decorated with horns. Both goddesses were considered daughters of the sun, later, when the cult of Ra became most significant in Egypt, Hathor began to be identified with Sekhmet, and images of the goddess appeared with the head of a cat or a lioness. She began to be perceived as the patroness of the pharaohs.
Sometimes Sekhmet was identified with Tefnut, who was called the wife of the god Ptah and the daughter of Ra. She was depicted more often as a woman with a cat's head, sometimes not Ptah, but Shu, the god of air, who was later rethought as the patron of the midday sun, was considered her husband. The center of veneration for Tefnut was Heliopolis.
Children of Sekhmet
According to mythology, Sekhmet - the patroness of Memphis - had several children. Her son by Ptah, Nefertum, has already been mentioned. Also, some myths attribute the birth of the god Hek, the patron of magic, to the lioness goddess. According to other versions, his mother was the goddess Menhit, who also appears in the form of a warlike lioness. Sources also call the sons of Sekhmet Ihi and even Horus, although in classical myths theyare the children of Hathor and Isis respectively.
Often her son is called the god Mahes, who was also depicted with the head of a lion, was the patron of war, fought the serpent Apep (in other variations, this function was performed by Sekhmet herself).
To this day, many sculptural images of the goddess of the scorching sun have survived, so we can clearly imagine how, according to the ancient Egyptians, she looked like. The role of this goddess in the history of ancient Egyptian civilization can be called significant. It was in her temples that wise priests learned the science of healing for years. Of course, medicine of those times was available only to the elite, but the knowledge passed from one generation of the priestly caste to another had a significant impact on the development of medicine in subsequent eras. A great deal of information about Sekhmet has survived to this day, but the myths are so contradictory that we can only guess what the original functions of this bloodthirsty and harsh goddess were.
