← All gods
Protective
Meskhenet
msḫntChildbirthThe destiny declared at birth
How it changed
The birthing brick personified: Egyptian women squatted on a pair of them to deliver, and the goddess was the brick and the moment at once. She spoke the child's fate as it was born, which sets her beside Shai and Renenutet, and she reappears at the far end of life in the judgement hall, a witness to the destiny she once set.
Cult centre
None; present at every delivery
Best attested
Old Kingdom onward
Family
Sometimes paired with Shai, fate.
Epithets
- “She who presides over the birthplace”
How to recognise the figure
A birthing brick with a woman's head, or a woman wearing that emblem, which resembles a cow's uterus.
Others in this group