Protective
Sekhmet
sḫmtHow it changed
Both the bringer of plague and the goddess who cures it, and her priests were physicians. That is not a contradiction the Egyptians needed to resolve: the power that sends a thing is the power that can withhold it.
Cult centre
Memphis
Best attested
Old Kingdom onward
Family
Consort of Ptah; another form of the Eye of Ra.
Epithets
- “The powerful one”
- “Lady of the messengers of death”
How to recognise the figure
A lioness-headed woman with a sun disc, often holding an ankh.
Appears in
c. 1300 BCE, though the text claims to be older
The Destruction of Mankind
Ra sends a goddess to punish humanity, then has to get her drunk to stop her finishing the job.
Alluded to from the New Kingdom; a long demotic version survives from the Roman period
The distant goddess
The Eye of Ra storms off to Nubia in a rage, and the world dries up until she can be talked into coming home.
Carries
Worshipped at
Others in this group