Sekhmet 3

In ancient Egypt, the flooding of the Nile River during the season of Akhet replenished the soil. The myth of Sekhmet explains strained relationships and her appearance as a lioness. She is associated with the sun, wears a red dress, and holds symbols of life and power. Sekhmet can bring both destruction and healing. Historians believe she originated in Sudan and was a protector of pharaohs. The Egyptians saw the sun as both life-giving and deadly, and Sekhmet was associated with the sun and the birth of the moon. Egyptian religion challenges the idea of solar gods and lunar goddesses. In ancient Egypt, the season of flooding was called Akhet, the inundation. This was the time of the year when the sacred Nile River would flood. This happened every year at the exact same time, replenishing the nutrients in the soil. This myth doesn't only explain the origin of inundation, but also gives us a very human metaphor for suddenly strained relationships between the father and the rebelling teenage daughter. Sekhmet is said to often manifest in visions and dreams, seated upon a throne with the head of a lioness and body of a woman. Usually seen wearing a headdress of a solar disk and a snake and a tripartite wig. Tripartite is the name given by Egyptologists to long hair arranged in three parts. Two sections that sat on the chest, with another section hanging down the back. Other times she is seen with a short mane, much like an adolescent lion, or wearing the atef crown, white crown of Upper Egypt, with two feathers on the sides. She is usually seen in a red dress, which is said to be her favourite colour, and a nod to her wrathful nature and fiery breath, and lends to her epithets, Mistress of Scarlet or Mistress of Red Linen. Sometimes she is depicted with symbols painted on her nipples, which are assumed to be illustrations of lion's fur, or a representation of stars in the Leo constellation, with which she is inherently linked. She is often when depicted seated shown holding the Ankh of Life, but when standing shown holding a papyrus sceptre, the symbol of Lower Egypt. I had to keep recording this because I keep saying sceptre. Her fiery breath is said to destroy but also create. Her breath was said to create the desert and represent desert wind. Her body was the glow of the midday sun. Sekhmet possessed the power to call upon plagues for death and destruction, but contradictorily to give life and healing to those she deems worthy. In Egyptian mythology, Sekhmet was originally a warrior goddess and a goddess of healing for Upper Egypt. When the kingdom of Egypt was divided, she was depicted as a lioness, the fiercest of hunters known to the Egyptians. However, historians argue she was originally from Sudan, where the lion was more predominant. She was considered a protector of pharaohs and led them in warfare. The ancient Egyptians knew the sun could bring life, seen in the goddess Hathor, but also death through Sekhmet. They believed Sekhmet took over the sun and then the next morning gave birth to the moon. In trying to understand Egyptian religion, okay, this isn't me saying this, this is kind of quoted from, and I'll link everything in the show notes of where I found the information. So, in trying to understand Egyptian religion, it is said one should abandon the idea of solar god and lunar goddesses, which it says, whilst it's incredibly popular nowadays because of Hellenic paganism and Wicca in most Near Eastern culture, it was the other way round. So, moon gods were male, such as Thoth, Osiris, and sun was often depicted as female.