The goddess Neith was associated with creation, motherhood, birth, hunting, and war. Her cult was centered in Lower Egypt, specifically at Sais, the capital of the powerful Saite Dynasty that ruled Egypt from 664 to 525 BCE.
The goddess wears the Red Crown of Lower Egypt. The rising projection at the back and the spiral curl in front are broken. Her inlaid eyes stare straight ahead. She is dressed in a long garment, and her collar with drop beads is etched around her neck. Neith strides forward and extends her left arm outward; her other arm falls at her side.1 The perforations in her clenched fists were insertions for a separately fashioned staff and ankh.
The left side of the base cuff is inscribed with a votive inscription on the left side of the base that says: “Neith the Great, Mother of the God, giver of life, health, lifetime(?)…”2 The right side of the cuff is unreadable.
MH
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Cf. Philadelphia, Penn Museum E14309, Dynasty 26; BMA 37.357E from Memphis. See also Weiss, Katja. 2012. Ägyptische Tier- und Götterbronzen aus Unterägypten: Untersuchungen zu Typus, Ikonographie und Funktion sowie der Bedeutung innerhalb der Kulturkontakte zu Griechenland. Ägypten und Altes Testament 81. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.. ↩︎
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Translation courtesy of Rune Nyord. ↩︎
Bibliography
- Weiss 2012
- Weiss, Katja. 2012. Ägyptische Tier- und Götterbronzen aus Unterägypten: Untersuchungen zu Typus, Ikonographie und Funktion sowie der Bedeutung innerhalb der Kulturkontakte zu Griechenland. Ägypten und Altes Testament 81. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.