Sekhmet was the consort of the Memphite god, Ptah. Powerful goddesses like Sekhmet, Bastet, and Wadjet were often depicted as felines or feline-headed women. Each goddess acted as a daughter of the sun god Re, the “Eye of the Sun,” and often wore sun disks with uraei on their heads. They could be loving and protective mothers or vengeful and destructive goddesses.
In the myth “The Destruction of Mankind,” Sekhmet punishes humankind who had grown rebellious to the sun god Re.1 As a lioness, she wreaks havoc and nearly destroys humanity. Re relents but is unable to stop Sekhmet’s blood-thirsty killing spree. So, he floods the land with beer dyed to resemble blood, and Sekhmet laps up the red brew. Drunk, she turned into the peaceful cat Bastet and spared humanity.
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Lichtheim, Miriam. 1976. Ancient Egyptian Literature. A Book of Readings, Volume II: The New Kingdom. Los Angeles: University of California Press.. ↩︎
Bibliography
- Lichtheim 1976
- Lichtheim, Miriam. 1976. Ancient Egyptian Literature. A Book of Readings, Volume II: The New Kingdom. Los Angeles: University of California Press.