The Goddesses Of Ancient Egypt

by Shira

Religious traditions from the ancient Middle East can be a rich source of creative inspiration for the modern-day performer. The attributes, personalities, and stories of gods are often a mirror for our own human foibles, and many fascinating stories have been told about them. Here is some information about the goddesses of ancient Egypt to inspire your own creative interpretations.

Bastet

Responsible For: Joy, Music, and Dancing! Also Health and Healing

Totemic Form: Cat

Bastet (also known as Bast) was the cat goddess, whose cult centered in Bubastis in the region of the Nile delta. It's small wonder so many dancers are drawn to name their studios after Bastet or acquire artwork featuring her--she was the goddess of joy, music, and dancing! Rituals honoring Bastet included light-hearted barge processions and orgiastic ceremonies. She also protected humans against contagious diseases and evil spirits. Her cult can be traced back to about 3200 BC, and she became a national deity when Bubastis became the capital of Egypt in about 950 BC.

One legend said Bastet accompanied the sun god Ra's boat of a million years on its daily journey through the sky, and at night she fought Ra's enemy, the serpent Apep. In art, Bastet is depicted as either a cat-headed woman carrying a sistrum and basket, or as a whole cat. Often, in either form, there are kittens at her feet.

If you plan to do a portrayal of Bastet, consider wearing a red costume--a priestess of Bastet, like the goddess herself, was known as "the Lady with the Red Clothes".

Would you like to hear Bastet's words of wisdom for a more meaningful life?

If you have cats in your household, Bastet has a special message for them too--click on one of the choices below when they're in the room.

<==Click here to hear Bastet's message played as a "wav" file. ("Wav" files are big--this one will take about a minute and half to download before you hear it.)

<==Click here to hear Bastet's message played as a RealAudio file. (Downloads much faster than "wav", but requires a special free plug-in for your browser.)

<==Not sure which to choose--the "wav" file or RealAudio? Click here for a brief tutorial on listening to the audio clips on this web site.

Hathor

Responsible For: Music and Dancing! Also Drunkenness, Underworld, Women, Joy, Motherhood, Love, Lighthearted Pleasure, Justice

Totemic Form: Cow

Hathor was the Egyptian mother goddess and goddess of all that is best in women. In her aspect as goddess of music and dancing, her emblem was the sistrum, an ancient musical percussion instrument. All Egyptian women worshiped her, from the queen to the lowliest woman of the land, and she was the protectress of pregnant women.

According to legend, Hathor was the nurse of Horus the Younger, which is why she is often depicted as either a cow or a woman with the head of a cow. Her headdress was a solar disk resting between horns. In the same way, Hathor was said to suckle the pharaoh, the living Horus. The led to identifying the queen with Hathor, so the queen as chief priestess led the other priestesses, the concubines of the god, in the dancing and music-making which were their part in the temple ritual of Horus and the other gods.

As the sun god Ra grew older, he became fearful of his enemies and asked Hathor to help him. She took on the job with a vengeance and turned into Sekhmet, the lioness goddess, and seemed to enjoy the killing. Ra then worried that she would wipe out the entire human race, so he had red dye mixed in ale and spread about the land. Hathor, thinking it was blood, drank it and became so intoxicated that she forgot her assignment and humankind was saved. Pacified by the beer, she resumed her persona as the beautiful Hathor and returned to Ra.

Ancient Egyptians believed that the gods guided and directed the natural forces of the mind and body, and each god or goddess was responsible for protecting a particular part of the human body. Hathor was responsible for childbirth.

If you plan to do a portrayal of Hathor, here are some suggestions:

Wearing jewelry made of the mineral turquoise, particularly if you can find turquoise beads made into the menit-necklace. In the desert regions of Sinai, miners seeking the mineral venerated Hathor, "The Lady Of Turquoise."
Carrying a sistrum (a percussion instrument that become a representative cult object of Hathor) and/or an ankh.
Wear a horned headdress with a cobra on the front.

Isis

Responsible For: Love, Sexuality, Ceremonies, Health and Healing, Immortality

Totemic Form:

Isis was the daughter of Nut, wife of Osiris, and mother of Horus. She was sometimes called Eset. When Osiris was killed by Set, his body was set adrift in the Nile and Isis began her search for him. When she found him, Set learned of it and stole his body, chopped it into pieces, and threw it into the water again. Isis retrieved her husband and reassembled him. Isis was celebrated at one festival called The Lychnapsia, the Festival of Lights, on August 12, to commemorate seeking her spouse in the darkness by torchlight, and her processions resembled those of Bastet.

Isis instituted marriage and taught women the domestic arts of corn-grinding, flax-spinning, and weaving. As mother-goddess, she introduced the practice of agriculture. Her early character as the Great Enchantress was reflected in her magic powers and in her knowledge of the arts of medicine, which she and Thoth taught to humanity.

Isis was often depicted in art suckling the infant Horus. With the advent of Christianity, many of the chapels of Isis were converted to churches and images of her with the infant Horus became the Virgin Mary holding Jesus.

If you plan to do a portrayal of Isis, here are some suggestions:

Wear a red costume. Egyptians addressed her as "thou lady of the red apparel".
There are many works of art depicting Isis with wings.
Isis is frequently depicted, as shown both above and to the right, as having a throne perched on top of her head.
Alternatively, Isis is frequently depicted with a headdress that has cow horns surrounding a sun disk.

The drawing to the right depicts Isis (in red) and her sister Nephthys (in green). This is an excerpt from a funerary scene in which the sisters stand behind Osiris.

Ma'at

Responsible For: Justice, Law and Order, Immortality, Primordial Being

Totemic Form: Feather

Ma'at was the primeval Egyptian goddess of truth and justice. She gave the breath of life to the gods.

In funerary scenes and pictures depicting the underworld, the figure of Ma'at or her feather was placed on the opposite side of the scale from the heart of the deceased. If the scale balanced, the deceased was allowed to go on to the afterlife. If not, s/he was given to Ammit to devour. Thus the red plume of Ma'at itself became a hieroglyph for "truth".

Those who lived by the laws of Ma'at took a sacramental drink which conferred ritual purity in the same sense as the Christian Holy Communion. Like baptismal water of life, Ma'at's potion brought life after death to the peaceful and law-abiding, but death to violent persons.

Nekhebet

Responsible For: Wild Birds, Creator Of Life, Death and Rebirth

Totemic Form: Vulture

Nekhebet was usually represented in Egyptian art as a vulture or a woman with the head of a vulture, but sometimes she was depicted as a woman wearing the white crown of Upper Egypt (southern Egypt).

Nekhebet spent much time at the palace, where she suckled the royal children, including the pharaoh. When the pharaoh was grown, she accompanied him in battle, hovering over his head in the form of a vulture.
Nekhebet, The Vulture Goddess

Nekhebet and Uadjet She was closely associated with her sister Uadjet, the cobra goddess, and together they were known as the Nebti. As a pair, they represented cycles of birth and death, beginning and ending. In the illustration here, Nekhebet and Uadjet are guarding the Eye Of Ra, the Utchat. Nekhbet is wearing the white crown of Upper Egypt, and Uadjet is wearing the red crown of Lower Egypt.

Nephthys

Responsible For: Immortality, Justice, Water, Weather, Wild Birds, Moon and Night, The Underworld

Totemic Form: Vulture

Nephthys was the personification of darkness and all that belongs to it. She was the daughter of Nut, sister of Isis, and wife of Set. Nephthys was one of those present at the assessment of the souls in the underworld, standing next to her sister Isis behind the throne of Osiris. Her headdress is a combination of the hieroglyphs for "lady" and "house", meaning "lady of the mansion".

When her husband killed Osiris, Nephthys went to aid her sister Isis. They governed the country together, and when Isis found the body, Nephthys helped her reassemble it.

If you plan to do a portrayal of Nephthys, here are some suggestions:

Wear a green costume.
Nephthys is frequently depicted, as shown both above and to the right, as having a house perched on top of her head.

The drawing to the right depicts Isis (in red) and her sister Nephthys (in green).

Nut

Responsible For: Sky and Heavens, Mother and Guardian, Demi-Animals, Immortality, Physical Prowess

Totemic Form: Cow

Ra asked Nut to raise him into the heavens to remove him from the world, which he found distasteful. Carrying him on her back, Nut rose upward, but the higher she reached, the dizzier she became. She would have crashed to the ground if four gods had not steadied her legs and while Shu held up her belly. These gods became the four pillars of the sky, and Nut's body became the firmament, to which Ra attached the stars.

Sekhmet

Responsible For: Fire, Heat, War, Vengeance, Enchantments, Mummification, Hunting and Wild Animals, Courage

Totemic Form: Lioness

Statue of Sekhmet
Sekhmet, known as "The Powerful", was portrayed as either a lion or a woman with the head of a lion, often holding an ankh or sistrum. She was the wife of Ptah and mother of Nefertum. On the battlefield, Sekhmet embodied the strength and bravery of the lion, expressing unbounded delight in the prey that fell to her.

As the sun god Ra grew older, he became fearful of his enemies and asked Hathor to help him. She took on the job with a vengeance and turned into Sekhmet, the lioness goddess, and seemed to enjoy the killing. Ra then worried that she would wipe out the entire human race, so he had red dye mixed in ale and spread about the land. Hathor, thinking it was blood, drank it and became so intoxicated that she forgot her assignment and humankind was saved. Pacified by the beer, she resumed her persona as the beautiful Hathor and returned to Ra.
Statue Of Sekhmet

Selkhet

Responsible For: Fertility, Underworld, Family and Tribes, Insects

Totemic Form: Scorpion

Selkhet was the wife of Ra. She aided Isis, Nephthys, and Neith in guarding the canopic jars of Osiris.

Selkhet was also a protector of marriage.

In art, Selkhet appeared as a woman with a scorpion on her head, as a scorpion with a woman's head, and sometimes as a scorpion holding an ankh.

When Apep participated in an attack against the sun god Ra, he was defeated and sent to the underworld. Selkhet was given the duty of guarding him. Because Apep was bound with chains, Selkhet became known as the goddess who binds the dead with chains.

Taueret

Responsible For: Fertility, Birth, Underworld, Vengeance

Totemic Form: Hippopotamus

In childbirth, Taueret suckled and protected the newborn. In the underworld, she carried the deceased toward a new destiny. In art, Taueret appeared as a hippopotamus standing on her hind legs with pendant breasts, sometimes with the back of a crocodile and the feet of a lion. In her role as an avenging deity, Taueret had the head of a lion and the body of a hippopotamus, brandishing a dagger, and sometimes carrying a crocodile on her shoulders.

Tefnut

Responsible For: Order, Justice, Time, Heaven and Hell, Weather

Totemic Form: Lion

Tefnut helped support the sky, and each morning received the sun on the eastern horizon. She was one of the "great nine" who sat in judgment of the dead. She was considered the goddess of the second hour of the night of the fourteenth moon.

In art, Tefnut usually appeared as a lion-headed goddess with a solar disk on her head, or as a woman, or as a lion.

In the mythology of Heliopolis, the first event of creation was the emergence of the god Atum from the chaotic wastes of Nun. He gave birth to his son Shu by spitting him out, and to his daughter Tefnut by vomiting her forth. Shu and Tefnut were brought up by Nun and looked after by Atum's Eye. Atum had only one eye, and it was physically separable from him and independent in its wishes. Shu and Tefnut became separated from Atum in the dark wastes of the waters of Nun. Atum sent his Eye to look for them and eventually Shu and Tefnut came back with the Eye. While the Eye had been searching for them, Atum had replaced it with another, much brighter one. The original Eye was enraged with Atum when it returned at finding its placed usurped. So Atum took the first Eye and placed it on his forehead where it could rule the whole world he was about to create.

Once, Tefnut left Egypt and went to live in the Nubian desert. Ra was lonely and sent the baboon Thoth to ask her to return to Egypt. She came back and there were great celebrations in all the temples.

Uadjet

Responsible For: Justice, Time, Heaven and Hell

Totemic Form: Cobra

Sometimes you'll see her name spelled Wadjet, Wazit, Ua Zit, or other ways.

Uadjet's original home and chief cult center was in the Delta marshes. As her sister Nekhebet was the motherly protectress of the pharoah, so Uadjet was his aggressive defender. When Isis was hiding in the swamps with her baby Horus, Uadjet came to help her protect him.

In art, Uadjet appeared as a cobra, sometimes winged and crowned, and sometimes as a snake with the face of a woman. She was the uraeus (cobra-shaped symbol of sovereignty) that appeared on the headdresses of the Egyptian pharaohs. She figured prominently in the coronation ceremony and in the underworld, where she endowed justice and truth and destroyed the enemies of the deceased. Uadjet was the goddess of the fifth hour of the fifth day of the moon.

Uadjet's sister was Nekhebet, and together the two were known as the Nebti. See also the entry for Nekhebet.

Acknowledgements

Many of the clip art images that appear on this page are courtesy of Neferchichi, who offers a page rich with clip art inspired by ancient Egypt.

If you would like to read further about the mythology of ancient Egypt, here are my recommendations for books that are worth a look. Much of what I know about this subject came from exploring these excellent resources.

Ann, Martha and Imel, Dorothy Myers. Goddesses In World Mythology: A Biographical Dictionary. Oxford University Press, New York, New York, USA, 1993. Just as the title suggests, this book is a list of thousands of goddesses from mythological systems worldwide, presented in dictionary format. It is broken into chapters by region--Egypt gets a chapter of its own. It's a good reference source if you want to research specific goddesses or regions.

Farrar, Janet & Stewart. The Witches' Goddess. Phoenix Publishing, Inc., Custer, Washington, USA, 1995. Explores Ma'at and Isis in depth, and suggests Wicca rituals to use in invoking these goddesses. Includes an excellent dictionary listing goddesses from worldwide mythological traditions, with brief descriptions of each.

Gadalla, Moustafa. Historical Deception: The Untold Story Of Ancient Egypt. Bastet Publishing, Erie, Pennsylvania, USA, 1996. This is probably my favorite book about the religion and culture of ancient Egypt! The author uses a clear, concise tone to communicate what he has to say, and he keeps it interesting!

Hart, George. Egyptian Myths: The Legendary Past. The Bath Press, Great Britain 1990 and University Of Texas Press, Texas, 1995. A nice, compact introduction to Egyptian mythology.

Ions, Veronica. Egyptian Mythology. Peter Bedrick Books, New York, New York, 1982. From the Library Of The World's Myths and Legends. This one has a particularly excellent index, and the scholarly aspects don't get in the way of telling a good story. Many wonderful illustrations.

Walker, Barbara G. Women's Encyclopedia Of Myths And Secrets. HarperCollins Publishers, New York, New York, 1983. This book offers wonderful insights into mythology and history with respect to the role of women and goddesses. An excellent telling of herstory.

Other articles on this web site that you may find helpful include:

Ancient Egyptian Art: An Introduction. More information about some of the legends of ancient Egypt.