Who the Goddess Sekhmet is

Sekhmet was one of the oldest goddesses of ancient Egypt. She was regarded as the goddess of war mainly. This aspect can be traced in the fact that many Egyptian kings adopted her as a military patroness and symbol of their own power in battle. She was also regarded as the goddess of healing, protection and destruction.

What Does the Name ‘Sekhmet’ refer to?

The name of the goddess ‘Sekhmet’ is believed to be derived from the Egyptian word ‘Sekhem’ which refers to ‘power’ or ‘might’. This is the reason for which her name is often translated as ‘the one who is powerful or mighty’.

Her name means ‘the female powerful one’. This refers to the destructive nature of the goddess. Her name was also used to be spelt as Seket, Sachmet, Sakhet etc.

Origin of the Goddess

The origin of Sekhmet is associated with the myth of ‘Eye of Ra’ where she is considered as the daughter of the sun god Ra. Once the human subjects of Sun God Ra started to disobey him by not properly following the laws and hampering the essence of justice. This made Ra very angry. He became very anxious to maintain the justice.

To solve this issue, one aspect of Eye of Ra became lioness goddess Sekhmet. Ra sent this fearsome goddess to earth to punish the disobedient subjects and to maintain harmony, but this led to the negative side of the goddess and the destruction which was started by him became unstoppable. This led to the destruction of all humanity.

To stop the massacre started by Sekhmet, Ra tried to trick her and succeeded in his plan. This saved the humanity and brought the justice and harmony once again.

Triad of Memphis

The phrase ‘Triad of Memphis’ refers to the group of deities who were widely worshipped and belongs to the Memphis theology of creation. These three deities are Ptah, Sekhmet and Nefertem. In this regard, Sekhmet is considered as the wife of Ptah, the god of craftsmen and architect. Later they gave birth to Nefertem, the god of perfume and water blossom.

Breath of Sekhmet

The powerful nature of goddess Sekhmet also can be seen in the origin of the desert wind. The hot desert wind was believed to be born from the breath of the goddess as her breath is so powerful.

Protector & Healer

Sekhmet was believed to be the great mother who protects the pharaohs. In Pyramid Texts, it is stated that Sekhmet conceived the king. She was also regarded as ‘Mistress of Life’ because of her healing power.

Iconography of Sekhmet

The standard iconography of Sekhmet is depicted through a representation of a semi-anthropomorphic form. Here she is depicted in a body of a woman and with the head of a lioness. In this depiction, a solar disk is balanced atop her head. Sometimes she can also be depicted in zoomorphic form as a lioness. But this depiction is very rare and unusual.

Cult of Sekhmet

Followed by the earlier discussion on ‘Triad of Memphis’, the main cult centre of Sekhmet was Memphis obviously. But it is not that her worship was only restricted to the region of Memphis; a number of temples dedicated to her have been found in many other places such as Abusir, Kom-el Hisn etc. A temple at Kom-el Hisn is specially dedicated to Combined Sekhmet-Hathor.

Rituals Associated with Sekhmet

There were several rituals practised in ancient Egypt which were dedicated to Sekhmet. ‘Appeasing Sekhmet’ was one of them. This ritual was performed by the priests of Sekhmet in order to combat epidemics. A spell called ‘The Book of the last day of the year’ was recited over a piece of cloth at the potentially dangerous time of year’s end.

Recent Discovery

Recently excavation was conducted at a funerary temple of Pharoah Amenhotep III by the collaboration of Egyptian-European Archaeological Mission. This excavation unearthed a number of Statues of Sekhmet both in sitting and standing posture.