The gate of the year

Statue of the lioness-goddess Sekhmet, sitting on a stall, from the sacred precinct of the goddess Mut, in the temple complex of Karnak (New Kingdom, about 1370 B.C.). The goddess, who is usually represented with a lion’s head and woman’s body, was called the “Powerful One” because of her fierce and destructive side. She was regarded the “destructive eye” of Ra, the sun god, who sent the goddess Hathor to destroy humanity. In this function, Hathor turned herself into Sekhmet, and all humankind did run the risk to fall victim of her devastating rage. Only the intervention of the gods succeeded in stopping the bloodshed and rescuing the remaining humans. The goddess could belch fire from her mouth and the hot desert wind was called the “breath of Sekhmet”. She was deemed responsible for the diffusion of epidemics, but at the same time she was regarded as a healing goddess, having the power to ward off and destroy the illnesses. In the Delta, Sekhmet was assimilated to the cat-goddess Bastet, while at Thebes she was identified with Mut, wife of the supreme god Amun; for this reason in the ceremonial centre of Karnak, where Amun was the main deity, the cultic representations of Sekhmet are so numerous.

[Image: http://library.artstor.org/library/]




Human-Animal Transformation

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Statue of the lioness-goddess Sekhmet, sitting on a stall, from the sacred precinct of the goddess Mut, in the temple complex of Karnak (New Kingdom, about 1370 B.C.). The goddess, who is usually represented with a lion’s head and woman’s body, was called the “Powerful One” because of her fierce and destructive side. She was regarded the “destructive eye” of Ra, the sun god, who sent the goddess Hathor to destroy humanity. In this function, Hathor turned herself into Sekhmet, and all humankind did run the risk to fall victim of her devastating rage. Only the intervention of the gods succeeded in stopping the bloodshed and rescuing the remaining humans. The goddess could belch fire from her mouth and the hot desert wind was called the “breath of Sekhmet”. She was deemed responsible for the diffusion of epidemics, but at the same time she was regarded as a healing goddess, having the power to ward off and destroy the illnesses. In the Delta, Sekhmet was assimilated to the cat-goddess Bastet, while at Thebes she was identified with Mut, wife of the supreme god Amun; for this reason in the ceremonial centre of Karnak, where Amun was the main deity, the cultic representations of Sekhmet are so numerous. [Image: http://library.artstor.org/library/]