Friday, May 11, 2007

Sekhmet (Egyptian)

Sekhmet

Often fused with Bast and Het-heru, the great lioness goddess and wife of Ptah was the bloodthirsty embodiment of the fire of Ra. She was the agent of vengeance and swift justice. In one legend, Ra created her to destroy mankind after it turned away from morality and the gods, but later relented and changed her to the only slightly less destructive guise of Het-heru, love.

The more violent aspect of Het-heru, Sekhmet is often depicted as the lioness-goddess of the slaughter.
Myth has it that Ra created Sekhmet to kill all the unfaithful worshippers in the Khem, and she did. Then she got out of hand, and began killing the faithful as well. Ra was at a loss of what to do. Finally, he filled a lake full of red wine. Sekhmet, thinking the wine was blood, drank it all and fell into a drunken stupor. While she was asleep, Ra changed her into Het-heru, the equally dangerous but in a different way goddess of love.

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