Sekhmet

The Powerful Lioness Goddess

Sekhmet was the Egyptian goddess of war, fierce heat, disease and healing. She was shown as a woman with the head of a lioness, usually wearing a sun disc and cobra. Her name means 'the Powerful One', and the lioness was a perfect animal for her. Lionesses are fast, strong hunters that fiercely protect their young. Sekhmet represented the dangerous heat of the Sun and the strength of the pharaoh, but she could also defend people from the very illnesses she was believed capable of sending.

Her most famous story begins when humans rebel against the ageing Sun god Ra. He sends his powerful Eye to punish them, appearing as Sekhmet or, in some versions, Hathor. The lioness goddess attacks so fiercely that Ra becomes worried humanity will be completely destroyed. He needs a plan to calm her. Thousands of jars of beer are coloured red and poured across the land. Sekhmet mistakes the liquid for blood, drinks it and eventually becomes sleepy and peaceful. Humanity survives because the most frightening lioness in Egypt has basically been tricked into taking an enormous nap.

Sekhmet's main centre of worship was Memphis, where she was connected with Ptah, god of crafts, and Nefertum, who was linked with the lotus. Pharaohs asked Sekhmet for protection in battle, but healers also called on her against illness. Ancient Egyptian medicine could combine practical treatments with prayers and spells. King Amenhotep III had hundreds of statues of Sekhmet placed at his temple complex, and many survive today. They usually show her sitting or standing calmly with an ankh, the sign of life. That is important because Sekhmet was not simply a goddess who destroyed things. Egyptians respected her power and wanted it directed towards protection and healing. She could be like the Sun itself: warm and life-giving at the right strength, but dangerous when its heat becomes too intense. I think her lioness face and ankh tell the whole story. One says 'do not annoy me'. The other says 'I can protect life too'.

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