Mafdet
"Mafdet helps the dead king by clawing out the eyes of evil snakes. Her sacred animal may originally have been some kind of mongoose, but she was later depicted as a cheetah or a lynx. As the divine executioner, Mafdet served justice by running down and slaughtering the "enemies of Ra". Her symbol was a harpoon fixed to a block."
- Geraldine Pinch, Egyptian Mythology
Here's Mafdet in the Pyramid Texts:
(Utterance 295) "Mafdet leaps at the head of the in-di.f-snake, she does it again at the neck of the serpent with raised head." (A footnote adds: "Mafdet here appears in the role of a mongoose.")
(Utterance 297) "My hand has come upon you, the avenger(?) is this which has comer upon you, (even) Mafdet, pre-eminent in the Mansion of Life; she strikes you on your face, she scratches you on your eyes, so that you fall into your faeces and crawl into your urine. Fall! Lie down! Crawl away, for your mother Nut sees you!" (Blimey!)
(Utterance 298) "Ra arises... against this snake which came forth from the earth and which is under my fingers. He will cut off your head with the knife which is in the hand of Mafdet who dwells in the Mansion of Life".
[I appear to have neglected to photocopy Utterance 519, in which the king's harpoon is compared to "the claws of Mafdet".]
ETA: From Early Dynastic Egypt By Toby A. H. Wilkinson, via Google Books:
Mafdet was an important goddess during the First Dynasty, with one year of the reign of the fourth king, Den, being called the year in which Mafdet's image was made or dedicated. She may have guarded the king's physical well-being and the royal court. "Another suggestion is that Mafdet was originally a tamed big cat (possibly a leopard used for hunting) who escorted the ruler", both as protection and as a symbol of his power. "The fetish of Mafdet shows execution equipment, and the goddess is thus regarded as a symbol of judicial authority", perhaps, as a symbol of "royal power", she "led rebels to their execution".
__
Faulkner, R.O. Ancient Egyptian pyramid texts. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1969.
Pinch, Geraldine. Egyptian Mythology: a guide to the gods, goddesses, and traditions of ancient Egypt. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.
- Geraldine Pinch, Egyptian Mythology
Here's Mafdet in the Pyramid Texts:
(Utterance 295) "Mafdet leaps at the head of the in-di.f-snake, she does it again at the neck of the serpent with raised head." (A footnote adds: "Mafdet here appears in the role of a mongoose.")
(Utterance 297) "My hand has come upon you, the avenger(?) is this which has comer upon you, (even) Mafdet, pre-eminent in the Mansion of Life; she strikes you on your face, she scratches you on your eyes, so that you fall into your faeces and crawl into your urine. Fall! Lie down! Crawl away, for your mother Nut sees you!" (Blimey!)
(Utterance 298) "Ra arises... against this snake which came forth from the earth and which is under my fingers. He will cut off your head with the knife which is in the hand of Mafdet who dwells in the Mansion of Life".
[I appear to have neglected to photocopy Utterance 519, in which the king's harpoon is compared to "the claws of Mafdet".]
ETA: From Early Dynastic Egypt By Toby A. H. Wilkinson, via Google Books:
Mafdet was an important goddess during the First Dynasty, with one year of the reign of the fourth king, Den, being called the year in which Mafdet's image was made or dedicated. She may have guarded the king's physical well-being and the royal court. "Another suggestion is that Mafdet was originally a tamed big cat (possibly a leopard used for hunting) who escorted the ruler", both as protection and as a symbol of his power. "The fetish of Mafdet shows execution equipment, and the goddess is thus regarded as a symbol of judicial authority", perhaps, as a symbol of "royal power", she "led rebels to their execution".
__
Faulkner, R.O. Ancient Egyptian pyramid texts. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1969.
Pinch, Geraldine. Egyptian Mythology: a guide to the gods, goddesses, and traditions of ancient Egypt. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.