Sekhmet

[ikhet_sekhmet]

Well! Now it's time to do the same thing for Sekhmet. I'll go through my photocopies and downloads, make notes from them, and update this posting as I go; eventually I'll turn it all into a brief summary.

• Lythgoe, Albert M. Statues of the Goddess Sekhmet. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 14(10) Part 2, Oct 1919, pp 3-23.
  
  "These statues, along with a considerable number of precisely similar ones of the goddess Sekhmet in various museums abroad - in London, Paris, Berlin, Turin, the Vatican, Petrograd, and Cairo - come mostly from a common source, the Temple of Mut at Karnak, where they were set up by Amenhotep III during his reign." (I've seen them in London and Brooklyn, and in travelling exhibitions in Sydney and Canberra. But the saddest examples have to be two heads which ended up as lichen-eaten legs on a Cornish garden bench! I wonder if they're still there...) Lythgoe describes them as forming a "forest" of statues, set up in double rows in some places with the standing ones at the back, and so crowded some were touching. Later kings took some of the statues and added their own names (Ramesses II, Sheshonq I, Pinejem II). Amenhotep also set up the statues in his mortuary temple at Kurneh/Kom el Heitan. Each of the Met's seven statues wears bracelets and anklets; two have inscriptions. They're about seven feet tall and weigh two tons apiece.
  
  
• Kozloff, Arielle P., et al. Egypt's dazzling sun: Amenhotep III and his world. Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1992.
  
  My mates saw a gorgeous Sekhmet at the Met - she has a page and a half in this catalogue for a travelling exhibition in 1992. Alas, I still haven't been able to find out what the inscriptions, if there are any, have to say. (Here she is on Flickr.) The style of dress she's wearing is "extremely conservative for the period", explains Kozloff, who also points out the "daisy over each breast". ETA: Great snap of the Met's Sekhmets on display. And another!
  
  Kozloff states that "the ruff around the lioness' face is that of a female lion and is distinctly different from a male's", pointing out the "extremely long stylised manes" of the Prudhoe Lions:
  
  
  
  (Is that square bit which looks like a napkin the stylised mane? Further investigation is indicated. ETA: I think the stylised mane is the round shape under the chin, while the square "bib" is the inscription. The entry for the lions in Egypt's Dazzling Sun doesn't mention their manes.)
  
  ETA: In Egyptian Mythology, Geraldine Pinch writes: "Leonine goddesses usually have a short mane or ruff like that of a lynx or an adolescent male lion. Since they function as a manifestation of the wrath of the sun god, their gender is ambiguous." (p 133) She also points out that in the Temple of Dakka, Tefnut is depicted with both teats and a full mane. (p 134)
  
  The statues in general are "battered from the shoulders up" as a result of "centuries of erosion", and have suffered damage from quarrying and tourists. They display "an enormous number of epithets" (although, from Lythgoe's account, this particular statue lacks one).
  
  "... the offerings appropriate for Sekhmet coincide with those for Hathor: geese, antelopes, beer, wine, sistra, and sceptres of various sorts."
  
  
• Capel, Anne K. and Glenn E. Markoe (eds). Mistress of the House, Mistress of Heaven: Women in Ancient Egypt. New York, Hudson Hills Press in association with Cincinnati Art Museum, 1996.Description of a bust from a human-sized Sekhmet statue (1945.65). Notes her "striated lappet wig" - "Such wigs were worn by" deities, dead nobles, and living women. There's a slot on her head, presumably for a missing uraeus. "The goddess wears a broad collar necklace and a tightly fitting dress of a type... that by now was somewhat out of style for mortal women but not necessarily for goddesses. More contemporary are the floral motifs over the breasts on the shoulder straps of the dress... they have a partial prototype in the rosettes over the breasts on a sculpture of Thutmose IV's mother." The necklace and dress might originally have been painted. "It is entirely possible that once there were 365 seated and 365 standing statues... which conjured the goddess daily not to unleash her dreadful powers". (pp 134-136)
  
  "As with other leonine goddesses, Sekhmet had a maternal aspect as well; amulets often depict her as mother goddess suckling a child god." (p 70)
  
  The linking of Sekhmet and Mut have had a political angle - Sekhmet was Mrs Ptah, top god at Memphis in the north, and Mut was Mrs Amun-Re, top god at Thebes in the south - so, together, perhaps they symbolised Egypt's unity. They're described as "united" (Shm.t dmd.t m Mwt) on one of the statues made under Amenhotep III. In the Ptolemaic Period they could be paired as dangerous (Sekhmet, lioness-headed) and serene (Mut, human).
  
  
• Meeks, Dimitri and Christine Favard-Meeks. Daily Life of the Egyptian Gods. London, John Murray, 1997.Discussing the beings often called "demons", ie "lesser powers created [by the gods] to obey blindly", the Meeks write: "The most famous of these teams of guards, but also the one it is hardest to identify precisely, was the group of messengers placed under the responsibility of the 'dangerous' goddess, whatever form she might take (generally, Sakhmet). They were closely identified with the vengeful, punitive aspect of the solar eye, from which they were supposed to have issued. Seven in number, they simultaneously personified the seven creative words pronounced at the beginning of the world and the seven arrows the dangerous goddess shot at cosmic enemies; they were identical with the seven decans who accompanied the sun, a circumstance that, for obvious reasons, ensured their periodic return. They were by nature ubiquitous. No miscreant could elude them, so swift were they and so sure of the mark were the darts they shot or spat." (p 47) "Sakhmet's, as already noted, had emerged from the solar eye, that is, from the goddess herself." (p 48)
  
  On anointing the king: the first ointment used gave the king "immunity" to the crown and its uraeus, and put their "destructive powers... at his beck and call". "... Sakhmet dwelt in the crown, while the uraeus was an equally dangerous fiery being." (p 189)
  
  Meanwhile, am Duat: "As for the third portal, the deceased could not so much as approach it, because it was encircled by a ring of flames four shonoi (about thirty miles) wide... the third [shonoi] was simply the fiery breath of Sakhmet's mouth." (p 144)
  
  
• Ciccarello, Mark. "Shesmu the Letopolite." in Mark Ciccarello, Mark, et al (eds). Studies in Honor of George R. Hughes. Chicago, Oriental Institute, 1976.
  
  "... in the list of the members of the Ennead of Ptah-Sokar-Osiris, Shesmu's entry places him in a town called 'Ist. Now this town is one of the cult places of Sachmet near Letopolis... One of the principle deities of the region around Letopolis was Sachmet, who had several cult places in the area... It has been suggested that Letopolis was her original home and that only later was she incorporated into the mythology of the Memphite area as the consort of its main god Ptah... The fact that Sachmet was a lion goddess had a profound influence on a number of the lesser deities of Letopolis, who also assumed the form of a lion. [eg Hrty, a ram god, later a lion god; and perhaps Shesmu.]"
  
  
• Traunecker, Claude. The Gods of Egypt. Ithaca, NY, Cornell University Press, 2001."Illness chose its victim; some were spared while others were afflicted. It was thus unjust, and Egyptians made great efforts to reconcile the apparent accident of illness with divine order... Nekhbet... occasionally assumed the functions of Sakhmet, and like her, she would shoot seven arrows that wounded humanity. The 'emissaries' of Sakhmet wandered the earth, striking blindly and causing 'seasonal illnesses... To protect oneself... it was necessary to be able to name them individually and to win over the good will of their generals [such as Tutu or Sekhmet]. Such was the goal of the Litanies of Sakhmet that were chanted in the great temples to assure the protection of the land for the coming year. Individuals were content to wear an amulet bearing the likeness of the goddess or the monsters she commanded." (p 68-9)
  
  
• Lichtheim, Miriam. Ancient Egyptian Literature. Berkeley, University of California Press, 1973-80.Hymns to King Seostris III describe him as "Land's protector" who slaughters Egypt's enemies with just his voice and gestures: "Who slays Bowmen without a blow of the club / Shoots the arrow without drawing the string... Who shoots the arrow as does Sakhmet / When he felled thousands who ignored his might." Another says: "How great is the lord of his city: / he is Sakhmet to foes who tread on his frontier!"
  
  
• Pinch, Geraldine. Egyptian Mythology: a guide to the gods, goddesses, and traditions of ancient Egypt. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2004."According to a temple ritual, the body of Osiris was guarded by four lion goddesses: Wadjyt, Sekhmet, Bastet, and Shesmetet." (Looks like this comes from Hibis.)
  
  
• Pinch, Geraldine. Votive Offerings to Hathor. Oxford, Griffith Institute, 1993."Hathor, Lady of the Two Braziers, is described in Papyrus Jumilhac as transforming herself into Sekhmet to destroy Sethian enemies by fire." (p 194)
  
  McKechnie and Guillaume also mention this (p 337) giving the references "2.22-2.24 and 21.23-25". They add: "Isis is equated with Sekhmet only late in Egyptian religious history; see Hoenes, Göttin Sachmet, 191-192; cf also the Demotic magical text P London Leiden Magical 20.2." (The latter has a magician treating a sting refer to "my mother Sekhmet-Isis".)
  
  Hoenes gives examples of lion-headed and cat-headed statues of Isis suckling Horus. (I wonder if those are the same as the amulets Capel mentions - see above.) He notes that at Philae and elsewhere, Sekhmet's devastating nature is attributed to Isis - but this is not necessarily a syncretism of the two goddesses, but could be the use of Sekhmet as a synonym for destructiveness.
  
  
• Ghalioungui, Paul. The Physicians of Pharaonic Egypt (Sonderschrift (Deutsches Archaeologisches Institut. Abteilung Kairo) 10). Cairo, Al-Ahram Center for Scientific Translations; Springfield, Va, Available from the U.S. Dept. of Commerce, National Technical Information Service, 1983.In one text, "fear of the king was said to spread among nations as the fear of Sekhmet in a year of plague... What was requested of her is told in an inscription in favour of the prophet of Sekhmet, the scribe of the treasure of the House of Tut-ankh-Amen, May, asking her to grant him 'life, prosperity, health, alacricity, a happy life, the body being in joy, the mouth healthy, the limbs always young...' From early on, some priests of Sekhmet were also physicians."
  
  

And some links:

My tumblr collection of Sekhmet images

Sekhmet at Goddesses and Gods of the Ancient Egyptians: A Theological Encyclopedia

New statue of Amenhotep III uncovered: "... Amenhotep III is well known for his overwhelming amount of statuary, particularly group statuary featuring the king with deities such as: Amun-Re, Re-Horakhti, Bastet, Sobek and Sekhmet... the Amenhotep III Temple Conservation Project... has unearthed more than 80 statues of the goddess Sekhmet during their excavations at the temple. It has been suggested that the Sekhmet statues were erected because Amenhotep III was very sick during his final years."

26th Dynasty bronze statue of Sekhmet
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Capel, Anne K. and Glenn E. Markoe (eds). Mistress of the House, Mistress of Heaven: Women in Ancient Egypt. New York, Hudson Hills Press in association with Cincinnati Art Museum, 1996.
Ciccarello, Mark. "Shesmu the Letopolite." in Mark Ciccarello, Mark, et al (eds). Studies in Honor of George R. Hughes. Chicago, Oriental Institute, 1976.
Ghalioungui, Paul. The Physicians of Pharaonic Egypt (Sonderschrift (Deutsches Archaeologisches Institut. Abteilung Kairo) 10). Cairo, Al-Ahram Center for Scientific Translations; Springfield, Va, Available from the U.S. Dept. of Commerce, National Technical Information Service, 1983.
Kozloff, Arielle P., et al. Egypt's dazzling sun: Amenhotep III and his world. Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1992.
Lichtheim, Miriam. Ancient Egyptian Literature. Berkeley, University of California Press, 1973-80.
Lythgoe, Albert M. Statues of the Goddess Sekhmet. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 14(10) Part 2, Oct 1919, pp 3-23
Paul McKechnie, Paul and Philippe Guillaume (eds). Ptolemy II Philadelphus and his world. Leiden : Brill, 2008.
Meeks, Dimitri and Christine Favard-Meeks. Daily Life of the Egyptian Gods. London, John Murray, 1997.
Mills, A.J. Two Sekhmet Statues at Trewithen in Cornwall. The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 65, 1979, p 166.
Pinch, Geraldine. Egyptian Mythology: a guide to the gods, goddesses, and traditions of ancient Egypt. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Traunecker, Claude. The Gods of Egypt. Ithaca, NY, Cornell University Press, 2001.