Wepset

Last updated
Wepset
Wepset
WepsetWepsetWepset
Wepset
Wepset [1]
Egyptian hieroglyphs

Wepset(wps.t) is an ancient Egyptian goddess. She is one of the personifications of the uraeus cobra that protected the kings; she is also an Eye of Ra and is mentioned as "the Eye" in the Coffin Texts. Her name means "she who burns". In New Kingdom texts she destroys the enemies of Osiris. She was mentioned as having a temple on the island of Biga; no such structure has been found there, but she appears in the temples of other deities here and in Lower Nubia. [2]

Contents

Iconography

She is most often depicted as a snake, but in the Greek and Roman period she also has anthropomorphic depictions, as a woman with a lion's head or with uraeus or sun disk on her head. [2]

See also

Seraph   Type of angel in Abrahamic religions

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Horus</span> Egyptian war and sky deity

Horus or Heru, Hor, Har in Ancient Egyptian, is one of the most significant ancient Egyptian deities who served many functions, most notably as god of kingship and the sky. He was worshipped from at least the late prehistoric Egypt until the Ptolemaic Kingdom and Roman Egypt. Different forms of Horus are recorded in history, and these are treated as distinct gods by Egyptologists. These various forms may be different manifestations of the same multi-layered deity in which certain attributes or syncretic relationships are emphasized, not necessarily in opposition but complementary to one another, consistent with how the Ancient Egyptians viewed the multiple facets of reality. He was most often depicted as a falcon, most likely a lanner falcon or peregrine falcon, or as a man with a falcon head.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Set (deity)</span> Egyptian god of the desert, storms, violence, and foreigners

Set is a god of deserts, storms, disorder, violence, and foreigners in ancient Egyptian religion. In Ancient Greek, the god's name is given as Sēth (Σήθ). Set had a positive role where he accompanies Ra on his barque to repel Apep, the serpent of Chaos. Set had a vital role as a reconciled combatant. He was lord of the Red Land, where he was the balance to Horus' role as lord of the Black Land.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tefnut</span> Ancient Egyptian goddess

Tefnut is a deity of moisture, moist air, dew and rain in Ancient Egyptian religion. She is the sister and consort of the air god Shu and the mother of Geb and Nut.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nephthys</span> Ancient Egyptian goddess

Nephthys or Nebet-Het in ancient Egyptian was a goddess in ancient Egyptian religion. A member of the Great Ennead of Heliopolis in Egyptian mythology, she was a daughter of Nut and Geb. Nephthys was typically paired with her sister Isis in funerary rites because of their role as protectors of the mummy and the god Osiris and as the sister-wife of Set.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sekhmet</span> Ancient Egyptian goddess

In Egyptian mythology, Sekhmet, also spelled Sakhmet, Sekhet, Sakhet among other spellings, Coptic: Ⲥⲁⲭⲙⲓ, romanized: Saxmi), is a warrior goddess as well as goddess of healing. She is depicted as a lioness. She was seen as the protector of the pharaohs and led them in warfare. Upon death, Sekhmet continued to protect them, bearing them to the afterlife.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bastet</span> Ancient Egyptian goddess

Bastet or Bast was a goddess of ancient Egyptian religion, worshipped as early as the Second Dynasty. Her name also is rendered as B'sst, Baast, Ubaste, and Baset. In ancient Greek religion, she was known as Ailuros.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hathor</span> Major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion

Hathor was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion who played a wide variety of roles. As a sky deity, she was the mother or consort of the sky god Horus and the sun god Ra, both of whom were connected with kingship, and thus she was the symbolic mother of their earthly representatives, the pharaohs. She was one of several goddesses who acted as the Eye of Ra, Ra's feminine counterpart, and in this form she had a vengeful aspect that protected him from his enemies. Her beneficent side represented music, dance, joy, love, sexuality, and maternal care, and she acted as the consort of several male deities and the mother of their sons. These two aspects of the goddess exemplified the Egyptian conception of femininity. Hathor crossed boundaries between worlds, helping deceased souls in the transition to the afterlife.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wadjet</span> Ancient Egyptian snake-headed goddess, symbolizing Lower Egypt

Wadjet, known to the Greek world as Uto or Buto among other renderings including Wedjat, Uadjet, and Udjo, was originally the ancient local goddess of the city of Dep. It became part of the city that the Egyptians named Per-Wadjet and the Greeks called Buto, which was an important site in prehistoric Egypt and the cultural developments of the Paleolithic. There was also a Per-Wadjet in Upper Egypt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nekhbet</span> Ancient Egyptian goddess

Nekhbet is an early predynastic local goddess in Egyptian mythology, who was the patron of the city of Nekheb. Ultimately, she became the patron of Upper Egypt and one of the two patron deities for all of Ancient Egypt when it was unified.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anuket</span> Ancient Egyptian goddess

Anuket was the ancient Egyptian goddess of the cataracts of the Nile and Lower Nubia in general, worshipped especially at Elephantine near the First Cataract.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uraeus</span> Ancient Egyptian upright cobra motif signifying authority and divinity

The Uraeus ";", or Ouraeus(derived from the Ancient Greek word: οὐραῖος, Greek pronunciation: [οὐραῖος]); from Egyptian jꜥrt, "rearing cobra") is the stylized, upright form of an Egyptian cobra, used as a symbol of sovereignty, royalty, deity and divine authority in ancient Egypt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eye of Ra</span> Violent feminine counterpart of Ra in Ancient Egyptian mythology

The Eye of Ra or Eye of Re is a being in ancient Egyptian mythology that functions as a feminine counterpart to the sun god Ra and a violent force that subdues his enemies. The eye is an extension of Ra's power, equated with the disk of the sun, but it often behaves as an independent goddess. This goddess can be equated with several particular deities, including Hathor, Sekhmet, Bastet, Raet-Tawy, and Mut. The eye goddess acts as mother, sibling, consort, and daughter of the sun god. She is his partner in the creative cycle in which he begets the renewed form of himself that is born at dawn. The eye's violent aspect defends Ra against the agents of disorder that threaten his rule. This dangerous aspect of the eye goddess is often represented by a lioness or by the uraeus, or cobra, a symbol of protection and royal authority. The Eye of Ra is similar to the Eye of Horus, which belongs to a different god, Horus, but represents many of the same concepts. The disastrous effects when the eye goddess rampages out of control and the efforts of the gods to return her to a benign state are a prominent motif in Egyptian mythology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pschent</span> Ancient Egyptian crown

The pschent was the double crown worn by rulers in ancient Egypt. The ancient Egyptians generally referred to it as sekhemty(sḫm.ty), the Two Powerful Ones. It combined the White Hedjet Crown of Upper Egypt and the Red Deshret Crown of Lower Egypt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Meritamen</span>

Meritamen was a daughter and later Great Royal Wife of Pharaoh Ramesses the Great.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nebettawy</span> Queen consort of Egypt

Nebettawy(nb.t-t3.wỉ; “Lady of the Two Lands”) was an ancient Egyptian princess and queen, the fifth daughter and one of the eight Great Royal Wives of Pharaoh Ramesses II.

In Ancient Egyptian texts, the "Two Ladies" was a religious epithet for the goddesses Wadjet and Nekhbet, two deities who were patrons of the ancient Egyptians and worshiped by all after the unification of its two parts, Lower Egypt, and Upper Egypt. When the two parts of Egypt were joined together, there was no merger of these deities as often occurred with similar deities from various regions and cities. Both goddesses were retained because of the importance of their roles and they became known as the Two Ladies, who were the protectors of unified Egypt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heqet</span> Ancient Egyptian goddess of fertility

Heqet, sometimes spelled Heket, is an Egyptian goddess of fertility, identified with Hathor, represented in the form of a frog. To the Egyptians, the frog was an ancient symbol of fertility, related to the annual flooding of the Nile. Heqet was originally the female counterpart of Khnum, or the wife of Khnum by whom she became the mother of Her-ur. It has been proposed that her name is the origin of the name of Hecate, the Greek goddess of witchcraft.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raet-Tawy</span> Ancient Egyptian solar goddess

Raet (Rˁỉ.t) or Raet-Tawy (Rˁỉ.t-tȝ.wỉ) is an ancient Egyptian solar deity, the female aspect of Ra. Her name is simply the female form of Ra's name; the longer name Raet-Tawy means "Raet of the Two Lands".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Statue of Sekhmet</span>

The Statue of Sekhmet currently housed in the Gallery of Ancient Egypt at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) is a life-sized sculpture of one of the oldest known Egyptian deities. Her name is derived from the Egyptian word "sekhem" and is often translated as the "Powerful One". Depicted as a woman with the head of a lioness – sometimes with the addition of a sun disc and the uraeus serpent atop her head – Sekhmet is the ancient Egyptian goddess of war who was believed to be a protector of Ma'at and of the Egyptian people. She was also associated with healing and medicine, and her priests were known for being trained doctors and surgeons of remarkable calibre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baketmut</span>

Baketmut was an ancient Egyptian princess of the Nineteenth Dynasty. She was the second daughter of Pharaoh Ramesses II.

References

  1. Wörterbuch, I., p.305
  2. 1 2 Richard Wilkinson: The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt. London, Thames and Hudson, 2003. ISBN   978-0500051207 p.228