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The Lioness and the Kittycat: Egypt's Great Feline Goddesses, Sekhmet and Bastet

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    The Lioness and the Kittycat: Egypt's Great Feline Goddesses, Sekhmet and Bastet

    The Lioness and the Kittycat: Egypt's Great Feline Goddesses, Sekhmet and Bastet

    “The Lioness and the Kittycat: Egypt’s Great Feline Goddesses, Sekhmet and Bastet,” grows out of my abiding interest in Egypt and the powerful goddesses of antiquity. Originally fascinated by the connection between goddesses and lionesses in multiple cultures of the ancient Near East, I began investigating Sekhmet in detail. The duality of her nature — ferocious, protective — as described by many scholars intrigued me, particularly as it seemed to be less present in the more peaceable Bastet. This thesis draws on the visual and textual records of the New Kingdom and the Third Intermediate Period in Egypt, the times of the goddesses’ greatest popularity, to investigate the nature of Sekhmet and Bastet in detail. In contrast to previous scholarship, I demonstrate that Sekhmet was fundamentally powerful and bloodthirsty, that the so-called benevolent side of her nature should be understood as simply another ramification of her dangerous violence. Bastet, by contrast, emerges in this work as a joyful, protective, nurturing figure. Although some legends ascribe to her the killing of the evil serpent, Apophis, the vast majority of evidence points to a fully benign — even purring — being. These very different aspects of feline nature manifest in the two goddesses may well stem from the times of their respective significance: the New Kingdom, when Sekhmet reigned supreme, was a period of relative strength and stability in Egypt, while Bastet’s main period of importance came at a time when Egypt was in great turmoil. This is an entirely new recognition in Egyptology.



    http://scholar.colorado.edu/cgi/view...xt=honr_theses Actual report in PDF format auto opens
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    #2
    Re: The Lioness and the Kittycat: Egypt's Great Feline Goddesses, Sekhmet and Bastet

    Thanks, mosno!

    "No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical." -- Niels Bohr

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      #3
      Re: The Lioness and the Kittycat: Egypt's Great Feline Goddesses, Sekhmet and Bastet

      I am reading 'God's and Myths of Ancient Egypt' by Robert the Armour at the moment, which is very well researched and often used in Universities. I was interested to read about Tefnut, the Goddess of moisture, who is often depicted with a lions head. She turned into a lion completely on occasion and went about devouring humans in Nubia, before Ra sent Thoth to bring her back. Ra gave her both his solar and Luna eyes at different points in history, so she was predominantly a Luna Goddess but also associated with the sun as well.

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      The same book also says that Sekhemet was a form of the Goddess Hathor . The story is similar to that of Tefnut , in that Hathor turned into the lion Goddess Sekhmet in order to punish humans who were disrespectful of her father, Ra. She enjoyed the bloodshed so much it was difficult for the other Gods to stop her, and they had to trick her by mixing crushed barley with mandrake juice to give the appearance of blood. The mandrake was known to cause sleepiness. When Sekhmet came across the red juice in her rampage, she lapped it up, fell asleep and was able to become the gracious Goddess Hathor again.
      Love, Starlight and Magical Wishes from Felicity Fairy
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