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Sekhmet

AlsoSekhmet

The Lion-Headed Goddess of War and Plague Who Nearly Destroyed Humankind

The Gods Between Sky and Earth · Major Gods

WarPlagueHealing

Who they are

Sekhmet is the lion-headed war goddess, her name meaning "the Powerful One." She is the "Eye" of the sun god Ra — the embodiment of his wrath, sent to punish a treacherous humankind, but falling into a bloodthirsty frenzy that nearly slaughtered the human race entirely, stopped only by a trick. She governs war and plague ("the messengers of Sekhmet" being the forces that spread disease), and pharaohs prayed for her fierce power when going to war; yet the same goddess is also the mightiest healer — she who can send plague can withdraw it, and so her priests served as physicians too. Sekhmet embodies the Egyptian double understanding of fierce power: destruction and healing are two ends of one energy, and the lion's claws can both rend and guard.

Primary sourcesThe Book of the Heavenly Cow, "The Destruction of Mankind"The Pyramid Texts

Key stories

The Blood-Red Beer

Humankind plotted rebellion against the aged sun god Ra, and Ra sent his "Eye" — Hathor in the form of Sekhmet — to punish them. She slaughtered without cease, and though blood ran in rivers she would not stop, and it seemed humankind would be wiped out. Unwilling to see them extinguished, Ra ordered seven thousand jars of beer brewed and dyed blood-red, and had them poured by night over the fields she would pass. Mistaking it for blood, Sekhmet drank deep and fell into a drunken sleep, and when she woke her fury had passed, and humankind survived. The Egyptians thereafter drank red beer at her festivals — using drunkenness to remember an all-but-realized end of the world.

Version differences

In "The Destruction of Mankind," Ra sends Sekhmet down to slaughter rebellious humanity and she nearly wipes out the species, stopped only when she is made drunk on beer dyed red — the details vary across manuscripts.

Relationships

Created by

🐄Hathor　She is the embodiment of Hathor's wrath

Echoes today

Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.

The lion-headed war goddess in gamesSmite, Age of Mythology and others render Sekhmet as a goddess of plague and war.

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