Sekhmet and Hathor

[ikhet_sekhmet]

I've got the beginnings of a bibliography on Sekhmet and related goddesses - suggestions are welcome!

In Ancient Egyptian Religion, Stephen Quirke says: "... [Ra] sends out his eye to slaughter the rebels, a deed that it accomplishes as Sekhmet 'the Powerful', raging fury, to return contented as Hathor, the motherly cow and loving mistress... The two goddesses, raging Sekhmet and content Hathor, act as two sides of the same nature, extreme expressions of a single passion, the rage that can be coaxed back to placidity, or the love that turns to hate.'

I'm used to the idea of Egyptian goddesses being identified with each other, but this and similar recountings of the Destruction of Mankind have Sekhmet actually turning into Hathor at the end. Are there actually versions of the story which end this way? Is the story told sometimes with Sekhmet and sometimes with Hathor? I'm dead curious and will have to try and find out!
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Quirke, Stephen. Ancient Egyptian Religion. New York : Dover, 1997.

Comments

[jvowles.livejournal.com]

The best part was when she returned, she said "Change, my dear, and not a moment too soon!"

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

*snnnnnnnrrrrrtttttttt*

[lemon-cupcake.livejournal.com]

I'm used to the idea of Egyptian goddesses being identified with each other, but this and similar recountings of the Destruction of Mankind have Sekhmet actually turning into Hathor at the end. Are there actually versions of the story which end this way? Is the story told sometimes with Sekhmet and sometimes with Hathor?

Quirke's rendering, like many others, does not stick closely enough to the literal text. What it actually says is that Re sent forth his "Eye" as Hathor against the rebels to slaughter them in the desert, then sends forth Sekhmet (not identified as his Eye) to slaughter the rebels in the Delta. Many authors assume that Hathor and Sekhmet here are simply diverse forms of a single Goddess known as the Eye of Re, but this is really not correct.

The term "Eye of Re" does not refer to a single Goddess, but to a function that any number of Goddesses can and do exercise. The word for "eye", ir.t, is the same as the participial form of the verb "to do", ir; and so the "Eye of Re" is the "doing" or "agency" of Re (puns are very important in Egyptian texts). Goddesses bear this title insofar as they are Re's executive, so to speak. Hence Re sends his Eye "as" Hathor.

Authors misread the text by not recognizing that "Eye of Re" is a title, not a singular Goddess, and also by blurring together this text with the myth of the "Distant Goddess", with its motif of pacifying a wrathful Goddess. Many authors also think that this myth involves one Goddess transforming into another, but this really isn't the case there either. The study of the myth of the "Distant Goddess" is very complicated, because there is no single adequate text of the myth, and many writers on the subject present overly synthesized versions of the myth that go far beyond what we can say responsibly and actually conflate distinct myths into one. On this subject, see Danielle Inconnu-Bocquillon, Le mythe de la déesse Lointaine à Philae.

There is a tendency—which I believe has been remarked upon elsewhere—for scholars to blur the identities of Goddesses to a greater degree than they do with Gods. In my opinion, it is never so simple as that deities are identified with one another; when the same myth is told of different deities, or when one deity adopts the trappings of another, there is usually a shift in meaning, a transposition to a different register. I'd compare it to musical "sampling".

I have an article on the so-called "Destruction of Mankind" text under review right now at an Egyptological journal which I could send you, if you are interested.

[ikhet-sekhmet.livejournal.com]

Many thanks for your comment! I embarrassedly admit that the only copy of the "Destruction" text I have is from Budge. I'll have to track down the Inconnu-Bocquillon.

I'd love to see your article! My snail is korman@spamcop.net.

Cheers!

[lemon-cupcake.livejournal.com]

Solid recent translations of the "Destruction" text are available in Miriam Lichtheim's Ancient Egyptian Literature, specifically the second volume, on the New Kingdom; and The Literature of Ancient Egypt, edited by W. K. Simpson.

[ikhet-sekhmet.livejournal.com]

Fantastic - Macquarie Uni has them both. I'm indebted to you!