Sekhmet and Hathor
Feb. 14th, 2007 06:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ikhet_sekhmetI'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.
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!
__
Quirke, Stephen. Ancient Egyptian Religion. New York : Dover, 1997.
