Egyptian Deities...
A-H, I-M, N-Z
NEBETHETEPET
A goddess of Heliopolis whose name 'mistress of the offerings' conceals a more intellectual concept. Like Iusaas she is a feminine counterpart to the male creative principle embodied in the sun-god Atum. She is therefore transformed from merely a manifestation of Hathor at Heliopolis into an integral element of the creator-god, namely the hand with which he grips his phallus prior to bringing the Egyptian cosmos into being.
NEFERTEM
Patron of: the rising of the sun. Appearance: a man with a crown of lotus blossoms. Nefertem was the god of the sunrise who helped to bring the sun into the sky where Ra was. According to myth, he had no father and no mother, instead being born from a lotus blossom.Nefertem had no formal cult or temple. His primary devotion seems to have been in the form of small statues of him carried by people, similar to modern saints medals.
NEHEBKAU - NEHEBU- KAU
A snake-god, 'He who harnesses the spirits', whose invincibility is a source of protection both in Egypt and in the Underworld. Looking like a serpent but with human arms and legs, Nehebkau lurked in the Underworld as a constant menace to gods and men. He was however a subject of Ra and would often give food to the dead. He is sometimes shown with two heads at one end of his body and another head at the other end.
Neith
Nit (Net, Neit, Neith) was the predynastic goddess of war and weaving, the goddess of the Red Crown of Lower Egypt and the patron goddess of Zau (Sau, Sai, Sais) in the Delta. In later times she was also thought to have been an androgynous demiurge - a creation deity - who had both male and female attributes. The Egyptians believed her to be an ancient and wise goddess, to whom the other gods came if they could not resolve their own disputes.
NEKHEBET - NEKHEBET - NECHBET
Guardian goddess of Upper Egypt who looked after children and mothers. A woman with the head of a vulture. Nekhbet () was the predynastic vulture goddess who was originally a goddess of a city, but grew to become patron of Upper Egypt, a guardian of mothers and children, and one of the nebty (the 'two ladies') of the pharaoh. "She of Nekhb", named after the town Nekhb (El Kab) , was a local goddess who, with the rise of the pharaohs, became the great goddess of all of Upper Egypt, while the other 'lady', Uatchet (Uatch-Ura, Wadjet), became goddess of Lower Egypt. These two goddesses were linked closely together due to the Egyptian idea of duality - there must be a goddess for both of the Two Lands. Nekhbet became Upper Egypt (the south) personified.
NEPHTHYS
Attributes: Her name means 'Lady of the House' it's thought to be referring to Osiris' Palace. Nephthys conceived no children with her husband Seth. Her son, Anubis was conceived from a union with Osiris. It is said that she tricked Osiris into this union by making him drunk, or by disguising herself as Isis. Fearing Seth's anger, Nephthys hides the infant in the Delta marshes shortly after his birth. Seth murders Osiris and Nephthys flees in fear. She finds her sister, Isis, and helps in the search for Osiris' body. Nephthys tells her sister about the infant. During the search for Osiris, Isis finds Anubis and adopts him. After finding the body of Osiris, she helps Isis embalm him. The two sisters turn into birds and fly about mourning over the dead body. She is often rendered on the head of coffins, as Isis is rendered at the foot, with long wings spread to protect the deceased.
Representation: A woman wearing on her head the hieroglyphic symbol of her name.
Relations: Daughter of Nut and Geb. Sister of Osiris, Isis, and Seth. Wife of Seth, mother of Anubis.
NUT NUIT
Nut was the Goddess of heavens and sky.Nut represents resurrection.
She was the consort of Geb, God of the primal waters. Her name is pronunced 'Noot'. 'Nuit' means 'night.'She was the daughter of the air god, Shu and water goddesses, Tefnut. Nut was typically depicted as a woman with blue skin - her body covered with stars - standing on all fours - leaning over her husband, Geb - representing the sky arched over the Earth. Blue represents the blueprint of reality based on Sacred Geometry
OSIRIS - WESIR - ASAR - ASAR UN-NEFER
God of Resurrection, The Underworld and The Judge of Dead. First child of of Geb and Nut
Brother of Seth, Nephthys, and Isis who was also his wife.Father of Horus by Isis Father of Anubis by Nephthys who seduced him . Osiris ruled the world of men in the beginning, after Ra had abandoned the world to rule the skies, but he was murdered by his brother Seth. Through the magic of Isis, he was made to live again. Being the first person to die, he subsequently became lord of the dead. His death was avenged by his son Horus, who defeated Set and cast him out into the desert to the West of Egypt (the Sahara).
Prayers and spells were addressed to Osiris throughout Egyptian history, in hopes of securing his blessing and entering the afterlife which he ruled; but his popularity steadily increased through the Middle Kingdom. By Dynasty 18 he was probably the most widely worshipped god in Egypt. His popularity endured until the latest phases of Egyptian history; reliefs still exist of Roman emperors, conquerors of Egypt, dressed in the traditional garb of the Pharaohs, making offerings to him in the temples.Osiris is regarded as the dead king that watches over the nether world and is rejuvenated in his son Horus. As the symbol of eternal life he was worshipped at Abydos and Philae. This ancient Egyptian god's annual death and resurrection personified the self-renewing vitality and fertility of nature. His domain is the Duat - the Egyptian Underworld. Originally he was a vegetation god closely linked to corn; later god of the dead, the supreme funerary deity.
PAKHET
Patron of: inner strength, especially that of women.Appearance: a woman with the head of a lioness.Pakhet in all likelihood was a combination of Bast and Sekhmet. As her cult was centered in Middle Egypt, between the cult areas of Bast and Sekhmet, this may be the case. Her attributes of both ferocity and femininity further lend strength to this conclusion.
PELICAN
The Pelican found in livestock scenes on the walls of courtiers' tombs, figures in royal funerary texts frmo the Pyramid Age as a protective symbol against snakes. The description of the Pelican falling into the Nile seems connected with the idea of scooping up in its prominent beak hostile elements under the guise of fish- a concept comparable to the dragnets and bird nets used for trapping sinners in the Underworld.
That the Pelican is a divinty must be assumed from the reference to it in the Pyramid Texts as the 'mother of the king', a role which in religious documents can only be ascribed to a goddess. In non-royal funerary papyri the Pelican has the power of prophesying a safe passage for a dead person in the Underworld. The open beak of the Pelican is also associated with the ability of the deceased to leave the burial chamber and go out into the rays of the sun, possibly an analogy made between the long cavernous beak of the pelican and the tomb shaft.
PTAH - PTEH PETEH
God of creation and rebirth, craftsmen, artisans and artists designers, builders, architects, masons, and metal workers. Master architect of the universe.The origin of Ptah's name is unclear, though some believe it to mean 'opener' or 'sculptor'. As a god of craftsmen, the later is probably correct. He was a patron of the arts, protector of stonecutters, sculptors, blacksmiths, architects, boat builders, artists and craftsmen. His high priest was given the title wr khrp hmw, 'Great Leader of Craftsmen', and his priests were probably linked to the different crafts.His wife is said to be Bast or Sekhmet. Their children are Nefertem, Mahes, and Imhotep.
RA
Re (Ra) was the Egyptian sun god who was also often referred to as Re-Horakhty, meaning Re (is) Horus of the Horizon, referring to the god's character. The early Egyptians believed that he created the world, and the rising sun was, for them, the symbol of creation. The daily cycle, as the sun rose, then set only to rise again the next morning, symbolized renewal and so Re was seen as the paramount force of creation and master of life. His closest ally is Ma'at, the embodiment of order and truth.
Re was also closely connected to the Pharaoh, Egypt's king. While the king ruled earth, Re was the master of the universe so they were of the same nature and were in effect a mirror image of each other. Interestingly, up until the 2nd Dynasty, there is an absence of references on Re, but his development began in the late 2nd Dynasty and matured through the 5th Dynasty. Re became more and more associated with the king, who was both human and a god at once, embodied in the falcon named Horus and by the 4th Dynasty, referred to as the son of Re. Hence, a relationship also developed between Horus and Re as they were merged in the symbol of a winged sun disk, an icon that remained constant in Temples and religious monuments through the end of Egyptian history.
Re's early worship really became very significant during the 5th Dynasty, when kings not only erected pyramids aligned to the rising and setting sun, but also built solar temples in honor of Re. This sort of temple must have been a difficult conception for the Egyptians, because Re never had a sanctuary with a cult statue. Instead, his image was the sun itself, so the sun temples were centered upon an Obelisk over which the sun rose, and before the obelisk would be an alter for his worship. However, the most significant early solar temple was probably erected at Heliopolis, where a pillar resembling an obelisk made up part of the hieroglyphs for the city's name, Iwn. Unfortunately, that structure is now completely destroyed.
These 5th Dynasty rulers were also responsible for the first Pyramid Texts during the Old Kingdom, a collection of spells describing the journey of the dead pharaoh through the underworld. These texts were some of the first decorations inscribed in Pyramids, and are an important source of information on the sun god.
SEKHMET - SAKHMET - SEKHET NESERT
She Who Is Powerful - Eye of Ra. Goddess of divine retribution, vengeance, conquest and war. Sekhmut is usually portrayed as a woman with the head of a lioness. Sometimes the linen dress she wears exhibits a rosetta pattern over each nipple, an ancient leonine motif that can be traced to observation of the shoulder-knot hairs on lions. She is daughter of the sun-god Re.Sekhmet is closely linked to the Uraeus (Buto or Wadjyt) in Her role as the fire-breathing, 'Eye of Ra'. The pyramid texts themselves mention that the King or Pharaoh was conceived by Sekhmet, Herself.
Seshat, The Scribe
The Queen of Feminine Spirits- Seshat is the Goddess of Libraries, all forms of Writing and the Measurement of Time.She wears a leopard skin dress.The symbol over her head is a seven-pointed star or a rosette above which is a pair of inverted cow's horns suggesting a crescent moon.
SET - SETH SUETEKH
Son of Geb and Nut. Brother of Isis, Nephthys, and Osiris. The husband of Nephthys or sometimes the husband of Taurt.Man with the head of an unknown animal. Some times he takes the form of a crocodile. He is represented as a hippopotamus or a black pig in his battles with Horus. Red of hair and eyes, pale of skin, Set is the god of evil, of drought, of destruction, thunder and storm. Set tore himself from his mother's womb in his hurry to be born. Every month Set attacks and devours the moon, the sanctuary of Osiris and the gathering place of the souls of the recently dead.
Shesmu
Shesmu (Shezmu, Shesemu, Shezmou, Shesmou, Sezmu, Sesmu, Schesmu, Schezemu) was an ancient Egyptian demon-god of the underworld. He was a slaughtering demon, god of precious oils for beauty and embalming and a god of the wine press. He was thought to be a helper of the justified dead, offering them alcoholic red wine to drink. Yet he was also seen to be a demon who would tear off the head of a wrongdoer, throwing the head into the wine press to squeeze out the blood as if it was grape juice.
Shesmu's dual personality was evident from the texts in the Pyramid of Unas and the Book of the Dead. Throughout Egyptian history, from the early dynastic times through to the Roman period he was seen as both a kind benefactor to the good and a cruel dispatcher of those who deserved it.
The Egyptians depicted him as a full man, a lion-headed man or as a hawk. On the list of Decans (star groups into which the night sky was divided, with each group appearing for ten days annually) at the temple of Hathor at Dendera, Shesmu appeared as a man on a boat with a uraeus on top of his head, between two stars. When writing about the Shesmu Decan, the star hieroglyph () was added to his name.
Writing was invented in ancient Egypt about 3200 BC. Wine had been manufactured earlier than this date because the wine press served as one of the first hieroglyphs. Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs used specialised terms for grapes, specifically: (yrp), raisins (wnsy), grapevines (yarrt), and wine press (smw).
- Reading 11 - Wine (Part 1), Louis E. Grivetti
Shesmu's name includes the word 'wine press' which could be spelled out as smw () or as the hieroglyph of the wine press () which is also read as smw.
The connection between wine and blood, and thus between helper god and punishing demon, came from the red wine the Egyptians drank. The white variety of wine appeared in the Middle Kingdom, and was a favourite of the Greeks. It was this red wine - or blood - that Shesmu offers the pharaoh in the Pyramid Texts and the deceased in their travels.
..."As concerning 'the night when the sentences of doom are promulgated,' it is the night of the burning of the damned, and of the overthrow of the wicked at the Block, and of the slaughter of souls."
Who is this [slaughterer of souls]?
"It is Shesmu, the headsman of Osiris.
"[Concerning the invisible god] some say that he is Apep when he riseth up with a head bearing upon it [the feather of] Ma'at (Truth). But others say that he is Horus when he riseth up with two heads, whereon one beareth [the feather of] Ma'at, and the other [the symbol of] wickedness. He bestoweth wickedness on him that worketh wickedness, and right and truth upon him that followeth righteousness and truth.
"Others say that he is Heru-ur (the Old Horus), who dwelleth in Sekhem; others say that he is Thoth; others say that he is Nefertem; and others say that he is Sept who doth bring to nought the acts of the foes of Nebertcher.
- The Book of the Dead
SHU
Shu (Su) was the god of dry air, wind and the atmosphere. He was also related to the sun, possibly as an aspect of sunlight. He was the son of the creator god, father of the twin sky and the earth deities and the one who held the sky off of the earth. He was one of the gods who protected Ra on his journey through the underworld, using magic spells to ward off Ra's enemy, the snake-demon Apep. As with other protector gods, he had a darker side - he was also a god of punishment in the land of the dead, leading executioners and torturers to kill off the corrupt souls. His name might be derived from the word for dryness - shu, the root of words such as 'dry', 'parched', 'withered', 'sunlight' and 'empty'. His name could also mean 'He who Rises Up'.
Sobek
Sobek (Sobeq, Sebek, Sochet, Suchos) was an ancient god of crocodiles, first mentioned in the Pyramid Texts. His worship lasted till Roman times, the people of Egypt worshiping him to gain his protection and strength, or reviling him and killing the crocodiles of the area because of the evil that they could do. To his worshipers, he was a god who created the Nile, a god of fertility and rebirth, and the symbolic strength of the ruler of Egypt.
The ancient goddess of war, Neith, was revered as the goddess of wisdom. At different periods she was identified with Athena, noted as the sister of Isis, and named the protector of Duamutef. Neith was the mother of Sobek.
Depicted either as a crocodile-headed man or as a full crocodile, Sobek was shown wearing a plumed headdress with a horned sun disk or the atef crown. In his hands he was shown to carry a was sceptre and the ankh sign of life. His sacred animal, the crocodile, was both revered and reviled by the people of Egypt - in some areas, a tame crocodile was worshiped as the god Sobek himself, while in other places the reptiles were killed. The Egyptians seemed to both respect and fear the power of the crocodile, and as the result of this, Sobek was seen as an ambivalent creature.
Sobek was most popular in the city of Arsinoe. In fact, the Greeks renamed the city Crocodilopolis. Ancient Egyptians would keep crocodiles in pools and temples. They ornamented the crocodiles with jewels in honor of their beloved god, Sobek. The people of ancient Egypt worshiped Sobek in order to appease him, the crocodiles, and to insure the fertility of their people and crops.
Tatenen
The Egyptian god Tatenen, sometimes written as Tatjenen, symbolizes the emergence of silt from the fertile Nile after the waters of the inundation recede. The meaning of his name is uncertain but may possibly mean "the rising earth" or "exalted earth".
He is usually depicted as entirely human (though with the beard of a god) in appearance, though he may be shown wearing a twisted ram's horn with two tall plumes (ostrich feathers), sometimes surmounted with sun disks, on his head. However, his face and limbs are often painted green in order to represent his connection as a god of vegetation. Furthermore, he could also be a she. One papyrus in the Berlin Museum calls Tatenen "fashioner and mother who gave birth to all the gods".
Taweret (Taueret, Taurt, Toeris, Ipy, Ipet, Apet, Opet, Reret)
The Great Female.Taweret was the ancient Egyptian goddess of maternity and childbirth, protector of women and children. Like Bes, she was both a fierce demonic fighter as well as a popular deity who guarded the mother and her newborn child.
She was depicted as a combination of a crocodile, a pregnant hippopotamus standing on her hind legs with large breasts and a lion. Unlike the composite demoness Ammut, her head and body were that of the hippo, her paws were that of the lion, and her back was the back of a crocodile. All of these animals were man killers, and as such she was a demoness.
TEFNUT
Tefnut (Tefenet, Tefnet) was the lunar goddess of moisture, humidity and water who was also a solar goddess connected with the sun and dryness (more specifically, the absence of moisture). She was the daughter of the creator god, mother of the twin sky and the earth deities and the 'Eye of Ra' as well as a creative force as the 'Tongue of Ptah'. Her name itself is related to water - tf is the root of the words for 'spit' and 'moist'. Her name translates to something like 'She of Moisture'.
Tefnut was generally shown as a woman with a lion's head, or as a full lioness. She was occasionally shown as a woman, but this is rare. She was shown with the solar disk and uraeus, linking her with the sun. She was often shown holding a sceptre and the ankh sign of life.
Related to moisture, she was also linked to the moon, as were other deities of moisture and wetness. She was originally thought to be the Lunar Eye of Ra and thus linked to the night sky as well as to dew, rain and mist.
As with other water deities, she took on some form of a goddess of creation. As the 'Tongue of Ptah', she was one of the gods in Mennefer (Hikuptah, Memphis) who helped Ptah - that city's main god - with creation by carrying out his will. Yet in the cities of Iunu (On, Heliopolis) and Waset(Thebes) she was more of a female form of her husband-brother Shu, whose main task was to start the sexual, creative cycle and give birth to Shu's children.
Atem is he who masturbated in Iunu. He took his phallus in his grasp that he might create orgasm by means of it, and so were born the twins Shu and Tefnut.
- Pyramid Text 1248-49
Tefnut and Shu - god of dry air - were the children of Atem (a form of the sun god Ra), who in turn created the twins Nut and Geb. Originally, though, rather than being paired with Shu, she had been paired with a god called Tefen. Other than his name, little is known about this Tefen. It seems, though, that he and Tefnut were linked together in connection with the goddess Ma'at:
"Tefen and Tefnut have weighed Unas and Ma'at has listened, and Shu has born witness."
- Pyramid Text of Unas
During the Middle Kingdom Tefnut became connected to Ma'at, and as such this goddess is sometimes seen assisting Shu in his task of holding Nut above Geb. More often he is alone in the task.
"O Amen-Ra, the gods have gone forth from thee. What flowed forth from thee became Shu, and that which was emitted by thee became Tefnut ... thou was the lion god of the twin lion gods (Shu and Tefnut)."
- The Gods of the Egyptians, E. A. Wallis Budge
One story says that Shu and Tefnut went to explore the waters of Nun. After some time, Ra believed that they were lost, and sent the his Eye out into the chaos to find them. When his children were returned to him, Ra wept, and his tears were believed to have turned into the first humans.
THOTH
Thoth was the wisest of the Egyptian gods. His other names include -Djhuty, Djehuty, Dhouti, Djehuti, Tehuty, Tehuti, Thout, Zehuti, Sheps, Lord of the Khemenu.Thoth was usually depicted with the head of an Ibis.He was the Scribe who wrote the story of our Reality then placed it into grids for us to experience and learn.He was also called the God of the Moon.
He created everything.He was sometimes depicted as a seated baboon-headed dog.
The name Thoth means 'Truth' and 'Time'. Thoth was the Master architect who created the blueprint of our reality based on the mathematics of sacred geometry. It is here - in the Duality of our experience - reflected in gods and goddesses, the landscapes of Egypt including the pyramids and temples - the myths and metaphors - that we experience time and emotions.
According to Thoth, the Great Pyramid and all of the sacred sites in Egypt were built following the geometries of the human body. Just as there are black-light and white-light spirals that come off the human body, so there are similar spirals that come out of the Great Pyramid. One of these spirals used to pass through one end of the sarcophagus that is in the Kings Chamber.
Originally, Thoth was a god of creation, but was later thought to be the one who civilized men, teaching them civic and religious practices, writing, medicine, music and was a master magician. He took on many of the roles of Seshat, until she became a dual, female version of Thoth. Thoth was believed to be the inventor of astronomy, astrology, engineering, botany, geometry, land surveying. Thoth's priests claimed Thoth was the Demi-Urge who created everything from sound.
Thoth supposedly overcame the curse of Ra, allowing Nut to give birth to her five children, with his skill at games. It was he who helped Isis work the ritual to bring Osiris back from the dead, and who drove the magical poison of Set from her son, Horus with the power of his magic. He was Horus' supporter during the young god's deadly battle with his uncle Set, helping Horus with his wisdom and magic. It was Thoth who brought Tefnut, who left Egypt for Nubia in a sulk after an argument with her father, back to heaven to be reuinted with Ra.
When Ra retired from the Earth, he appointed Thoth and told him of his desire to create a Light-soul in the Duat and in the Land of the Caves, and it was over this region that the sun god appointed Thoth to rule, ordering him to keep a register of those who were there, and to mete out just punishments to them. Thoth became the representation of Ra in the afterlife, seen at the judgement of the dead in the 'Halls of the Double Ma'at'.
The magical powers of Thoth were so great, that the Egyptians had tales of a 'Book of Thoth', which would allow a person who read the sacred book to become the most powerful magician in the world. The Book which "the god of wisdom wrote with his own hand" was, though, a deadly book that brought nothing but pain and tragedy to those that read it, despite finding out about the "secrets of the gods themselves" and "all that is hidden in the stars".
He was one of the earlier Egyptian gods, thought to be scribe to the gods, who kept a great library of scrolls, over which one of his wives, Seshat (the goddess of writing) was thought to be mistress. He was associated by the Egyptians with speech, literature, arts, learning. He, too, was a measurer and recorder of time, as was Seshat. Believed to be the author of the spells in the Book of the Dead, he was a helper (and punisher) of the deceased as they try to enter the underworld. In this role, his wife was Ma'at, the personification of order, who was weighed against the heart of the dead to see if they followed ma'at during their life.
Thoth was usually depicted as an ibis headed man or as a full ibis, or with the face of a dog-headed baboon and the body of a man or, again, as a full dog-headed baboon. The ibis, it is thought, had a crescent shaped beak, linking the bird to the moon. The dog-headed baboon, on the other hand, was a night animal that was seen by the Egyptians who would greet the sun with chattering noises each morning just as Thoth, the moon god, would greet Ra, the sun god, as he rose.
In keeping with his many attributes, he was depicted with a variety of symbols. As a god of Egypt, he carried the ankh, the symbol of life, in one hand, and in the other he held a scepter, the symbol of power. In the 'Book of the Dead', he was shown holding a writing palette and reed pen to record the deeds of the dead. As voice of the sun-god Ra, he carried the utchat, or Eye of Ra, the symbol of Ra's ubiquitous power. Thoth was variously depicted wearing a crescent moon on his headdress, or wearing the Atef crown, or sometimes, the crown of Upper and Lower Egypt.
The god of learning was also reputed to have been a god of measuring the passage of time, and thus the god of the Egyptian calendar. It is interesting to note that although he is related to the solar calendar in myth (where he won five extra days a year from Khonsu, the moon god), but that as a moon god himself, he was very probably closely related to Egypt's original lunar calendar:
Thoth's center of worshiped was at Khmunu (Hermopolis) in Upper Egypt, where he was the creator god, in Ibis form, who laid the World Egg. The sound of his song was thought to have created four frog gods and snake goddesses who continued Thoth's song, helping the sun journey across the sky.
He was the 'One who Made Calculations Concerning the Heavens, the Stars and the Earth', the 'Reckoner of Times and of Seasons', the one who 'Measured out the Heavens and Planned the Earth'. He was 'He who Balances', the 'God of the Equilibrium' and 'Master of the Balance'. 'The Lord of the Divine Body', 'Scribe of the Company of the Gods', the 'Voice of Ra', the 'Author of Every Work on Every Branch of Knowledge, Both Human and Divine', he who understood 'all that is hidden under the heavenly vault'. Thoth was not just a scribe and friend to the gods, but central to order - ma'at - both in Egypt and in the Duat. He was 'He who Reckons the Heavens, the Counter of the Stars and the Measurer of the Earth'.
Ancient Egyptians believed that before the dead could enter the Afterworld, their hearts were weighed against a feather of truth to determine whether they had led good and honest lives. In his role as scribe, Thoth recorded the results of each judgment.
Another wife of Thoth's was Ma'at. Her name means Truth, Justice, and perhaps even Tao or Balance. Ma'at was represented as a tall woman with an ostrich feather in her hair. She was present at the judgement of the dead; her feather was balanced against the heart of the deceased to determine whether he had led a pure and honest life. All civil laws in Egypt were held up to the "Law of Ma'at " which essentially was a series of old conceptions and morals dating to the earliest times in Egypt. A law contrary to the Law of Ma'at would not have been considered valid in Egypt. She was also known by other names - Nehemaut or Sophia.
WADJET
Serpent Goddess of Justice, Time, Heaven and Hell. Wadjet (Wadjyt, Wadjit, Uto, Udjo, Uatchet, Edjo, Buto) was the predynastic cobra goddess of Lower Egypt, a goddess originally of a city who grew to become the goddess of Lower Egypt, took the title 'The Eye of Ra', and one of the nebty (the 'two ladies') of the pharaoh. 'She of Papyrus/Freshness' rose from being the local goddess of Per-Wadjet (Buto) ("The House of Wadjet (Papyrus/Freshness)") to become the patron goddess of all of Lower Egypt and 'twin' in the guardianship of Egypt with the vulture goddess Nekhbet. These two were the nebty (the 'two ladies') of the pharaoh and were an example of Egyptian duality - each of the two lands had to have its own patron goddess. Wadjet was the personification of the north.
Wepwawet
It was not unusual in ancient Egypt for more then one god to take the same form, with similar functions as another god. Wepwawet (Ophios, Upuaut), called the son of Isis, was one of several Egyptian deities to take the form of a canine, today often incorrectly identified as a wolf. Egyptologists now believe that he was more likely associated with the jackal, though he is often depicted with a gray or white head.
Like Anubis, Wepwawet was also a funerary deity, and was one of the earliest of the gods worshipped at Abydos. Early on, Wepwawet's worship paralleled that of Khentyamentiu, but when Osiris absorbed that god's attributes, Anubis filled his funerary role. However, with the rise of the solar cult, particularly during the 12th Dynasty, Osiris was limited to the underworld and the local god and lord of the cemetery at Abydos was filled by Wepwawet, who gained the titles, "Lord of Abydos" and Lord of the Necropolis".
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