Mehit

Mehit in hieroglyphics
Early dynasty	Mehit Mḥjt
New kingdom	Mehit
or	Mehit

Mehit is a goddess in Egyptian mythology .

presentation

Mehit was represented in the early dynasty as a resting lioness with three or four curved rods in her back. Since the New Kingdom she has been presented as a lion-headed woman with an Atef crown .

supporting documents

Mehit appears in the pre- and early dynasty on numerous ivory artefacts and clay seals , mostly together with the iconographic representation of the reed mat-adorned shrine as a symbol for the Egyptian royal family.

Cult and meaning

The eastern Behdet and Thinis are mainly known as places of worship . Mehit was worshiped in both places together with her husband Anhor , the city god of Thinis. But the goddess was also worshiped in Edfu , Abydos , Sebennytos and in the temple of Hibis .

As the wife of Onuris, she stood by her husband as a fighter. She was often equated with the fire-breathing uraeus snake , the eye of Re . Their significance in Egyptian mythology is closely linked to the places of worship : they were equated with the goddess Tefnut , which in Edfu led to a merging with the goddesses Hathor and Sachmet .

See also

• List of Egyptian gods

literature

• Hans Bonnet : Lexicon of the Egyptian religious history. 3rd, unchanged edition, Nikol, Hamburg 2000, ISBN 3-937872-08-6 , pp. 445-446.
• Richard H. Wilkinson : The world of the gods in ancient Egypt: Faith - Power - Mythology. Theiss, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-8062-1819-6 , p. 179.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Walter B. Emery : Egypt. Early history and culture 3200–2800 BC Chr. Fourier, Wiesbaden (1964) 1980, ISBN 3-921695-39-2 , p. 135.
2. ^ Toby AH Wilkinson: Early Dynastic Egypt: Strategy, Society and Security. Routledge, London 1999, ISBN 0-415-18633-1 , p. 290.
3. ^ ^{A b} Hans Bonnet: Lexicon of the Egyptian religious history. Hamburg 2000, pp. 445-446.