9 World Chronicles

Name: Reret

Hippo Goddess, The Great Sow

Classification: Goddess

Associated: Fertility, creation, Child Birth     

Culture: Kemetic Egyptian

Region: Nile River Valley

Reret is an ancient Kemetic deity associated with the Hippopotamus. Her name translates to me “Sow” which ties her to the concept of creating new life.

She is known to be a fearsome protective figure particularly of pregnant women and small children.

At time she is seen as the consort of Set.

Reret is linked to the Draco Star constellation and it is said that the stars revolve around her.

The deity is typically depicted as a bipedal female hippopotamus with feline attributes, pendulous female human breasts, the limbs and paws of a lion, and the back and tail of a Nile crocodile. She commonly bears the epithets "Lady of Heaven", "Mistress of the Horizon", "She Who Removes Water", "Mistress of Pure Water", and "Lady of the Birth House

Name: Sekhmet

She who is powerful;

"(One) Before Whom Evil Trembles", "Mistress of Dread", "Lady of Slaughter" and "She Who Mauls".

Associated: War, Magic, Healing  The Pharaoh  

Culture: Kemet/ Egyptian

Classification: Matron Deity

Weapon: Bow and Arrow

Symbol : Uraeus

Color: Red

Sacred Stone: Blood Diamond

The Uraeus is a symbol for the goddess Wadjet.[2] She was one of the earliest Egyptian deities and was often depicted as a cobra, as she is the serpent goddess. The center of her cult was in Per-Wadjet, later called Buto by the Greeks.[3] She became the patroness of the Nile Delta and the protector of all of Lower Egypt.[4] The pharaohs wore the uraeus as a head ornament: either with the body of Wadjet atop the head, or as a crown encircling the head; this indicated Wadjet's protection and reinforced the pharaoh's claim over the land. In whatever manner that the Uraeus was displayed upon the pharaoh's head, it was, in effect, part of the pharaoh's crown. The pharaoh was recognized only by wearing the Uraeus, which conveyed legitimacy to the ruler. There is evidence for this tradition even in the Old Kingdom during the third millennium BCE.[5] Several goddesses associated with or being considered aspects of Wadjet are depicted wearing the uraeus as well.

At the time of the unification of Egypt, the image of Nekhbet, the goddess who was represented as a white vulture and held the same position as the patron of Upper Egypt, joined the image of Wadjet on the Uraeus that would encircle the crown of the pharaohs who ruled the unified Egypt. The importance of their separate cults kept them from becoming merged as with so many Egyptian deities. Together, they were known as the Nebty or the Two Ladies, who became the joint protectors and patrons of the unified Egypt.[2]

Later, the pharaohs were seen as a manifestation of the sun god Ra, and so it also was believed that the Uraeus protected them by spitting fire on their enemies from the fiery eye of the goddess.[citation needed] In some mythological works, the eyes of Ra are said to be uraei. Wadjets existed long before the rise of this cult when they originated as the eye of Wadjet as a cobra. Wadjets are also the name of the symbols called the Eye of the Moon, Eye of Hathor, the Eye of Horus, and the Eye of Ra—depending upon the dates of the references to the symbols.[citation needed]

As the Uraeus was seen as a royal symbol, the deities Horus and Set were also depicted wearing the symbol on their crowns. In early ancient Egyptian mythology, Horus would have been the name given to any king as part of the many titles taken, being identified as the son of the goddess Isis. According to the later mythology of Re, the first Uraeus was said to have been created by the goddess Isis, who formed it from the dust of the earth and the spittle of the then-current sun deity.[citation needed] In this version of the mythology, the Uraeus was the instrument with which Isis gained the throne of Egypt for Osiris. Isis is associated with and may be considered an aspect of Wadjet.[2]