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5-05-2015, 17:23

Iconography

Sekhmet was most frequently depicted in semi-anthropomorphic form as a lioness-headed woman. She often wears a long wig and usually has a solar disk balanced atop her head in this aspect. The long dress worn by the goddess is often coloured red, and one of Sekhmet’s epithets was ‘mistress of red linen’ symbolizing either her native Lower Egypt or her warlike nature. Sometimes her garment has a rosette pattern over each nipple and while this has been suggested to reflect patterns in the shoulder hair of lions it is perhaps more likely that the pattern reflects an astronomical symbolism of the ‘shoulder star’ of the constellation Leo which is marked in Egyptian astronomical paintings. During the reign of Amenophis III, hundreds of statues of Sekhmet were set up in the area of the temple of Mut to the south of the Great Temple of Amun at Karnak, and in the king’s mortuary temple in western Thebes. These impressive statues, which were carved from hard black granite or diorite, often show the goddess either seated or standing with a papyrus sceptre - the symbol of her native Lower Egypt. Depictions of lion-headed goddesses wearing the Double Crown usually represent the fusion of Sekhmet and Mut. Sekhmet could also be depicted in fully zoomorphic form as a lioness, though this is relatively uncommon. The leonine head of the goddess (or that of certain other feline deities) was also represented on many examples of the so-called aegis - a metal collar surmounted by the head of a deity - which was used from New

Kingdom times in cultic ceremonies for the propitiation of the divine.



 

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