Tuesday, February 10, 2009

DID YOU KNOW? Mut...the Alter-Ego of Sekhmet

Mut, the great consort-goddess of Amun-Ra, seems originally to have been a local mother-deity of the small town of Megen, outside Thebes.

Mut's cult was introduced at Thebes sometime before Dynasty XVIII and the goddess quickly grew in popularity, status and influence, gradually replacing the goddess Amunet...not necessarily as Amun-Ra's "wife," but as his chief complementary power.

Once identified with Sekhmet, the prestigious lioness-headed goddess of Memphis, Mut would become the most politically powerful goddess in Egypt. Her beautiful temple in the Asheru district of Thebes was an important subsidiary of Amun-Ra's "Great Temple" of Karnak. The "House of the Mistress of Asheru" boasted a sacred lake curiously similar to one belonging to Mut's associated goddess, Bastet, in the Nile Delta-region.

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