University of Pennsylvania Museum displayed black granite statue of Goddess Sekhmet excavated in Thebes in Ramesseum 1405-1367 BCE (Late 18th_Dynasty) Image: Mary Harrsch

Sekhmet daughter of the Sun © Nicholas Costa 2024

There have been countless papers written concerning the goddess Sekhmet and her attendant leonine goddesses. Yet in spite of this her true identity has hitherto proved elusive.

A review of the attestations of the cult of feline deities in Egypt reveals their wide geographical extent. They were not localised. Indeed there was seemingly a whole pride of feline deities inhabiting the ancient Egyptian pantheon ranging from fearsome lions to cute pussy cats. Why this seeming obsession?

The earliest named lion deity was the goddess Bastet who is recorded in the Second Dynasty (c2890– c2686 BC). During the Fourth Dynasty (c2613- c2494 BC) the goddess Sheshmet is named. In the next dynasty which lasted approximately 150 years, from the early 25th century BC until the mid 24th century BC, the goddess Sekhmet tentatively appears almost always in syncretistic connection with the two earlier goddesses. Collectively these Dynasties are referred to as the Old Kingdom. Whilst these deities may at first sight appear as separate entities they may in fact have originated from a common source. What was that source?

Eva Lange theorises that:“in pre-modern times, evaluation of the natural environment always involved the confrontation between humans and the sometimes dangerous wildlife in a much more direct way than we can possibly imagine nowadays. Ancient Egypt, being more or less an enormous river oasis, was populated by several species of terrestrial and aquatic predators such as lions, crocodiles, and snakes and other dangerous species, such as hippopotamuses. Any encounter with such animals was potentially life-threatening and therefore led to careful observation of their habits and behaviour in order to avoid such situations. The challenges of living in such an environment also led to astonishingly creative and intellectual achievement…The prominence of the Delta cults of lion deities in general is, however, quite surprising. We would rather expect lions to be more prominent in the conceptions of people living in Upper Egypt, where the arboreal vegetated semi-desert habitat for lions intermediates between the desert and the agricultural area bordering the Nile and thus is much closer to the settlements. Therefore, the overriding preference for lioness cults in the Delta seems unexpected. Yet, a detailed investigation of the oldest traceable lioness cults in the Delta may help to answer this question. As the earliest attestations of the cults of Sekhmet, Bastet and Shesemtet have shown, their origins are located in the south-eastern Delta near the entrance to the Wadi Tumilat.

Certainly, the development of deities in the shape of lions could have happened in the southeastern and western Delta before the development of estates, as settlements on the fringes of the Delta would always have attracted lions, but it was the intensified breeding program which came with the foundation of cattle farms of the early state that would have fueled the raids of these large beasts of prey. As field studies on hunting lions have shown, females are much more active when the prey is small or medium sized, operating within a variety of vegetation and actively engaged in cooperative team hunting, whereas male lions hunt alone, utilizing dense vegetation as ambushes, and thus not as easily observed as would a team of hunting female lions more suited to areas of open plain without ambush opportunities such as the cattle grounds of the Delta estates. Therefore, the hunting activities of female lions may have left a stronger impression on the Ancient Egyptians, leading to the picture of the ferocious lioness goddess who plays an important role in the religion of Ancient Egypt in later periods. (The Lion Goddess in the Old Kingdom Nile Delta: A Study in Local Cult Topography, Eve Lange, 2016)

Lesley Jackson notes: “The Egyptians used a number of other animals to depict power such as the snake, hawk, crocodile and bull. Power has many forms; the power of the king, physical strength, fertility, magic and so forth. Power depicted by a lioness will have been subtly different to the power suggested by other animals. Sekhmet in particular was associated with sekhem, the primeval power of creation. Her lioness form was considered the visible manifestation of this power. But why was this? The understanding of sekhem must have preceded the selection of the lioness to depict it. What does a lioness represent that the other animals can’t? It isn’t clear if the concept of sekhem was recognised in the Pre-dynastic but if it was it didn’t appear to be depicted in leonine form…”

She then surmises without giving a reason why that: “The lion and cat were considered ideal symbols of solar power and came to embody the original power of sekhem. This power was considered female which led to the dominance of the Lioness Goddesses. As her name suggests Sekhmet became the ultimate Lioness Goddess. This predominance of the Lioness Goddesses was further reinforced because sun’s disc, the Solar Eye, was regarded as female and the Lioness Goddesses were considered the Eye of the Sun.” (Sekhmet and Bastet: The Feline Powers of Egypt, Lesley Jackson, 2017)

In modern times Sekhmet has become an icon of the feminist movement yet in no way was she a feminist. Given her attributes, she was feared by one and all. Prominent amongst the surviving stories concerning Sekhmet is the one entitled the Destruction of Mankind.

The One Who Loves Ma’at

Sekhmet has been variously described as the ancient Egyptian goddess of war, chaos, death, violence, retribution, destruction, vengeance, conquest, and the hot desert sun. In addition she was attributed with not only spreading plague but also healing it. She has therefore been interpreted as the patron deity of physicians and healers. Likewise an additional irony exists in her epithet as “the one who loves Ma’at”, with the latter being defined as harmony, justice, and truth,

Her name literally translates as: “She who is powerful” or “Mighty One.” The name itself derives from the Egyptian word “sekhem,” which means “power” or “might.” The lion head hieroglyphic symbol was used in words such as “power” and “strength.

Some of Sekhmet’s titles were “The Scarlet Lady,” “Lady of Flame,” “Eye of Ra,” and “Lady of Slaughter.” Hot desert winds were believed to be reminiscent of the goddess’s breath, whilst her body when she appeared was said to take on the bright glare of the midday sun. She, like her earlier counterpart Bastet, was depicted as the daughter of the sun god Ra. Notably Herodotus equates Bastet with the goddess Artemis (Histories 2.138).

The Uraeus

It should be evident that the ancient Egyptian lion imagery was metaphorical rather than literal. Therefore whilst she was commonly depicted with a lion’s head she also wears on her head a ‘sun disc’ crown and a uraeus rearing cobra. The uraeus became the defining symbol of Pharaonic power. What did it ultimately signify?

Lesley Jackson writes: “Whilst there are many venomous snakes in Egypt, the cobra is one of the most impressive of all snakes. One of the species native to Egypt, the black-necked spitting cobra, can grow up to 1.5 meters in length and project venom up to 2 meters. It is both intimidating and instantly recognisable. There are many venomous snakes in Egypt but the cobra was selected as a symbol for the uraeus for three reasons; its impressive hood, its ability to attack by spraying venom so it doesn’t have to leave its position and thirdly the fact that it will aim for the victims’ eyes. As a symbol for the Eye Goddess the latter was significant. The burning sensation caused by snake venom also linked it to the burning Eye of the Sun. The uraeus’ means of attack is fire, an appropriate method of attack for such a solar creature. “The uraeus, which is on your head, punishes them…it burns by its flame.” Sekhmet is referred to as “Mistress of the Flame” and “Mistress of the Fire”.” (Sekhmet and Bastet: The Feline Powers of Egypt, Lesley Jackson, 2017)

Airburst

Jackson is partially correct in her interpretation. The sun is not the only thing in the sky that can cause blindness, so too can an air burst. It is in this context therefore that one needs to read the rosetta pattern over each nipple. This pattern has hitherto been solely interpreted as “an ancient leonine motif that can be traced to observation of the shoulder-knot hairs on lions”. (The same applies in consideration of the lotus flower imagery associated with her lion headed son Maahes).

The ‘sun disc’ on Sekhmet’s head is always coloured red whilst that of the sun god is variously depicted as either yellow or red depending it would seem on context. This is surely significant. She like a number of other deities was signified as ‘the eye of Ra’. Her face is coloured green a colour commonly encountered in asteroids and comets, whilst her dress is invariably red the colour of flame and fire.

She like her earlier counterpart Bastet was depicted as the daughter of the sun.

Killer Asteroids

Notably there are a group of asteroids known as ‘Planet killer’ asteroids hiding in the sun’s glare. These are nowadays known as Apollo or Aten asteroids.

Brandon Specktor writes: “In the glare of the sun, an unknown number of near-Earth asteroids move on unseen orbits. A new generation of space telescopes could be our best defense against potential disaster.

The Apollo asteroids are a group of near-Earth asteroids named after 1862 Apollo, discovered by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth in the 1930s. They are Earth-crossing asteroids that have an orbital semi-major axis greater than that of the Earth but perihelion distances less than the Earth’s aphelion distance.

As of November 2023, the number of known Apollo asteroids is 18,874, making the class the largest group of near-Earth objects…and 2,041 are identified as potentially hazardous asteroids… The Chelyabinsk meteor, that exploded over the city of Chelyabinsk in the southern Urals region of Russia on February 15, 2013, injuring an estimated 1,500 people with flying glass from broken windows, was an Apollo-class asteroid.

At any moment, the sun hides countless asteroids from view. This includes a constantly rotating cast of Apollo asteroids — near-Earth objects that spend most of their time far beyond the orbit of Earth but occasionally cross our planet’s path to swoop closer to the sun — as well as the mysterious class of asteroids called the Atens, which orbit almost entirely interior to Earth, ever on the planet’s dayside.

“Aten asteroids are the most dangerous, because they cross Earth’s orbit just barely at their most distant point,” Scott Sheppard, a staff scientist at the Carnegie Institution for Science, told Live Science. “You would never see one coming, to some degree, because they’re never in the darkness of the night sky.” (‘Planet killer’ asteroids’ Can we stop them in time? Brandon Specktor, 2023)

Aielouros

As with all asteroids, the vast majority of these hidden space rocks are relatively small so they burn up completely in Earth’s atmosphere upon contact. Significantly Bastet, who Herodotus equated with Artemis, in later times became Sekhmet’s more gentle counterpart. As such she was depicted as a cat and was known in ancient Greece as Aielouros, a name that translates as a fast moving tail! Sekhmet notably whilst carrying an ankh sign in her left hand (a symbol of life) was depicted as holding a long-stemmed lotus flower on her right hand (think of the persistent train of glowing vapour left by an incoming meteorite).

Unfortunately it is also estimated that there are also many undiscovered asteroids measuring more than 460 feet (140 m) in diameter — large enough to survive the plunge through the atmosphere and cause catastrophic local damage upon impact.

The signifiers of such events in antiquity were doubtless known earlier as Bastet and then as Sekhmet. Notably in the tale of the Destruction of Mankind Sekhmet is depicted as arriving in the early morning.

The Chelyabinsk Meteor

The Chelyabinsk meteor was a superbolide that entered Earth’s atmosphere over the southern Ural region in Russia on 15 February 2013. It was caused by an approximately 18 m (59 ft) diameter, 9,100-tonne near-Earth asteroid that entered the atmosphere at a shallow angle several minutes after sun rise.

The light from the meteor was briefly brighter than the Sun. Eyewitnesses reported feeling intense heat from the fireball. The explosion generated a bright flash, followed by a loud boom. It produced a hot cloud of dust and gas and many surviving small fragmentary meteorites. Most of the object’s energy was absorbed by the atmosphere, creating a large shock wave. The asteroid had a total estimated kinetic energy before atmospheric impact equivalent to the blast yield of 400–500 kilotons of TNT. This was 26 to 33 times as much energy as that released from the atomic bomb detonated at Hiroshima. The air of the city smelled like “gunpowder”, “sulfur”, “burning odors” or “ozone” starting about 1 hour after the fireball and lasting all day. (Note the similarity of the latter with the reported aroma associated with Sekhmet’s sons Maahes and Nefertem with their bouquets of lotus flowers.

A correspondent on Reddit in 2018 noted the following: “Having worked around ozone, it’s a sickly sweet smell, almost strawberry like. If you breathe too much, it’ll make you very sick to your stomach, and can kill you in higher concentrations.” This is evidently why Maahes was depicted as holding two very sharp knives in addition to his bouquet of flowers)

The object approached Earth undetected before its atmospheric entry, in part because its radiant (source direction) was close to the Sun. 1,491 people were injured seriously enough to seek medical treatment. The intense light from the meteor, momentarily brighter than the Sun, also produced injuries resulting in eye pain or temporary flash blindness. Some people reported ultraviolet burns similar to sunburn. Buildings in six cities across the region were damaged by the explosion’s shock wave. It was the largest known natural object to have entered Earth’s atmosphere since the 1908 Tunguska event, which destroyed a wide, remote, forested, and very sparsely populated area of Siberia.(Source:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelyabinsk_meteor 2024; O. P. Popova, et al., Chelyabinsk Airburst, Damage Assessment,Meteorite Recovery and Characterization. Science 342 (2013) )

Compare the above to the following:

The blue (?) of fire from its flame is raised above it.

50 cubits (23 meters) on its side (i.e. around it) consists of fire.

The tip of its flame crosses the earth in the sky.

The gods have said about it, It is “charcoal” (meaning unclear)

and it has come from the hands of Sekhmet. (CoffinText spell 336)

The Coffin Texts are a collection of ancient Egyptian funerary texts consisting of spells or magic formulas, painted on the burial coffins of the First Intermediate period (c2130–1938 BC) and the Middle Kingdom (c1938–c1630 BC).

The Destruction of Mankind

The Destruction of Mankind is a text found on the outer shrine of Tutankhamun (c1341 BC– c1323 BC), and the tombs of Seti I (c1294 or 1290 BC-1279 BC), Ramesses II (c1303 BC– 1213 BC), III (c1186 BC-1155 BC), and VI (d. c1137 BC). This is highly significant.

The text itself focuses upon a much earlier period, hitherto undetermined when the goddess Sekhmet is unleashed on earth by Ra and seeks to destroy mankind. She travels south to do this. In other versions of the story featuring other deities the location is specified as Nubia. (Nubia also has a female lion deity with a similar story known as Menhit). She goes on a bloody rampage that lays waste to Egypt and almost destroyed humanity. In order to stop her the gods pour out a lake of beer which they dye red, thinking it is blood she laps it all and passes out drunk. In other versions she grows angry at their deception and leaves Egypt thereby diminishing the power of the sun. This is evidently a tale related to an air burst, and surprisingly it may be possible to track it down as a real event.

Ice core and dendrochronological markers point to a major environmental trauma occurring during the 1990’s BC. (Bristlecone pine tree rings and volcanic eruptions over the last 5000 yr, Matthew W. Salzer ?, Malcolm K. Hughes, 2005.) At the same time in Egypt there occurred a hitherto unexplained shift in power.

The 1990’s herald the start of the 12^th Dynasty under Amenemenes/ Amenemhat I (c1991 BC to 1962 BC). He was Nubian in origin and appears to have gained power in a sudden coup by overthrowing the previous pharaoh. Egyptian rule during his reign spread to northern Nubian and adjoining regions. The chronology of the Twelfth Dynasty is considered to be the most stable of any period before the New Kingdom. The Turin Royal Canon gives 213 years (1991–1778 BC) for the length of the dynasty. As demonstrated in Atlantis, the Amazons, and the Birth of Athene the dynasty actually collapsed due to another major trauma signified in the Greek myths as the Birth of Athene/Flood of Ogyges c1796.

Divine Favour

Amenemenes as a vizir under his predecessor Mentuhotep IV is significantly mentioned in inscriptions from Wadi Hammamat. The inscriptions record two hitherto poorly understood prophetic events. They were interpreted as omens of divine favour. The first is currently translated as referring to the birth of a gazelle calf on the stone which became Mentuhotep IV’s sarcophagus lid, whilst the second delineates what has been hitherto interpreted merely as a sudden rainstorm that revealed a well brimming with water. Given the current context it was evidently something far greater that was being commemorated. These inscriptions are surely poorly interpreted/ translated indicators of the major environmental trauma associated with Sekmhet’s airburst. Significantly it was Amenemenes who moved the new capital to Itjtawy. Here he is said to have erected an enormous temple, and hundreds of statues dedicated to none other that the goddess Sekhmet which attracted thousands of worshipers annually. The actual location has yet to be discovered.

Jupiter helps Halley’s Comet give us more spectacular meteor displays

In March 2012 the Royal Astronomical Society published an article with the above headline. It stated: “When the Earth crosses Halley’s path, twice per orbit, dust particles (meteoroids) burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere and we see meteor showers: the Orionids in October and the Eta Aquariids in May. Previous research has suggested that Orionid meteoroids have at times fallen into ‘resonances’ with Jupiter’s orbit – a numerical relationship that influences orbital behaviour. Sekhar’s new study suggests that Halley itself has been in resonances with Jupiter in the past, which in turn would increase the chances of populating resonant meteoroids in the stream. The particles ejected during those times experience a tendency to clump together due to periodic effects from Jupiter.

“This resonant behaviour of meteoroids means that Halley’s debris is not uniformly distributed along its orbital path. When the Earth encounters one of these clumps, it experiences a much more spectacular meteor shower than usual,” said Sekhar, of Armagh Observatory.

Sekhar has modeled Halley’s orbital evolution over more than 12 000 years into the past and 15 000 years into the future. The model suggests that from 1404 BC to 690 BC, Halley was trapped in a 1:6 resonance with Jupiter (in which Halley completed one orbit for every six orbits of Jupiter around the Sun).”

Over the time frame during which the orbit of Halley’s Comet is reliably known, i.e. since 1404 BC calculations show that the comet was resonant in the past: it was trapped in 1:6 resonance with Jupiter from 1404 BC to 690 BC. What this in effect means that during the period of resonance meteoroids ejected by Halley moved closer to the earth’s orbit with a much greater likely-hood of impacting the earth. The integration couldn’t go reliably beyond 1404 BC because of Halley’s very close approach and impact with the earth at that time. The key paper for determining Halley’s past apparitions was that issued by Don Yeomans & Tao Kiang in 1981. Neither should one think that the events are incredibly remote because as a recent orbital analysis by Mikiya Sato and Jun-ichi Watanabe (2014) showed that enhanced Eta Aquariid activity in 2013 was due to dust trails produced by Halley ?3 kyr earlier, in 1198 BC and 911 BC. The two showers are also of concern from a spacecraft safety perspective. The Orionids and especially the Eta Aquariids are currently considered to be among the more significant impact hazards out of all the major showers throughout the year!

The Dream Stele and Beyond

Given this information therefore it should come as no surprise that c1404 is when the so called Dream Stele, found at the foot of the Sphinx of Thutmose IV (c1401/1397–1391/1388 BC) was composed following his celestial ‘dream’ of being given divine kingship which thereby permitted him to usurp his brother. Neither should it come as a surprise that this is exactly when Sekhmet comes raging to the fore. Notably at this time Thutmose had to suppress a sudden rebellion in Nubia!

It also helps explain why his successor Amenophis III (c1388/6 to c1351/49 BC) felt the hitherto unexplained need to erect hundreds of statues of Sekhmet during his reignin order to appease the goddess.

Note ring width minima and frost signals for the following years:1386, 1385, 1373, 1359

Amenophis’ successor Akhenaten (c1353/51–1336/34 BC) actually changed the religious outlook of Egypt as a consequence of these heavy meteor showers which evidently continued unabated in spite of all the statues dedicated to Sekhmet. Thus we find in his building of his new capital at Akentaten on a previously uninhabited site which according to inscriptions was appropriate for Aten’s city for “not being the property of a god, nor being the property of a goddess, nor being the property of a ruler, nor being the property of a female ruler, nor being the property of any people able to lay claim to it”. This was evidently as a consequence yet another airburst. On surviving Stelae M, X, K: A listing of the new capitals principal features is then rudely interrupted with the following interjection: “As for the … in Akhetaten: -it was far worse than those things I heard in regnal year 4 [then says the same for years 3, 2, 1] -it was worse than those things [Amenopis III] heard; -it was worse [than] those things which Menkheperre [Tuthmoses III] heard; -[and it was] worse [than] those things heard by any kings who had ever assumed the white crown!” (Here he is evidently alluding to the much earlier cataclysmic event in Southern Egypt, the region associated with the White Crown, in the 1900’s BC.)

His attempts it would appear were in vain. Is it mere coincidence one may ask that 1334 BC was an apparition year of Halley’s Comet coinciding neatly with Akhenaten’s demise?

With Akhenaten’s death (was he murdered?) the Aten cult he had founded fell out of favour immediately. Tutankhaten changed his name to Tutankhamun in Year 2 of his reign (c?1332 BC) and abandoned the city of Akhetaten. Successors then attempted to erase Akhenaten and his family from the historical record. During the reign of Horemheb, the last pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty and the first pharaoh after Akhenaten who was not related to Akhenaten’s family, Egyptians started to destroy temples to the Aten and reuse the blocks in new projects, including in temples for the newly restored god Amun. Horemheb’s successor continued in this effort. Seti I restored monuments to Amun and had the god’s name re-carved on inscriptions where it had been removed by Akhenaten.

Seti I also ordered that Akhenaten, Smenkhkare, Neferneferuaten, Tutankhamun, and Ay be excised from official lists of pharaohs to make it appear that Amenhotep III was immediately succeeded by Horemheb. Under the Ramessides, who succeeded Seti I, Akhetaten was gradually destroyed and the building material reused.

Seti notably was born at probably the same time as the cataclysm which destroyed Ephesus/ Atlantis in 1327 BC. His rule is currently dated to c1294/1290 BC-1279 BC.

In Seti’s monumental temple at Abydos Sekhmet features prominently in a relief in which she is represented holding the “ankh” sign before the mouth of the pharaoh. She devastatingly reappears in the reigns of Merneptah (c1213 BC-c1203 BC and Seti II (c1203 BC to 1197 BC) where she is credited with killing thousands. (picture credit: Outofthetombs)

Late Bronze Age Collapse

This is effectively the start of the period known as the Bronze Age Collapse which is currently dated to c1200-1150 BC. This period shall be explored in greater detail in a future article. The Late Bronze Age collapse is defined as a time of widespread societal collapse associated with environmental change, mass migration and destruction of cities. A large area of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Near East was affected. It was a violent, and culturally disruptive for many of the Bronze Age civilizations, and ultimately resulted in a sharp economic decline of the regional powers, notably ushering in the Dark Ages in Greece. Mythology knows this as the period of the War of the Giants in which deities such as Athena and Artemis are depicted as engaged in conflict against a race of giants. The giants are metaphors for a sequence of volcanic eruptions engendered by intense meteor showers bombarding the earth. The whole history of the region needs to be reappraised in the light of this new information.

Buy: Atlantis, the Amazons, and the Birth of Athene: https://www.amazon.com/Atlantis-Amazons-Birth-Athene-Story/dp/B0CHCX1D47

Bibliography

The Lion Goddess in the Old Kingdom Nile Delta: A Study in Local Cult Topography, Eve Lange, 2016

Sekhmet and Bastet: The Feline Powers of Egypt, Lesley Jackson, 2017

Herodotus, Histories 2.138

‘Planet killer’ asteroids’ Can we stop them in time? Brandon Specktor, 2023

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelyabinsk_meteor 2024

O. P. Popova, et al., Chelyabinsk Airburst, Damage Assessment, Meteorite Recovery and Characterization. Science 342 (2013)

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Amenemhat I and the early 12^th Dynasty, Dorothea Arnold, 1991

Resonant behavior of comet Halley and the Orionid stream, A. SEKHAR and D. J. ASHER 2013

Evidence of Eta Aquariid Outbursts Recorded in the Classic Maya Hieroglyphic Script Using Orbital Integrations, J. H. Kinsman, D. J. Asher, 2017

Forecast of enhanced activity of eta-Aquariids in 2013, Mikiya Sato, Jun-Ichi Watanabe, 2014

Bristlecone pine tree rings and volcanic eruptions over the last 5000 yr, Matthew W. Salzer, Malcolm K. Hughes 2005

Atlantis, the Amazons, and the Birth of Athene, Nicholas Costa, 2023

The Wrath of Sekhmet, Edward P. Butler, 2015

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