TOP 20 EGYPTIAN GODDESSES (MYTHOLOGICAL NAMES) - HISTORY - 2025

The Egyptian goddesses of Ancient Egyptian mythology played a fundamental role in religion and civilization. In addition, the woman of this society had certain privileges with respect to the inferior role that was assigned in other later cultures such as the Greek.

The beliefs and rituals surrounding these gods formed the core of ancient Egyptian religion, which emerged sometime in prehistory. The deities represented natural forces and phenomena, and the Egyptians praised them through offerings and rituals so that these forces would continue to function according to the divine order.

After the founding of the Egyptian state around 3100 BC, the authority to perform these tasks was controlled by the pharaoh, who claimed to be the representative of the gods.

Here is a list of the main Egyptian goddesses, who, like the gods of Ancient Egypt, fulfilled a certain functionality.

The most important Egyptian goddesses

1- Amonet

Amonet was one of the primordial goddesses in the religion of Ancient Egypt. She is a member of the Ogdoad and consort of Amun. Her name, which means "the hidden one", is simply the feminine form of Amun. She was described as a woman wearing the red crown or desheret and in her hands a scroll of papyrus.

Amonet was always represented in conjunction with Amun and there are no references to this goddess alone. Around the twelfth dynasty (1991 to 1803 BC) her image took second place to that of Mut as Amun's consort.

In some locations such as Thebes, Amonet was continuously worshiped since she was considered the protector of the pharaoh.

2- Anuket

Anuket was the personification and goddess of the Nile River in Egyptian mythology. It was also known as Anaka or Anqet and its sacred animal was the gazelle. Her name means "the hugger" and was normally described as a woman with a headdress made of reeds or ostrich feathers and in her hand a scepter.

She was also detailed nursing the pharaoh and in later periods she was recognized as the goddess of lust. This is why it was also associated with the cowrie because of its similarity to a vagina

3- Bastet

Bastet was a goddess in ancient Egyptian religion, worshiped from the second dynasty in 2890 BC. She was also known as Bast and was recognized as the goddess of war in lower Egypt before the unification of cultures.

She was originally described as a warrior in the shape of a lion and later transformed into a protective goddess in the shape of a cat. The cult center of this deity was in the city of Bubastis in what is now known as Zagazig. In the temple dedicated to Bastet it was usual to mummify cats and excavations today have found up to 300,000 of them.

4- Hathor

Hathor was an Egyptian goddess who was considered the personification of joy, female love, and motherhood. She was one of the most important and revered deities throughout the history of Egypt, coming to be worshiped by both royalty and ordinary people.

In many tombs she was shown as the deity in charge of welcoming the dead to the next life. It was also believed to assist women in childbirth. Hathor was described as a cow goddess with horns between which is a solar disk surrounded by a uræus.

5- Hatmehyt

Hatmeith in the religion of ancient Egypt was the goddess of fish in the Mendes area. Her name translates as "Chief of the Fishes" or "Leader of the Fishes." She was regularly described as a fish or as a woman with an emblem or a fish-shaped crown.

She was eventually considered the wife of Osiris and mother of Horus, coming to be identified as an alternate form of Isis.

6- Hemsut

Hemsut were considered the goddesses of destiny and protection in ancient Egyptian mythology. These were closely related to the concept of ka, or spirit. They were described as the female personification of the male ka.

They also represented the primeval waters from which all things were born. His image was that of women carrying a shield with two crossed arrows on it or that of a woman on her knees with a child in her arms.

7-Heket

Heket was the Egyptian goddess of fertility and represented in the shape of a toad. For the Egyptians this animal was associated with fertility since they appeared with the annual flood of the Nile River.

Heket was regarded as the female version or the wife of Khnemu and mother of Heru-ur. Some toad-shaped statues from the Second Dynasty are believed to have been dedicated to her. It was also associated with the last moments of childbirth so women wore amulets at this time in which Heket was represented as a toad sitting on a lotus leaf.

8- Isis

Isis was a goddess from ancient Egyptian mythology whose cult later spread throughout the Roman Empire.

Today it is still worshiped by many movements and religions. She was originally idealized as the ideal mother and wife, as well as being the mother of nature and magic. In turn, she was the patroness of slaves, sinners, artisans and the oppressed, but she also listened to the prayers of aristocrats and leaders. She was also known as the protector of the dead and the goddess of children.

The name of Isis means "Throne" and that is why the crown she wears represents a throne as a personification of the power of the pharaoh. The most important temples in her honor were at Beh Hamps El-Hagar and on the island of File.

In myth, Isis was the first daughter of Geb, the god of the Earth, and Nut, the goddess of the sky. She married her brother Osiris and conceived Horus with him. The sacred image of Isis with Horus in her arms as a child became a model for Christianity of Mary carrying Jesus in her arms.

9- Iusaaset

Iusaaset or Iusaas is the name of one of the primordial goddesses in ancient Egyptian religion, defined as the grandmother of all deities. She is depicted as a woman wearing a horned vulture crown with a sun disk surrounded by the uræus. In her hands she has a scepter.

Iusaaset was also associated with the acacia tree, which is considered the tree of life. According to the myth, Iusaaset and Atum were the parents of Shu and Tefnut, the first deities.

10- Qebehut

In Egyptian mythology, Qebehut was a goddess considered to be the personification of embalming fluid. Its name translates as "Refreshing water". Qebehut is the daughter of Anubis and the wife of Anput.

He refers to her as a serpent that refreshes and purifies Pharaoh. It was believed that this deity gave water to the spirits of the dead while they waited for the mummification to be completed. In addition, she was in charge of protecting the body, keeping it fresh for resuscitation by her ka.

11- Maat

Maat was the Egyptian goddess who personified the concepts of truth, balance, order, harmony, law, morality and justice. This was in charge of regulating the stars and the seasons and who established order in the universe from chaos to the moment of creation.

Following this role, his primary role was to weigh the souls (or hearts) in the underworld. It is represented with a feather on its head that was used to determine if the souls of those who were leaving would reach paradise or not.

12- Mafdet

Mafdet was the Egyptian goddess protector against snakes and scorpions. It was part of the Egyptian pantheon since the first dynasty and was represented as some type of feline or mongoose.

It also symbolized the definition of legal justice or the death sentence and protected the tombs of the pharaohs and other holy places. Mafdet was said to rip out the hearts of those who did evil and deliver them to Pharaoh at their feet.

13- Meheturet

Meheturet was the goddess of the sky in Egyptian mythology. Its name translates as "Great Flood" and is represented as a cow with a solar disk between its horns. She is known as the "Celestial Cow" or the "Cow Goddess" given her physical characteristics.

In the creation myths she gives light to the sun at the beginning of time and is one of the main components in the creation and maintenance of life. She is also considered the goddess of water, creation and rebirth and is responsible for raising the sun in the sky every day providing light for the crops of those who worshiped her.

14- Mut

Mut was a goddess of ancient Egypt whose name translates as "mother." It was considered as a primordial deity that was associated with the waters from which all things arose.

The hieroglyph that represented her was the vulture, which according to the Egyptians was quite a maternal creature. In art, Mut was represented as a woman with vulture wings with an ankh in her hands and on her head she wore the crown of Upper and Lower Egypt unified together with a red or blue dress.

Alternatively it was also represented as a cobra, a cat, a cow or a lioness.

15- Nephthys

Nephthys or Nebthet was an Egyptian goddess, a member of the Great Ennead of Heliopolis. She was the daughter of Nut and Geb and the sister of Isis and was a protective deity that symbolizes the experience of death, as opposed to Isis that symbolizes the experience of life.

At times she was described as aggressive, being able to incinerate the pharaoh's enemies with her fiery breath.

Nephthys was represented as a woman with the wings of a hawk. Their abilities were similar to those of Isis in that Nephthys balanced the darkness and the other the light. Commonly these two were represented as twin sisters.

16- Seshat

Seshat was the Egyptian goddess of wisdom, knowledge, and writing. She was seen as a scribe and her name literally means "she who writes." She is credited with the invention of writing according to mythology.

In turn, she is also recognized as the goddess of history, architecture, astronomy, astrology, construction, mathematics, and surveying.

Her abilities associated her as the protector of the scrolls where all the greatest knowledge was kept and her main temple was in the city of Heliopolis.

It is represented as a woman with a seven-pointed emblem on her head whose meaning is still unknown. In her hands she carries a palm stem with notches that signify the record of the passage of time and she wears a cheetah or leopard skin as a symbol of the priests of the funerals.

17- Sekhmet

Sekhmet, whose name means "the mighty one," was a warrior goddess and goddess of healing in ancient Egyptian mythology. It was represented as a lion and was known to be the best hunter for the Egyptians.

Her breath was said to have shaped the desert and acted as a protector of the pharaohs, guiding them in times of war. Sekhmet was represented carrying on her head a solar disk surrounded by the uræu.

18- Tueris

Tueris is a protective divinity of ancient Egypt and is the representation of childbirth and fertility. Her name means "the big one" and she is typically depicted as a bipedal female hippo with some feline features with the tail of a Nile crocodile and large breasts hanging from her chest.

His image was used in amulets that protected mothers and their children from harm. It was also common to see her image on everyday household objects such as chairs and vessels.

19- Tefnut

Tefnut was the Egyptian goddess who represented humidity, humid air, dew and rain. She is the sister and consort of the air god Shu and the mother of Geb and Nut.

She was represented as a woman with the head of a lioness or as a woman in her entirety. On her head she also wore a wig with a sun disk wrapped in the uræu.

20- waddy

Wadjet was the local Egyptian goddess of the city of Dep. She was considered the patron and protector of lower Egypt and later the protector of all the deities of upper Egypt.

The image of Wadjet surrounding the solar disk is known as the uræus and represented the emblem on the crown of the rulers of Lower Egypt. It was associated with the earth and therefore represented as a woman with a serpent's head or a serpent itself.

References

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