Wadjet
Wadjet is the Cobra-goddess of Buto (Tell el-Farain) in the
Nile Delta and preserver of royal authority over Northern Egypt. Wadjet is
represented as a cobra rearing up to strike with lethal force any enemy of the
king. She can also appear as a lioness in her role as ‘Eye of RA’. Her name
(also found in Egyptological literature as Edjo or Uto) means ‘green one’, a
reference both to a serpent’s colour and to the Delta’s papyrus swamps which,
according to one of the Pyramid Texts, she created. She is the tutelary goddess
of Lower Egypt and is symbolised as such by a title in the royal protocol (see
PHARAOH). The major Delta shrine, the ‘Per-nu’, is under her protection. Wadjet
is in harmony with her southern counterpart Nekhbet – in temples or tombs she
can frequently be seen with the full body or just the wings of the
vulture-goddess of Upper Egypt. In the legend of the upbringing of the young
HORUS in Khemmis in the Delta it is Wadjet who is his nurse leading to a later
identification with ISIS. Along with several other leonine deities she is given
the relatively undistinguished role of mother to the god Nefertum.
The royal Uraeus
The symbol of sovereignty backed up by a superhuman force of
destruction is the cobra worn on the royal head-dress or crown. According to a
Pyramid Text the god GEB awarded the cobra to the king as legitimate holder of
the throne of Egypt. This emblem is Wadjet rising up in anger about to spit
flames in defence of the monarch. The imagery (‘iaret’ in Egyptian) lies behind
the Greek word for ‘serpent’, normally used in its latinised form of Uraeus. In
war the Uraeus on the king’s brow destroys his enemies with her fiery breath as
in the inscriptions, e.g. describing Thutmose III (Dynasty XVIII) at the battle
of Megiddo and Ramesses II (Dynasty XVIII) at Kadesh.
The sun-god RA also wears the Uraeus which envelops his solar
disk within its coils, here Wadjet is Ra’s agent of annihilation, especially of
the hostile snakes of the Underworld which might threaten the sun-god on his
nightly journey. So closely is the Uraeus identified with kingship that when
Akhenaten (Dynasty XVIII) adopted the device that reduced the iconography of
the sun-god to abstract essentials, the cobra goddess was retained on the solar
disk, emphasising the god ATEN to be overall sovereign.
Weret-Hekau
She is a cobra or lioness Goddess and a guardian of the pharaoh. Her name means
‘Great of Magic’ – which as an epithet frequently follows the names of major
goddess. In the Pyramid Texts, the title ‘Great of Magic’ is also given to the
Crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt.
As an independent deity, Weret-Hekau occurs in reliefs and
inscriptions of the New Kingdom. On the Eighth Pylon of the Temple of AMUN at
Karnak, Weret- Hekau with the head of a lioness accompanies the pharaoh
Thutmose III (Dynasty XVIII) in the procession of the sacred boat carried on
the priests’ shoulders. The most beautiful representations of the lioness
goddess are on the interior northern wall of the Great Hypostyle Hall at Karnak
where she presents the pharaoh Sety I (Dynasty XIX) with the symbol of the
jubilee festival.
On the small Golden shrine discovered in the tomb of
Tutankhamun (Dynasty XVIII) the name of the pharaoh, and that of his queen
Ankhesenamun, is often linked to Weret-Hekau, sometimes called ‘Mistress of the
Palace’. In the shrine itself was an amulet showing Weret-Hekau as a
cobra-goddess, with a human head and arms, suckling Tutankhamun. Her closeness
to royalty is particularly stressed on the inscription on the dyad statue of
the pharaoh Horemheb (Dynasty XVIII) and his queen Mutnodjmet, now in Turin
Museum. The inscription describes how during Horemheb’s coronation ceremony in
the Temple of Karnak, Weret-Hekau embraces the new pharaoh and establishes
herself as the Uraeus on his brow. In the Graeco-Roman Era Weret- Hekau
participates in the mourning rituals depicted on the walls of the OSIRIS chapel
on the roof of the Temple of Philae.
Source: George Hart, The Routledge Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses, 1991
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