Sekhmet and The Eye of Ra

     This post outlines the importance of the Egyptian symbol of Ra's eye and why it is seen as a powerful and important symbol of protection. The Eye of Ra was a symbol of protection because it symbolized Ra's female protectors. Almost all of Ra's female relatives are considered to be an Eye of Ra. Some goddesses who are said to be an Eye of Ra include: Sekhmet, Bastet, Hathor, Isis, Mut, Mehet-Weret, Tefnut, Serqet, Nekhbet, and Wadjet, to name a few. This story is the story that set this concept into Egyptian beliefs.

     As I mentioned in the previous post: Egyptian Mythology: Creation Story, Ra had started to become older and lazier, such that he began drooling. This was what allowed Isis to eventually get his secret name.

     Ra continued to rule Egypt and got older, lazier, and crazier over the years. But, he still refused to retire from his throne for Osiris. Due to the fact that he was getting crazier, people lost belief in his power and authority, and some humans began to plan a rebellion against him. Rumors of the rebellion reached the ears of Ra, who became enraged at this and the fact that he was getting weaker because people weren't worshiping him anymore. So, Ra went to Nun, and asked him for advice on what to do about it. Nun told Ra to take out his third eye, which Ra did. His third eye became a bloodthirsty lion-goddess named Sekhmet. He told Sekhmet to go and punish all the people who wished to overthrow him. Sekhmet gladly did this and killed tons and tons of humans. She also began to kill humans who never thought anything wrong about Ra. The other gods were totally freaked out about this and Ra told Sekhmet to stop. But, she didn't listen, since her blood lust was too strong to resist. So, Ra called all the gods and remaining humans together to make a really strong beer that looked and smelt like blood. The beer was brewed by Tenenet, the goddess of beer, brewing, and childbirth.

     They took this blood-beer and spread it all across the land. When Sekhmet saw this "blood", she drank it all of it. She then collapsed, too drunk to move, and slept for three days. While she slept, Ra then pulled out a huge portion of her essence and made two new goddesses: Bastet (Bast) and Hathor. Bastet was the goddess of cats, perfume, oil, fragrance, music, dance, protection, war, and pleasure. She is one reason why cats were considered extremely sacred in ancient Egypt. Hathor was the goddess of cows, rainbows, mother, wives, queens, women, joy, delight, and love. Hathor had a son named Apis, the bull god. Sekhmet woke up, but was no longer ferocious as she was before, because a huge chunk of her essence was gone and now she only killed cruel people for the purpose of protecting good people and her father Ra.

     Now, Sekhmet was finally calmed and became not just the goddess of vengeance, but also the goddess of healing. Sekhmet then moved more south to the city of Memphis. Here she married Ptah, the god of craftsmanship, and a form of Ra. Sekhmet touched Ptah's forehead with a blue lotus flower and they had a son named Nefertem, the god of beauty and makeup. She also had another son named Maahes, the lion-headed god of protection, war and weather. Apis became Ptah's herald and Ptah also married Bastet.

     Another version of the story states that to punish humans, Ra turned his third eye into Hathor, who then turned into Sekhmet and the rest of the story continues as before. In another version of the story, Hathor doesn't turn into Sekhmet and instead, makes Ra laugh by getting naked and dancing in front of him. Whenever Hathor wasn't with Ra, Ra became depressed, but when Hathor was with Ra, he would stop sulking.

     After Sekhmet's incident, Ra finally decided that it was probably best if he retired into the heavens and took his place as the sun. This paved the way for Shu, then Geb, and then Osiris to become king, and as we all know, that went "perfectly well". To know what I mean, read about Osiris' rule over Egypt and the most famous Egyptian story in Egyptian Mythology: Osiris Myth: Osiris and Isis and Egyptian Mythology: Osiris Myth: Horus and Set

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Egyptian Creation Story

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     In the beginning, there was only Nun, the primordial ocean of chaos. The ancient Egyptians believed that Nun was an ocean, but you might know it by another name: space. Nun was made up of eight deities. There was the god Nu and the goddess Naunet, who represented the water of Nun. The god Huh and the goddess Hauhet, who represented the infinite expanse of Nun. The god Kek and the goddess Kauket represented the darkness of Nun. And, the god Amun and the goddess Amaunet represented Nun's difference from the living world. These eight deities were known collectively as the Ogdoad. The four gods were frogs, while the goddesses were snakes. They merged, causing a huge upheaval in the water of Nun. Then, from Nun's waters, there came a little hill in the shape of the first pyramid. It was called Benben.

     One of Nun's waves was a cow named Mehet-Weret. Mehet-Weret was the goddess of the milky Way, which came from her ears, Nun and Mehet-Weret together created a beat, which louder and louder until Ra came into existence (Ra can be replaced by Atum, Amun, or Ptah). Ra was the sun god, and rose from the top of Benben, like the rising sun. Ra further willed himself into existence by creating a heart around the beat, and then a voice box so that he could speak for the first time. Ra realized that words held great power. So, from words, he created a primordial island for him to live on. He then turned from a bennu into a man with the head of a falcon and one all-seeing eye. He then spat (or sneezed). From his saliva came his daughter Tefnut, the lion-headed goddess of mist and moisture. From the breath that propelled the moisture came his son Shu, the god of air.

     While they were living on the island, Tefnut and Shu got lost and they couldn't use their powers to see in the dark. Like any father, Ra began to feel very nervous and became scared for their safety. At the time, Ra had only one eye. So, he plucked out his eye and sent it to find Shu and Tefnut. But, while he waited, he realized that if they came back to him, then he would not be able to see them, so he created a second eye for himself. The second eye was the symbol known as "The Eye of Ra".

      Meanwhile, Ra's first eye found Shu and Tefnut and led them back to Ra. Ra embraced his children and began to cry out of happiness. His tears fell on the ground and they became humans. When Ra's first eye saw that Ra had replaced it, it became furious and tried to corrupt mankind. Hence, cruel qualities were born. Ra saw this and to comfort his first eye, he created a sun disk on his head named Aten, a form of Ra. He then turned his first eye into a snake and placed it on top of Aten. This was a position of great honor, and so Ra's first eye was calmed. Through his first eye, Ra could see the past, the universe, and the future. Ra also created a third eye for himself, so as to have a pair of eyes under his forehead, like most animals and humans.

     Ra then had a daughter named Ma'at. Ma'at is the order of the entire universe. Her opposite was Isfet, the total chaos of the universe. Ra then created Thoth from his tongue to help him create the world. Thoth was the god of knowledge and magic, and he had the head of an ibis (or baboon). Thoth was also a god of the moon and was also the one who invented writing and hieroglyphics Thoth married Ma'at and had a daughter named Seshat, the goddess of writing. Thoth helped Ra to create all animals and plants. Ra then became the first king of the Earth/Egypt.

     Another goddess that came from Nun was Neith. Neith became the goddess of hunting until she saw how her people grew old and died. So, she changed her role and instead became the goddess of weaving. Neith wove and wove and wove, until she ended up weaving most of the world into existence. She then married Khnum, a form of Ra with the head of a ram. Khnum was also said to have come from Nun. Khnum was the god of the source of the Nile, and from his potter's wheel, he makes babies before they are placed into their mothers. Neith and Khnum had three children: Sobek, the crocodile go of the Nile, which he made from his sweat; Tutu, the god of demons and strength; Serqet, the goddess of venomous creatures (mostly scorpions and snakes); and Apophis (Apep), the cosmic serpent of chaos, and the eternal enemy of Ra.

     Sobek married Renenutef, the snake goddess and had a son named Neper, the god of grains. Neper married Nepit, the goddess of grains; and Tayt, the goddess of weaving and textiles. Sobek also married Meskhenet, the goddess of the Ka (spiritual essence) of the soul.

     Khnum was also married to Heqet, the goddess of frogs and fertility; Satet, the goddess of hunting; Menhit, the goddess of lions and war; and Nebtuwi, goddess of desert oases. Khnum and Satet had a daughter named Anuket, the goddess of gazelles. Khnum and Menhit had a son named Heka, the god of medicine and magic. Khnum, Satet, and Anuket became the main triad worshiped at Elephantine.

     From his blood, Ra created Sia, the god of sight; and Hu, the god of creativity. Ra also had a lion-headed son named Anhur, the god of war. When another lion-goddess named Menhit ran away to Nubia, Ra sent Anhur to go get her back. Anhur fell in love with Menhit and when he brought her back, he got Ra's permission to marry her.

     Amun, a form of Ra, married the goddesses Amunet, Wosret, and Mut. Mut was a mother goddess and she and Amun had a son named Konshu, the moon god. It is Mut's job to make sure that the sun (Amun) and the moon (Konshu) are always happy with one another. Amun, Mut, and Konshu are worshiped as the triad of the city of Thebes.

     Shu and Tefnut got married and merged to form the mist. They gave birth to Geb and Nut, who were born clinging to one another. Geb was the earth god and Nut was the sky goddess. They got married. A prophecy said that the son of Geb and Nut would become the king of Egypt. To stop this from happening, Ra forced Shu to separate his children. Shu did it because he knew that Geb and Nut had to be separated so that life could thrive on Geb. So, Shu tore them apart and spread his daughter's body in a huge arch, making the sky and the earth separate to this day. This was also how the atmosphere was created. Now, whenever Nut released rain upon Geb, plants sprouted up from his body, and whenever Geb laughed, it resulted in earthquakes.

     Geb gave birth to Hapi, the god of the Nile river. Geb and Renenutet had a son named Nehebkau, the god of funerals. Nehebkau married a goddess named Nehmetawy. Geb is considered to be the father of all crops, geese, and snakes.

     Unfortunately for Ra, Nut was already pregnant at the time of the separation and so Ra used his power to make it so that Nut can't give birth on any month of the year. At the time, the year consisted of 360 days, like in the degrees of a circle. Nut was in great pain and she desperately had to give birth soon. Thoth took pity on her and so gambled light with Konshu. His moonlight was just as bright and powerful as Ra's sunlight. Thoth won enough times to take the light he won and add five extra days to the calendar, making 365 days in a year. Because of the light he had lost, Konshu had to wax and wane every month. To thank Konshu, Thoth made his ibis beak curve like the crescent moon.

     One the five days, one by one, Nut gave birth to five children: Osiris, Horus the Elder, Set, Isis, and Nephthys, respectively. Osiris was the god of agriculture, and the afterlife. Horus the Elder was a sphinx deity, and was the god of the sun disk and the protector of Egypt. Set was the god of storms, desert, chaos, and evil. Isis was the goddess of magic, love, and motherhood. Isis was such a great goddess that even the Romans worshiped her. Nephthys was the goddess of protection, water, rivers, skulls, nature, night, sleep, lamentation, and camels.

     Ra, Shu, Tefnut, Geb, Nut, Osiris, Set, Isis, and Nephthys were all known as the Enhead, and were the nine gods worshiped in Heliopolis.

     Isis wanted to become more powerful to be able to protect her husband and maybe one day, her child. So, she began to heal small wounds and worked her way up from there. But, it wasn't enough. By then, Ra had grown old over the years and he drooled a lot. So, Isis took some of his saliva, mixed it with sand, and created a very venomous snake. The snake bit Ra and he began to die. All the gods came to help him, but Ra would only accept help from Isis, due to her great healing abilities. Isis came and said that she couldn't save Ra unless he told her his secret name. Everything in existence had a secret name and to give Isis his secret name would give Isis dominion over him. He relented until he finally agreed to tell her his secret name, making her swear that she would not tell it to anyone except her son. She agreed and then was able to heal him. This made her the goddess of magic and she became one of the most powerful Egyptian.

     Over time, many more gods and goddesses appear, such as Nekhbet, the vulture goddess; Wadjet, a snake goddess; Hatmehyt, goddess of fish; Maftet, the mongoose; Tawaret, the hippo/lion/crocodile goddess; and her husband Bes, the god of dwarves and children.

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Lord Brahma's Family Tree

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     Lord Brahma gave birth to nine sages: Atharva, Bhrigu, Kratu, Marichi, Atri, Vashishta, Pulaha, Pulastya, Kardama, and a beautiful woman named Ahilya. He also gave birth to a man and a woman named Swayambhuva Manu and Shatarupa, respectively. Manu and Shatarupa got married and had three daughters named Akuti, Devahuti, and Prasuti. Devahuti married Sage Kardama and had six daughters, who married six of the seven sages. Shanti married Atharva, Gati married Pulaha, Havirbhu married Pulastya, Kala married Marichi, Khyati married Bhrigu, Kriya married Kratu, Shraddha married Angira, and Anasuya married Atri.

     Akuti married the sage Ruchi and they had a son and daughter named Yagna and Dakshina. Lord Yagna is an incarnation of Lord Vishnu and Dakshina is an incarnation of Goddess Lakshmi. They got married and gave birth to twelve demigods called Tushitas.

     Atri prayed to Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu, who all appeared before him. The boon he asked for what was that the lord of the universe would be born as his son. But he didn't know which of the three was the lord of the universe. They said that all three of them were the lords of the universe. Hence all three of them would be born as his sons.

     Lakshmi, Saraswathi, and Parvati wanted to learn pativratya from Anasuya. Pativratya is how a woman should treat her husband with love and respect. They sent their husbands to go and ask her. So Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva appeared to Anasuya disguised as sages and asked Anasuya to teach their wives pativratya. But she had to be very loving to the three sages while doing so.

     Thanks to her great yogic powers, Anasuya knew who the three sages actually were. So, she turned them into six-month old babies and lovingly fed them. The goddesses waited for days for their husbands to return until they decided to go to Anasuya's ashram. There they saw her lovingly feeding their husbands as babies. They asked her to turn their husbands back to normal, which she did. The three gods were pleased with Anasuya and offered her a boon. She asked that they should be born as her children, just like how her husband had asked.

     Once, the king's soldiers caught some thieves who were hiding in the ashram of sage Mandavya. The soldiers also kidnapped Mandavya and impaled him. When he met Yamaraja, he asked him why he was punished and died in such a manner. Yamaraja said that it was because he had killed an ant in his childhood. Mandavya was furious that he was punished for such an innocent act. So, he cursed Yamaraja that he would be born as the son of a maidservant. Because of this curse, Yamaraja would eventually be born as Vidhura, a wise and important character of the Mahabharata.

     Meanwhile, a sage named Kaushik was feeling very sick and his wife was helping him walk. On the way, he stepped on sage Mandavya's body, and was cursed by Mandavya's soul that he would die at sunset. But, his wife loved him so much that she made the sun stop moving. Because of this, Rahu was able to eclipse Surya for a long time. This caused tons of problems in heaven and the gods had to ask Brahma for help. Brahma went to Anasuya and Atri for help. Anasuya calmed Kaushik's wife and told her to allow the sun to move. The Atri pulled Surya away from Rahu and the sun peacefully set and Kaushik died as per his curse. But, Anasuya brought him back to life and cured him of his sickness. Brahma was very grateful and as a thank-you, he was born from Anasuya as Soma, the god of plants and vegetables.

     After the incident with Brahma and the pillar, Shiva was still angry, that all the demigods, including his wife, avoided him out of fear. When Shiva saw how scared everyone had become, he took away his anger and sent it into his incarnation, Anasuya's son. Hence, Shiva was born as Durvasa, the sage who is known for his great temper. and Vishnu was born as Dattatreya, a powerful sage whose physical appearance is a combination of all three gods. Anasuya and Atri also had a daughter named Subhatreyi.

     Shraddha and Angira had four daughters and two sons named Utathya and Brihaspati. Brihaspati married Tara, the daughter of Surya, and had a son named Kacha, who became a sage. Chandra, the moon god, kidnapped Tara, and she became pregnant. She gave birth to Budh, the god of the planet Mercury. Budh married Ila, a woman who used to be a king named Sudyumna. Budh and Ila had a son named Pururavas, who was the first king of the Chandravanshis (the moon dynasty).

     Utathya had a wife named Mamata. They had a son named Dirghatamas, who was born blind, but still became a great sage. He married a woman named Pradweshi, and they had a son named Gautama, who also became a great sage. Brahma had a daughter named Ahilya and had set up a contest: Whoever went around the earth three times the fastest would marry her. Indra went around the earth three times and then demanded Ahilya's hand in marriage. But Narada Muni said that Gautama went around the earth three times the fastest. It turns out that Gautama had circumambulated the divine cow mother Surabhi, who was pregnant at the time. A cow represented the bountiful earth and so, Ahilya married Gautama, much to Indra's jealousy.

     Gautama and Ahilya had three sons named Nodhas, Vamadeva, and Shatananda, who became a priest. They also had a daughter named Anjana, who would be the mother of Lord Hanuman.

     Mamata had an affair with Brihaspati and they had a son named Bharadwaja, who also became a great sage. Bharadwaja had a son named Drona, who is an important character in the Mahabharata.

     Kriya and Kratu gave birth to 60,000 sages known as Valakhilyas. Bhrigu and Khyati had two sons named Dhata and Vidhata. They also had a daughter named Bhargavi, who was an incarnation of Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth. Bhrigu also had another wife named Puloma. When she was pregnant, a demon named Puloman saw her and fell in love with her. Agni told him that she was the wife of Bhrigu. Hearing this, Puloman turned into a boar and abducted her. Her child fell on the grass and Puloma died. The baby was glowing so brightly that Puloman got burnt. The baby was named Chyavana, and he would become a great sage. Bhrigu was angry that Agni had given away Puloma's identity and so cursed Agni that he would be burn and consume everything.

     Vidhata had a son named Mrukandu, and Mrukandu's son is Markandeya, who is a famous sage who became immortal. Markandeya had a son named Bhavana Rishi, who married Bhadra, the daughter of Surya. They had 101 children named the Padmashalis, who became the Telugu population of India. Bhrigu had a third wife named Kavyamata, or Usanas. She had a son named Shukracharya, the god of the planet Venus. He is also the guru of the asuras and always brings the demons back to life after battles with the demigod.

     Once, Shukracharya was off praying to Shiva, the demigods attacked the demons, who ran to get help from Shukra's mother Kavyamata. She used her powers to put all the demigods to sleep. Vishnu realized that she had to die for the universe to progress. So, he used his chakra to chop off her head. Bhrigu was so angry that he cursed Vishnu to be born on the earth 10 times. Bhrigu then revived Kavyamata.

     Shanti and Atharva had a son who was a great sage named Dadhichi. Dadhichi also had a son named Kunda. Kala and Marichi had a son named Kashyapa, who became a famous sage and the father of tons of creatures: humans, animals, gods, and demons. Pulastya and Havirbhu gave birth to the sages Agastya and Vishrava. Agastya married a woman named Lopamudra. Vishrava has two wives named Idavida and Keshini. Idavida was the daughter of Bharadwaja and gave birth to Kubera, and Keshini gave birth to Ravana, Kumbakarna, Khara, Dhushana, Vibhishana, and Shurpanakha, all of whom are famous demons in the Ramayana.

     Prasuti married the Chief Prajapati Daksha and had sixteen daughters. One of their daughters went to the underworld, and thirteen of them married the sage Dharma. Dharma, and one of his wives, Murti, gave birth to the twin-brothers incarnation of Lord Vishnu called Nara-Narayana. They performed lots of penance in Badrinath and became very powerful sages. Shiva wanted to show the world how powerful they were by throwing his Pashupatastra weapon at them. They were so powerful that the astra lost its power before it hit them.

     Once, Indra became very nervous because of Nara-Narayana's power that he sent Kama (love, desire), Vasant (spring), and beautiful nymphs to them to disturb them and stop their meditation. Narayana took a flower and placed it on his thigh. From his thigh came a beautiful nymph named Urvashi. She was the most beautiful nymph of all time and the other nymphs couldn't make themselves more beautiful. So they all went back to heaven along with Urvashi and Nara-Narayana continued meditating. Nara and Narayana eventually were reborn as Arjuna and Krishna from Mahabharata, respectively.

     One of Daksha's daughters, Swaha, married the fire god Agni and they had a daughter named Agneya, who married Uru, a descendant of Angira. Agni and Swaha also had three sons who carried offerings to and from heaven and yagnas on earth. They each had 15 sons, so there are 49 fire gods in total. The youngest daughter of Daksha, Sati, later married Shiva, but burned herself before she had any children.