What do Ra and Sekhmet have in common?

They share no domain in this atlas: Ra holds sun, creation, kingship, order, light, while Sekhmet holds war, plague, healing, vengeance, fire.

Which traditions do they belong to?

Both belong to the Egyptian Pantheon.

Side by side

Ra vs Sekhmet

Ra and Sekhmet are recorded in a parent-and-child line within the Egyptian Pantheon.

At a glance

Egyptian Pantheon

tradition

Egyptian Pantheon

sun, creation, kingship, order, light

domains

war, plague, healing, vengeance, fire

sun disk, falcon, solar barque, cobra, scarab beetle

symbols

lioness, red color, sun disk, uraeus

Re, Ra-Horakhty, Atum-Ra, Amun-Ra

also called

Sakhmet, Lady of Slaughter, The Scarlet Lady

Where they meet

shared symbolssun disk

Where they part

Ra alone

sun, creation, kingship, order, light

Sekhmet alone

war, plague, healing, vengeance, fire

How each was worshipped

Cult sites: Great Temple of Ra at Heliopolis (Iunu), Solar sanctuaries of the Fifth Dynasty (Abu Ghurab and beyond).

Festivals: Daily solar barque rites, Sed festival (king as Ra's son).

The king is his son. Morning and evening barques, the benben stone, the sun's twelve night hours. Heliopolis set the theology; later Amun-Ra at Thebes absorbed it without erasing the Heliopolitan cult.

Sekhmet

Cult sites: Memphis, with Ptah and Nefertem, Hundreds of seated lioness statues from Amenhotep III.

Festivals: Pacification of Sekhmet, New Year plague-aversion rites.

Plague and its cure. Priests sang her quiet. Beer dyed red to look like blood is the myth of her pacification turned into rite. She is the same eye of Ra that Bastet can also be.

Ra

Egyptian Pantheon

The supreme solar deity and creator god. Ra travels across the sky each day in his solar barque and through the underworld each night, battling the serpent Apophis.

Ra emerged from the primordial waters of Nun at the dawn of creation, creating himself. He then created Shu (air) and Tefnut (moisture), establishing the cosmos.

Ra is the supreme creator and king of the gods. He travels across the sky in his solar barque by day and battles the chaos serpent Apophis in the underworld by night.

Read the full Ra entry

Sekhmet

Egyptian Pantheon

Fierce goddess of war, plagues, and healing. The destructive aspect of the sun. Ra sent her to punish humanity.

Sekhmet was created by Ra from the fire of his eye to punish humanity for their rebellion and mockery of the aging sun god. She is the fierce, destructive aspect of the gentler Hathor, representing the burning heat of the midday sun. In essence, Sekhmet and Hathor are two faces of the same goddess: Sekhmet the destroyer and Hathor the nurturer. Her leonine form symbolizes the fierce power of the sun that can bring both life and death to the land of Egypt.

Sekhmet is the fearsome lioness-headed goddess whose name means "She Who Is Powerful." She embodies the scorching, destructive heat of the sun and is one of the most formidable deities in the Egyptian pantheon. Warriors prayed to her before battle, and her breath was said to create the desert.

Read the full Sekhmet entry

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At a glance

Egyptian Pantheon

tradition

Egyptian Pantheon

sun, creation, kingship, order, light

domains

war, plague, healing, vengeance, fire

sun disk, falcon, solar barque, cobra, scarab beetle

symbols

lioness, red color, sun disk, uraeus

Re, Ra-Horakhty, Atum-Ra, Amun-Ra

also called

Sakhmet, Lady of Slaughter, The Scarlet Lady

How each was worshipped

Cult sites: Great Temple of Ra at Heliopolis (Iunu), Solar sanctuaries of the Fifth Dynasty (Abu Ghurab and beyond).

Festivals: Daily solar barque rites, Sed festival (king as Ra's son).

Sekhmet

Cult sites: Memphis, with Ptah and Nefertem, Hundreds of seated lioness statues from Amenhotep III.

Festivals: Pacification of Sekhmet, New Year plague-aversion rites.

Plague and its cure. Priests sang her quiet. Beer dyed red to look like blood is the myth of her pacification turned into rite. She is the same eye of Ra that Bastet can also be.