Per Ankh The Temple Pages Egyptian Gods, their main centers of worship and some festival days

On this page:
Satis, Sekhmet, Selket, Seshat, Seth, Shu,
Sia, Sobek, Sokar, Sopdet

Please note - Festival days are not historically
correct but an estimation compiled from several sources.

Satis/Satis

Satis, "The Lady of Elephantine" and "She of Sehel (the island)" the giver of water for purification of the deceased, and associated with the inundation. Together with Anuket she was the protectress of the waters of the Nile in the cataract area. Satis, Anukis and Khnum formed in later days the Triad of Abu (Elephantine) and the neighboring islands. She was depicted in human form, wearing the White Crown of Upper Egypt, with two curved antelope horns on the side. When Khnum later was identified with Re, Satis became the "Eye of Re" and assuming some of Hathor´s aspects, she was seen as a goddess of women and love.

Main center of worship: Abu/Elephantine, 1st Nome, Upper Egypt

Sekhmet/Sekhmet

Sekhmet, her consort Ptah and their son Nefertem made up the Memphite Triad. Her name meant "the mighty one" and she was associated with war and appropriate retaliation and was said to have an awesome appeareance, her weapons being arrows 'with which she pierces heats', her body was said to spread a fiery glow. She was depicted with a lioness´ head and her breath was associated with the hot winds of the desert. Another name for her was 'The Eye of Re' showing her solar association and thereby also her association with the king. She was often called his mother and followed him in battle. Apart from her protective side she also represented the destructive side of the sun and was therefore sometimes called the daughter of Re. When Thebes was the seat of royal residence,(11th Dyn.) the local goddess Mut was merged with her. She was also called "Great of Magic" and was a goddess of healing and surgery.

Main center of worship: Mennefer/Memphis, 1st Nome, Lower Egypt Other sites: at Imu/Kom-el-Hisn, 3rd N, Lower Egypt to Sekhmet-Hathor For a virtual page: Go Here Festivals: (exact dates not historically verified) 12 August - 25th Thuti - Day of Sekhmet's repulsion of Set 17th Ocotber - 1st Koiak - Month of Koiak Begins; The feast of Sekhmet 31st October - 15th Koiak - Feast of Sekhmet, Bast and Ra 20th November - 5th Tybi - Day of Sekhmet and the Purifying Flame 24th November - 9th Tybi - Day of Offerings to Sekhmet 28th November - 13th Tybi - Feast of Het-Hert (Hathor) and Sekhmet 14th December - 29th Tybi - Tehuti (Thoth) sends Bast and Sekhmet to guide Egypt 28th December - 13th Mechir - Day of Sekhmet Going forth to Letopolis 31st December - 16th Mechir - Feast of Sekhmet 12th March - 27th Parmutit - End of the World by Sekhmet

Selket/Serqet

Her name means 'She who causes to breathe' and refers to her power of protecting from, or curing poisonous stings of scorpions and serpents. The reason for this might lie in the fact that those who have been bitten tend to breathe too fast and too shallow because of the poison. She is depicted with a scorpion ready to strike above her head or as a woman with a sorption's head. In ancient Egypt her priesthood was connected to the healing of poisonous bites and she was frequently appealed to for protection from venomous bites. She is mentioned already in the Pyramid Texts and the Coffin Texts as one of the four goddesses (Aset (Isis), Nit, (Neith) Nebt-Het (Nephtys) and Serket who protects the canopic jars. Sometimes she is thought to be an aspect of Aset (Isis) as a protector of the child Heru (Horus) and thereby also to all children and even the king. She is also sometimes associated with the sun´s scorching heat. Together with Neith she watched the sky so that noone would disturb Amon and his wife, thus becoming a protector of the marriage union. She helped the deceased orient themselves in the Underworld, and she was said to bind the Apophis snake. She was also a patron to healers and magicians, and a protectress against venomous bites and poison.

There was a priesthood to Serket in the ancient days but if there were temples and shrines built especially for her they seem to have gone without leaving traces. Festivals: (exact dates not historically verified) 23th October - 7th Koiak - Festival for Serqet (Selket)

Seshat/Seshat

Goddess of writing and measurer of time, referred to as "she who is foremost in the house of books". She measured time and helped Pharaoh with laying out the ground plan of a new temple with a measuring cord, therefore she was also the "Lady of builders". Her most important function was to keep track of Pharaoh´s regnal years and jubilees. She also supervised the booty and tributes from foreign lands and military expeditions. She was shown as a woman wearing a panther skin robe, holding a pen, a palette and a tally-stick and on her head she wore a seven-pointed star surmounted by either a bow or a crescent moon with two falcons feathers. Often she held a palm leaf in her hand. Considered to be the consort of Thoth (Djehuty)

No historical temples or priesthood is known for Seshat.

Seth/Seth

Set, Seth, Sutek, the second son of Geb and Nut, depicted as either an animal with four legs, a curving snout, long ears and an erect tail, or as a human with an animal´s head. Which kind of animal this was has been subject to much debate. His skin was white and his hair red, he was called the god of chaos, of thunder and storms, of destruction and of the desert. He travelled with Ra in the sun-boat, standing in the prow, spearing the attacking Apophis serpent of chaos. According to myth he was jealous of his brother Osiris and betrayed and killed him, taking his throne. Through this action the deceased received a ruler in the Underworld and Seth was later beaten by Horus, the son of Osiris.

Main center of worship: Nebyet/Ombos/Tukh, 5 th Nome, Upper Egypt. Festivals: (exact dates not historically verified) 16th of July, the 3rd Epagomenal Day is the Birthday of Seth 30th August - 13th Paopi - Day of Satisfying the Hearts of the Ennead 29th October - 13th Koiak - Day of Going Forth of Het-Hert and the Ennead 15th November - 30th Koiak - The Ennead feast in the House of Ra, Heru and Wasir 18th December - 3rd Mechir - Seth Goes Forth 2nd March - 17th Parmutit - Going forth of Seth, Son of Nut

Shu/Shu

Shu is one of the Heliopolitan Ennead. He is the god of sunlight and air, first recorded in the Old Kingdom, where he was responsible for bringing Ra and the king to life every day. Over a millenium later, Akenaten was to continue this tradition, by commemorating Shu as dwelling in the sun’s disk. Shu is one of the first two deities created by Atum, the sun-god of Heliopolis. The semen (or in an alternative tradition, the mucus sneezed by Atum from his nostrils) of Atum gave birth to Shu. His wife, and also his twin sister, is Tefnut, the goddess of moisture. Shu holds aloft the sky, and keeps separate his two children Geb the earth god, and Nut, the goddess of the sky. In sacred art, Shu is shown in human form with an ostrich feather on his head, the hieroglyph of his name. In the Underworld, Shu is dangerous, leading a band of torturers and executioners, whose slaughtering-block represents a great peril for the deceased. On the other hand, he is also a protection against the snake-god Apophis, and Shu’s spells can ward off the poisons of Apophis.

Shu belongs to the cosmic deities and as such no temples were dedicated to him. There seems to have been no priesthood serving solely Shu either. A Chapel was built to Shu, Atum, Tefnut, Re-Harakhte and the Theban triad at Tjeku/Pithom, 8th N, Lower Egypt, by Osorkon II (22nd Dyn.) Festivals: (not historically verified) 30th August – 13th Paopi - Day of Satisfying the Hearts of the Ennead 14th May – 30th Payni - Tehuti (Thoth) appears with Shu to bring back Tefnut 2nd April – 18th Pachons - Day of Joy of the Ennead and crew of Ra 15th November – 30th Koiak - Ennead Feast in the House of Ra 2nd October – 16th Hethara - Day of the appearance of the eight Great Netjers (Primordials)

Sia

Personification of Divine Knowledge or Omniscience, which together with Heka (divine power) and Hu, personification of Divine Utterance, were neccessary for the King´s creative powers during the Old Kingdom. They are seen together with the falcon-headed sungod standing in the Sunboat as it travels across the sky; "in order to sustain the life of men, and all the cattle, and all the worms, [everything] he has created". This points to the mythical concept that every sunrise is equal to the world being created anew, after having fought back all dangers on its way through the Underworld.

Sia is a deity without a special worship, belonging to the Heliopolitan Creation myth and its´ early sun cult.

Sobek/Sebek

Sobek, Sebek, or (Gr:)Suchos, meaning crocodile. Lord of stretches of water and of fishes. There are several deities for water, Sobek being the most important. Son of Neith and Osiris or of Neith and Seth. His cult rose in the Twelfth Dynasty in the Fayum area. He is depicted either as a human with a crocodile's head, wearing an atef crown and carrying a was scepter and an ankh or in animal form as a crocodile, wearing the sun disc on his head, which shows his connection to Re. He is also seen with a falcon's head and this form shows him connected to Horus. His consort was said to be Hathor and Khonsu was their child. As he is a god of water, the Nile is said to issue from his sweat and "he made the herbage green".

Main centers of worship are two different ones: Nebet/Ombi/Kom Ombo, 1 st Nome, Upper Egypt AND: Faiyum/Krokodilopolis/Medinet el-Faiyum, 20 th Nome, Lower Egypt Festivals: (exact dates not historically verified) 9th october - 23 Hethara - Ra judges the dispute of Set and Heru (Horus). 12th October - 26th Hethara - The Black Land is given to Horus, The Red Land is given to Set 20th October - 4th Koiak - Festivals for Sebek (Sobek) 26th December - 11th Mechir - Birth of Sebek (Sobek) 25th March - 14th Pachons - Day of cutting out of the tongue of Sobek

Sokar/Sokher

Sokar, probably an earth and fertility god in early times. Later he developed into a mortuary deity, his cult center being near the necropolis of Mennefer (Memphis). He was depicted as a falcon headed human, showing his association to the king, and in the Pyramid Text he was mentioned in relation to Osiris. In the Late period he became merged with Ptah and Osiris and known as Ptah-Sokar-Osiris.

Main center of worship: Mennefer/Memphis, 1st N, Lower Egypt. Festivals: (date unknown) In earlier times a stone was dragged across fields followed by people wearing onion garlands, probably a ritual for enhancing cultivation. The stone might have been his cultic image.

Sopdet/Sothis

Sothis was the goddess personifying the dog-star Sirius, the bright appearance of which in the July dawn sky announced the annual flooding of the Nile. The Egyptian name of the goddess was "Sopdet", from which came the Greek Sothis, normally used in Ancient Egyptian studies. She is portrayed as a lady with a star on her head. As early as the First Dynasty, Sothis was called bringer of the New Year and the Nile Flood. The agricultural calendar started with the rise of the Nile. Gradually Sothis became linked with the constellation Orion, because of the prosperity which resulted from the fertile silt left by the receding waters of the river. In the Pyramid texts, there is clear evidence that the king unites with his sister Sothis who gives birth to the morning star. She is also the king’s guide to the heavenly Field of Rushes. In the Lamentations of Isis and Nephtys (a fourth century BC papyrus), Isis states that she is Sothis, who will without fail follow Osiris in his manifestation as Orion in heaven. In the Late Period, the cult of Isis-Sothis resulted in less individuality for Sothis, and Greek versions of this double deity caused Sothis to be even further separated from her Pharaonic origins. P>Both Sothis and Orion are astral symbols for abundant crops.

Main center of worship: Per-sopdu/Soped/Saft el-Hinna, 20th Nome, Lower Egypt Festivals: (exact dates not historically verified) 25th July – 7th Thuthi - Annual flooding of the Nile.

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