The Egyptian Book of the Dead

happiness; and the Greeks identified her with their own Aphrodite. She is often depicted in the form of a woman having disk and horns upon her head, and at times she has the head of a lion surmounted by a uræus. Often she has the form of a cow--the animal sacred to her--and in this form she appears as the goddess of the tomb or Ta-sertet, and she provides meat and drink for the deceased.[1]

Meht-urt is the personification of that part of the sky wherein the sun rises, and also of that part of it in which he takes his daily course; she is depicted in the form of a cow, along the body of which the two barks of the sun are seen sailing. Already in the pyramid texts we find the attribute of judge ascribed to Meh-urt,[2] and down to a very late date the judgment of the deceased in the hall of double Maat in the presence of Thoth and the other gods was believed to take place in the abode of Meh-urt.[3]

Net or Neith, "the divine mother, the lady of heaven, the mistress of the gods," was one of the most ancient deities of Egypt, and in the pyramid texts she appears as the mother of Sebek.[4] Like Meh-urt she personifies the place in the sky where the sun rises. In one form she was the goddess of the loom and shuttle, and also of the chase; in this aspect she was identified by the Greeks with Athene. She is depicted in the form of a woman, having upon her head the shuttle or arrows, or she wears the crown and holds arrows, a bow, and a sceptre in her left hand; she also appears in the form of a cow.[5]

Sekhet was in Memphis the wife of Ptah, and the mother of Nefer-Tmu and of I-em-hetep. She was the personification of the burning heat of the sun, and as such was the destroyer of the enemies of Ra and Osiris. When Ra determined to punish mankind with death, because they scoffed at him, he sent Sekhet, his "eye," to perform the work of vengeance; illustrative of this aspect of her is a figure wherein she is depicted with the sun's eye for a head.[5] Usually

[1. A good set of illustrations of this goddess will be found in Lanzone, op. cit., tav. 314 f.

2. ###. Recueil de Travaux, t. iv., p. 48 (l. 427).

3. Pleyte, Chapitres supplémentaires du Livre des Morts (Chapp. 162, 162,* 163), p. 26.

4. Recueil de Travaux, t. iv., p. 76 (l. 627).

5. See Lanzone, op. cit., tav. 177.

6. Ibid., op. cit., tav. 364.]

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