Henet or the Pelican is the
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...
ian
goddess
A goddess is a female deity. In some faiths, a sacred female figure holds a central place in religious prayer and worship. For example, Shaktism (one of the three major Hinduism, Hindu sects), holds that the ultimate deity, the source of all re ...
of
pelican
Pelicans (genus ''Pelecanus'') are a genus of large water birds that make up the family Pelecanidae. They are characterized by a long beak and a large throat pouch used for catching prey and draining water from the scooped-up contents before ...
s. She is mentioned in the
Pyramid Texts
The Pyramid Texts are the oldest ancient Egyptian funerary texts, dating to the late Old Kingdom. They are the earliest known corpus of ancient Egyptian religious texts. Written in Old Egyptian, the pyramid texts were carved onto the subterranea ...
.
The Pelican (''Henet'' in Egyptian) is depicted in livestock scenes the walls of tombs of people from the Pharaoh's court. She appears in royal funerary texts from the Pyramid Age as a protective symbol against snakes. Scholar George Hart says that the imagery in the texts of a pelican falling into the Nile suggests that Henet scoops dangerous elements out of the water in the form of fish. This is similar to the dragnets and bird nets used for trapping sinners in the
Underworld
The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underworld.
...
. Scholars think that Henet is a goddess because she is called "mother of the king" in the Pyramid Texts. In ancient Egypt, that term was used exclusively for goddesses.
Hart continues to say that, in other funerary papyri, the pelican can predict safe travel for a dead person in the Underworld. The open beak of the Pelican is also associated with the ability of the deceased person to leave the burial chamber and go out into the rays of the sun, possibly an analogy made between the long cavernous beak of the pelican and the tomb shaft.
References
Egyptian goddesses
Mythology
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