Menhit (also known as Menhyt, and Menchit) was originally a
Nubia
Nubia (, Nobiin language, Nobiin: , ) is a region along the Nile river encompassing the area between the confluence of the Blue Nile, Blue and White Nile, White Niles (in Khartoum in central Sudan), and the Cataracts of the Nile, first cataract ...
n lion goddess of war in the
Kingdom of Kush, who was regarded as a
tutelary and
sun goddess.
Her name means either "she who sacrifices" or "she who massacres."
History
Believed to have origins as a Nubian goddess, Menhit is always depicted as a lioness with solar disk and a
uraeus symbol.
Coffin texts associate her with being a tutelary and solar deity.
Some sources identify her as the subject of the "Distant Goddess" myth. In one legend, the
Eye of Ra flees from Egypt. Her counterpart,
Ra, sends another god to track her down in Nubia, where she transforms into a lioness. When she is returned to Ra, she either becomes or gives birth to Menhit.
She also was believed to advance ahead of the Egyptian armies and cut down their enemies with fiery arrows, similar to other war deities.
She was less known to the people as a crown goddess and was one of the goddesses who represented the protective
uraeus on royal crowns.
Cults
In the 3rd
Nome of
Upper Egypt
Upper Egypt ( ', shortened to , , locally: ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the Nile River valley south of the delta and the 30th parallel North. It thus consists of the entire Nile River valley from Cairo south to Lake N ...
, particularly at
Esna, Menhit was said to be the wife of
Khnum and the mother of
Heka. She was also known to be the mother of
Shu.
She was also worshipped in
Lower Egypt
Lower Egypt ( ') is the northernmost region of Egypt, which consists of the fertile Nile Delta between Upper Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea, from El Aiyat, south of modern-day Cairo, and Dahshur. Historically, the Nile River split into sev ...
, where she was linked with the goddesses
Wadjet
Wadjet (; "Green One"), known to the Greek world as Uto (; ) or Buto (; ) among other renderings including Wedjat, Uadjet, and Udjo, was originally the ancient Egyptian Tutelary deity, local goddess of the city of Dep or Buto in Lower Egypt, ...
and
Neith.
She became identified with another lioness goddess,
Sekhmet.
[Hans Bonnet: ''Menhit'', in: ''Lexikon der ägyptischen Religionsgeschichte'' (English: Lexicon of Egyptian History of Religion) p.451f]
References
Literature
* Rolf Felde: ''Ägyptische Gottheiten.'' Wiesbaden 1995
* Hans Bonnet: ''Lexikon der ägyptischen Religionsgeschichte'', Hamburg 2000;
{{Egyptian-myth-stub
Egyptian goddesses
Lion goddesses
Lunar goddesses
Nubian goddesses
Solar goddesses
Tutelary goddesses
War goddesses