In ancient
Egyptian mythology, Meskhenet, (also spelt Mesenet, Meskhent, and Meshkent) was the
goddess
A goddess is a female deity. In many known cultures, goddesses are often linked with literal or metaphorical pregnancy or imagined feminine roles associated with how women and girls are perceived or expected to behave. This includes themes of s ...
of
childbirth, and the creator of each child's
Ka, a part of their
soul, which she breathed into them at the moment of birth. She was worshipped from the earliest of times by Egyptians.
In mythology
In
ancient Egypt, women delivered babies while
squatting
Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there ...
on a pair of
brick
A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured cons ...
s, known as "birth bricks", and Meskhenet was the goddess associated with this form of delivery. Consequently, in
art, she was sometimes depicted as a brick with a woman's head, wearing a cow's
uterus upon it. At other times she was depicted as a woman with a symbolic cow's uterus on her headdress.
Since she was responsible for creating the Ka, she was associated with
fate. Thus later she was sometimes said to be paired with
Shai, who became a god of destiny after the deity evolved out of an abstract concept.
Meskhenet features prominently in the last of the folktales in the
Westcar Papyrus. The story tells of the birth of
Userkaf,
Sahure, and
Neferirkare Kakai, the first three kings of the
Fifth Dynasty, who in the story are said to be triplets. Just after each child is born, Meskhenet appears and prophesies that he will become king of Egypt.
Gallery
File:Meskhenet.svg, Meskhenet depicted as a birth brick
File:Shay egyptian god personification.png, Meskhenet depicted as a birth brick in Weighing of the Heart in the Papyrus of Ani
File:JuicioDeLasAlmas.jpg, Meskhenet depicted as a birth brick in a Weighing of the Heart scene painted on a coffin
File:Temple of Deir el-Medina 20.JPG, Meskhenet as a birth brick depicted above the scales in a Weighing of the Heart scene in Ptolemaic temple at Deir el-Medina
Deir el-Medina ( arz, دير المدينة), or Dayr al-Madīnah, is an ancient Egyptian workmen's village which was home to the artisans who worked on the tombs in the Valley of the Kings during the 18th to 20th Dynasties of the New Kingdom of ...
See also
*
Taweret
References
External links
*
{{Ancient Egyptian religion footer, collapsed
Creator deities
Creator goddesses
Childhood goddesses
Egyptian goddesses
Fertility goddesses
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