Raet-Tawy or Raet is an
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
solar deity, the female aspect of
Ra. Her name is simply the female form of Ra's name; the longer name ''Raet-Tawy'' means "Raet of the Two Lands" (
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 ...
and
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 ...
).
Name and origins
Mention of Raet occurs as early as the
Fifth Dynasty. As her name is simply the feminine form of Ra, it is evident she did not exist independently of him. It is unclear when the fuller form of her name, Raet-tawy, was first used. She was later referred to as "lady of heaven, mistress of the gods", mirroring Ra's titles.
[Richard Wilkinson: The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt. London, Thames and Hudson, 2003. p.164]
Cult
Raet was also considered a wife of
Montu
Montu was a falcon-god of war in the ancient Egyptian religion, an embodiment of the conquering vitality of the pharaoh.Hart, George, ''A Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses'', Routledge, 1986, . p. 126. He was particularly worshipped in ...
, and she formed a triad with him and
Harpocrates
Harpocrates (, Phoenician language, Phoenician: š¤š¤š¤š¤š¤š¤, romanized: įø„rpkrį¹, ''harpokratÄs'') is the god of silence, secrets and confidentiality in the Hellenistic religion developed in History of Alexandria#Ptolemaic era ...
in
Medamud. Her feast day was in the fourth month of the reaping season.
The centers of her cult were at
Medamud,
El-Tod
El-Tod ( , from , , , ) was the site of an ancient Egyptian town and a temple to the Ancient Egyptian religion, Egyptian god Montu. It is located southwest of Luxor, Egypt, near the settlement of Hermonthis. A modern village now surrounds the ...
, and
Thebes. A demotic manual from the Roman period with hymns to Raet has survived in fragments.
She never reached the importance of
Hathor
Hathor (, , , Meroitic language, Meroitic: ') was a major ancient Egyptian deities, goddess in ancient Egyptian religion who played a wide variety of roles. As a sky deity, she was the mother or consort of the sky god Horus and the sun god R ...
, who by then was also considered the wife of Ra (or, in other myths, his daughter).
Iconography
Images of Raet are rare. When she is depicted, she is shown as a woman with cow horns holding a sun disk on her head, similar to the headdress of Hathor. The headdress is adorned with a
uraeus
drawing of a Uraeus
The Uraeus () or Ouraeus (Ancient Greek: , ; Egyptian: ', "rearing cobra", plural: ''Uraei'') is the stylized, upright form of an Egyptian cobra, used as a symbol of sovereignty, royalty, deity and divine authority in anci ...
, or sometimes with feathers.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Raet-Tawy
Egyptian goddesses
Solar goddesses
Ra