SEKHMET

Ptah, holding the emblems of life and power, bronze statuette, Memphis, c. 600100 also spelled Sakhmet in Egyptian religion, a goddess of war and the destroyer of the enemies of the sun god Re. Sekhmet was associated both with disease and with healing and medicine. Like other fierce goddesses in the Egyptian pantheon, she was called the Eye of Re. She was the companion of the god Ptah (see photograph) and was worshiped principally at Memphis. She was usually depicted as a lioness or as a woman with the head of a lioness, on which was placed the solar disk and the uraeus serpent. Sekhmet was sometimes identified with other Egyptian goddesses such as Hathor, Bastet, and Mut.