Shesmetet is presented in the Egyptian funerary corpus, chiefly the Pyramid Texts, where she appears in the context of royal mortuary inscriptions and is usually called the deceased's mother. No surviving narrative origin myth for Shesmetet is provided in the supplied sources; instead she appears embedded in funerary formulae and royal afterlife ideology. The epithet "Lady of Punt" in the available summaries suggests an associative link to the region called Punt in Egyptian sources, but the supplied material does not give a developed Puntite origin story or specific myths detailing her provenance.
Shesmetet is described as leonine in form: either a lion or a woman with a lion's head, consistent with several Egyptian lioness goddesses. Her name derives from the Egyptian word shesmet, meaning a beaded sash used in royal/regalia contexts; however, the provided sources do not record any surviving iconographic depiction that conclusively shows Shesmetet wearing a shesmet sash, and the association rests on etymology rather than explicit visual evidence.
In the Pyramid Texts Shesmetet is usually referred to as the deceased's mother, indicating a funerary-maternal function in the care, nurturing, or transformation of the dead in mortuary religion. The supplied sources note her leonine form and that she was sometimes considered a form of Sekhmet or Bastet, but they do not enumerate specific magical powers, spells, or concrete actions attributed to her. No ritual actions, lists of powers, or explicit behaviors beyond the maternal funerary role are preserved in the provided material.
Sekhmet
Sekhmet is an ancient Egyptian lioness-headed goddess who functions as the vengeful 'Eye of Ra', a solar agent of divine punishment, and simultaneously as a powerful healing and protective deity invoked against disease. Her mythology and cult deploy the same ambivalent force for destruction and restoration, with ritual practices developed to both propitiate and emulate her pacification.
Bastet
Bastet (Ancient Egyptian bꜣstt; also rendered Bast, Ubasti, Bubastis) is an ancient Egyptian goddess whose character shifted over millennia from a lioness warrior-protector of the king and Ra to a later cat-associated deity linked to domestic protection, fertility, motherhood, and healing against disease and evil spirits. Her principal cult center was Per-Bastet (Bubastis) in the Nile Delta.
Aani
Aani (ancient Egyptian jꜥnr) is the lexical term for the baboon in ancient Egyptian language and functions in religious contexts as an animal icon and theophoric epithet. Attested repeatedly in Egyptian texts and images, the baboon image is used to represent or denote aspects of gods such as Thoth, Hapy, Khonsu, and Osiris rather than implying the animal itself is an independent deity.
Aker
Aker is an ancient Egyptian personification of the horizon and an earth and underworld deity who is described in surviving summaries as guardian of the eastern (Bakhu) and western (Manu) horizons, marking liminal boundaries between day and night and between the living world and the netherworld.
Akhty
Akhty (also read Netjer-akhty) is an ancient Egyptian deity identified with the northern bald ibis and linked to the akh (the transfigured, luminous human spirit). Attested from early 2nd dynasty inscriptions and in Old Kingdom personal names and priestly titles, Akhty was associated with the evening horizon and believed to guide the setting sun and carry the deceased's spirit into the night sky.
Amaunet (Amunet)
Amaunet (also spelled Amunet, Amonet) is a primordial female deity of ancient Egyptian religion, attested from early religious texts and represented as the feminine counterpart and consort of the god Amun. She is presented in sources as a pre-creation or primeval principle associated with hiddenness; Thebes is recorded as a principal center of her cult into the late dynastic and Ptolemaic periods.
Amenhotep, son of Hapu
Amenhotep, son of Hapu was a historically attested 18th‑Dynasty official who was posthumously venerated and integrated into Egyptian temple cult as a deified, local healing intercessor. His cult appears in Thebes and resurges in the Ptolemaic period, represented in votive reliefs, chapels, and statues.
Ammit
Ammit is an ancient Egyptian funerary guardian-demon of the Duat who stands at the Hall of Two Truths during the weighing of the heart. Feared and not worshipped, she awaits the verdict and consumes hearts judged impure, thereby preventing the deceased from joining the blessed dead.
Ammut
Ammut is an ancient Egyptian chimeric creature associated with the Judgment of the Dead; traditionally described as a composite of lion, hippopotamus, and crocodile, she is said to consume the souls or the symbolic heart of those judged unworthy, preventing admission to the afterlife. Modern artistic and speculative retellings recast Ammut as a large scavenging semi‑aquatic animal whose corpse‑consuming habits inspired funerary beliefs.
Amset (Imsety)
Amset (Egyptian Imsety) is one of the four sons of Horus in ancient Egyptian mortuary religion, a named funerary guardian commonly associated with protection of the liver and represented as the human-headed canopic-jar lid in mummification and afterlife iconography.
Amun
Amun is a major ancient Egyptian deity whose name (imn) means 'the hidden one.' Originating as a local Theban tutelary god, he rose to national prominence and was syncretized with the sun‑god Ra (Amun‑Ra), becoming a transcendent, self‑created creator and king of the gods closely tied to royal legitimation and personal petitionary religion.
Amun-Re
Amun-Re is a major ancient Egyptian state deity formed by syncretism of Amun with the sun-god Re. Attested from the Old Kingdom and rising to prominence as the patron god of Thebes by the 11th Dynasty, Amun-Re is closely tied to pharaonic kingship, temple cult, and oracular activity (notably at Siwa).
Amunet
Amunet (jmnt) is a primordial Egyptian goddess originally one of the female members of the Ogdoad of Hermopolis whose name means ‘The Hidden One.’ In later Theban religion she became a localized consort and cult companion of Amun, serving protective and liturgical roles in royal coronation, Sed festivals, temple liturgies, and funerary invocations.
Ancient Egyptian corkscrew-horned sheep
An extinct ovicaprine form identified in modern scholarship as Ovis longipes palaeoaegyptiacus and depicted in early pharaonic art; its distinctive loosely spiralling horns were adopted as the horn-type for several ram-headed Egyptian deities and persisted in iconography after the animal vanished from the record.
Community Record
- [1]Shesmetet - Wikipedia. Wikipedia contributors, 'Shesmetet,' Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopediawiki
- [2]Wikidata: Q19285 Shesmetet. Wikidata entry Q19285 for Shesmetetother
- [3]el-Ethnic Legist - gaNeza ~ガネーシャ~ (tracklist listing). Archive.org tracklist entry listing the name 'Shesmetet'other