Serket
| Serket | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 The Egyptian goddess Serket is often depicted as a woman with a scorpion gracing her crown. She holds the ankh, the symbol of life, in one hand and a was-sceptre, representing power, in the other. | |||||||||
| Name in hieroglyphs |
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| Symbol | Scorpion | ||||||||
| Genealogy | |||||||||
| Parents | Set, or Khnum and Neith | ||||||||
| Siblings | Apep (in some myths), Sobek (in some myths) | ||||||||
| Consort | Horus the Younger or Horus the Elder | ||||||||
| Offspring | Nehebkau (in some myths) | ||||||||
Serket /ˈsɜːrˌkɛt/ (Ancient Egyptian: srqt) is the goddess of healing venomous stings and bites in Egyptian mythology, originally the deification of the scorpion.[2][3]
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Name and family
[edit]Serket's name can be understood as "(she who) tightens the throat"; however, her name in full Serket hetyt means "(she who) causes the throat to breathe."[4] This indicates that the goddess could both protect and be harmful.[4] Her family life is unknown, but she is sometimes credited as the daughter of Neith and Khnum, making her a sister to Sobek and Apep.[citation needed] She is the mother of the god, Nehebukau.[5]
Roles
[edit]Serket had several roles and aspects, including that of a protector, guard, and mother. She was seen to control "the breath of life" and to defend "the divine mother and the boat of the sun god."[6]
Serket's association with motherhood is found as early as the Pyramid Texts, where she is nurses the king (PT 1427).[4] She is also found depicted assisting in the divine birth of Amenhotep III at the Luxor Temple.[4] She was sometimes she was considered by pharaohs to be their patron.[citation needed] Her close association with the early rulers implies that she was their protector, notably Scorpion I and Scorpion II.[citation needed]
One of the most dangerous species of scorpion, the deathstalker (Leiurus quinquestriatus) resides in North Africa and its sting may kill, so Serket was considered a highly important goddess as she protected the living from this and other venomous creatures.[citation needed] As the protector against venom and snakebite, Serket often was said to protect the deities from Apep, the great snake-demon of evil, sometimes being depicted as the guard when Apep was captured.[7]
Serket was also considered a protector of the dead. Scorpion stings can cause shortness of breath and this "seems to have led to the belief that Serqet could help the dead to breathe again as part of the process of rebirth."[7] She was guardian of the body and organs of the dead, alongside Neith, Isis, and Nephthys, and shown on the east side of canopic chests and coffins.[7] She was also referred to occasionally as "mistress of the beautiful house" meaning the embalming tent.[4] In The Book of Two Ways, Serket was a guard of one of the bends in the waterways.[7]
A spell that details Isis escaping Set while pregnant with Horus, protected by seven scorpions, manifestation of Serket.[7][4] When Isis is refused entry into a woman's home, the scorpions sting the woman's infant son, Isis is able to heal the child as she knew the true names of all seven scorpions.[8] The woman then gave all she had to Isis, and it is thought that during the Roman Period, a myth similar to this was acted out through the handing out of live scorpions at a festival for Isis.[9] Eventually, Serket began to be identified with Isis, sharing imagery and parentage, until finally, Serket was said to be merely an aspect of Isis, whose cult had become dominant.[citation needed]
Depiction
[edit]Serket was generally found in her anthropoid form with a scorpion with raised tail on top of her head, especially in funerary contexts.[10] One of the most famous depictions of her is as a gilded statue in the tomb of Tutankhamun.[10] She could also be found in a zoomorphic form as a rearing cobra, in a leonine form, and in the form of a scorpion.[10] In her role as a mother or defender of mothers, Serket may be represented quite differently with "the body of a woman, armed with knives, and with the heads of both a lioness and a crocodile."[10] Later on, she could also be shown as a scorpion with the head of a woman, occasionally with a horns and a solar disc.[10]
It has been suggested that Serket's identification with a scorpion may be a misinterpretation of the determinative of her name and animal associated with her and that could refer not to a scorpion, but rather to a water scorpion (Nepidae).[11] According to this hypothesis, Serket is referred to as "she who gives breath" because of the way water scorpions seem to breathe underwater.[11] The appearance of a water scorpion must have made it be associated with the scorpion, therefore the use of the goddess for curing scorpion stings and other venomous creatures or maybe exactly because she "causes to breathe", not for the physical similarities of the creatures.[11] Alternatively, it has been suggested to show she was a "benevolent goddess, she was sometimes represented by a harmless type of water scorpion rather than the poisonous type."[7]
Worship
[edit]The cult of Serket is known to have existed from at least the First Dynasty, and is attested on a funerary stela from Saqqara.[10] Although Serket does not appear to have had any temples, she had a sizable number of priests in many communities.[citation needed] Pinch also noted that "scorpion charmers invoked the power of Serqet to drive away scorpions and snakes."[7]
Gallery
[edit]-
Late Period bronze figure of Isis-Serket -
Serket and her scorpion, Edfu Temple -
Serket as seen in the Tomb of Nefertari
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References
[edit]- ^ Zauzich, Karl-Theodor (1992). Hieroglyphs Without Mystery. Austin: University of Texas Press. p. 69.
- ^ Pharaonic Gods Archived 2008-05-13 at the Wayback Machine Egyptian Museum
- ^ Wilkinson, Richard H. (2003). The complete gods and goddesses of ancient Egypt. London: Thames & Hudson. p. 235. ISBN 978-0-500-05120-7.
- ^ a b c d e f Wilkinson 2003, p. 234.
- ^ Wilkinson 2003, p. 234-235.
- ^ Pinch, Geraldine (2003). Handbook of Egyptian Mythology. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. pp. 189–190. ISBN 978-1-57607-763-4.
- ^ a b c d e f g Pinch 2003, p. 189.
- ^ Pinch 2003, p. 189-190.
- ^ Pinch 2003, p. 190.
- ^ a b c d e f Wilkinson 2003, p. 235.
- ^ a b c Spieser, Cathie (2001). "Nouvelles approches de l'image emblématique de Serket: le serpent, la corne et l'uterus". Revue d'Égyptologie. 52: 251–264. doi:10.2143/RE.52.0.504258. ISSN 0035-1849.
Further reading
[edit]
- von Känel, Frédérique (1984). Les prêtres-ouâb de Sekhmet et les conjurateurs de Serket (in French). Presses Universitaires de France.
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