Mehet-Weret, Celestial Cow, Goddess of Waters, Creation and Rebirthby Caroline Seawright
November 16, 2003
Updated: June 21, 2013
"I behold Ra who was born yesterday from the thighs of the goddess Mehet-Weret; his strength is my strength, and my strength is his strength." Who is this? "Mehet-Weret is the great Celestial Water, but others say that Mehet-Weret is the image of the Eye of Ra at dawn at his birth daily. "[Others, however, say that] Mehet-Weret is the Wedjat (Eye of Horus or Ra)."
-- Wallis Budge, E.A., The Egyptian Book of the Dead
She was pictured as a cow, lying on a reed mat, or as a woman with the head of a cow, or as a beautiful woman. Often she was depicted wearing the sun disk headdress between her horns. She also sometimes is shown wearing a Menat. (The menat, a necklace with a special counterweight, is not actually jewelry - it is a musical instrument sacred to Hathor.)
As a goddess of water, she not only travelled on the water, taking the pharaoh or sun god with her, but she was thought to be able bring life-giving water to Egypt. She was a goddess of the yearly inundation of the Nile, as indicated by her name, and so was linked to both the Nile in Egypt, and the Nile in the underworld, and the Nile in the sky (the Milky Way). Mehet-Weret was a goddess of the waters of Nun, from which the sun god emerged, and was known as the Mother of Ra.
In the Pyramid Era Mehet-Weret represents the waterway in the heavens, sailed upon by both the sun-god and the king. She is also a manifestation of the primeval waters - consequently being sometimes considered as the 'mother of Ra'.
-- Hart, G. 2005, The Routledge Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses, p. 91
As a goddess of rebirth, she was not only thought to give birth to the sun daily, but she was thought to be able to help with rebirth into the afterlife. There is a funerary bed in the tomb of Tutankhamen, in the form of the goddess Mehet-Weret. The body may have been placed on the bed to ensure a connection with Mehet-Weret and her ability to give birth in the underworld. From the 18th Dynasty onwards, Mehet-Weret was the patron goddess of the necropolis at Waset (Thebes) and was depicted in funerary papyri as a cow standing in papyrus plants at the foot of the mountains of the West, only her head poking out. Hathor was also depicted in the same manner.
In the Old Kingdom (2686-2181 B.C.), Mehet-Weret appears in the Pyramid Texts of Unas: "Unas has come to his pools which are on the banks of the canal of Mehet-Weret, at the place where offerings flourish, and fields on the horizon, and he has made his garden flourish on the banks of the horizon."
By the New Kingdom (1550-1069 B.C.), Mehet-Weret had become a goddess of rebirth, especially for those souls hoping to resurrect in the Netherworld.
-- Remler, P. 2010, Egyptian Mythology A to Z, pp. 119-120
She was a celestial cow goddess and, as such, she was linked to both Hathor and Nut, who were also depicted as great cow goddesses of the sky. Like Nut, she was thought to give daily birth to the sun. She was closely linked to Nit, who was depicted as a cow goddess of creation and known as 'The Cow Who Gave Birth to Ra'. When Mehet-Weret gave birth to Ra at creation, she was thought to have put him, in the form of a sun disk, between her horns, which is why she is shown wearing the headdress of Hathor. In Tebas a city near Ipet-Resyt (Luxor)/Ipet-Isut (Karnak), she was believed to be the mother of the local deities, known as "the Seven Wise People".
That Hathor is identified with Mehet-Weret is certain by references of the two as one in The Book of the Dead (Spell 186) where both are referred to as the wdjat (Wedjat, or "Eye of Horus"). However, this ancient cow goddess appears to have had no independent cult of her own, and was likely a conceptual figure of primeval creation; it is presumed that Hathor absorbed most of her sky attributes as early as the Old Kingdom, as exhibited by the many references of the two as identical in both the Pyramid and Coffin Texts.
-- Griffis-Greenberg, K. 1998, The Guiding Feminine I: The Goddess Hathor: (Part I) Symbol of Attraction and Power, InScription: Journal of Ancient Egypt 1, pp. 43-47
A goddess of water, of creation and of rebith, Mehet-Weret had a number of attributes connected to other major goddesses of the Egyptian religion. Though the was originally a goddess with her own creation mythos, her attributes were taken over by these other deities. Despite this, she was still important enough to be depicted in Egyptian tombs, on funerary papyri, and written in different books relating to the afterlife and to the course of the sun. Her name was still in use even into the Greek period, and so she had to have been a popular goddess though ancient Egyptian history.
Further Information about Mehet-Weret
- Mehet-Weret - Wikipedia
- Mehturt - Encyclopedia Mythica
- Mehet-uret - André Dollinger
- Mehet-Weret - Henadology, Philosophy and Theology
- Mehet-Weret - Tour Egypt
Video of Mehet-Weret
Unfortunately the video of Mehet-Weret has been deleted from YouTube:
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