The Egyptian goddess Sekhmet was a deity often associated with war, medicine fire and divine retribution. Often going by many other names, Sekhmet was one of the daughters of Ra that constituted the Eye of Ra alongside the Egyptian goddesses Mut, Bastet and Hathor.
The goddess Sekhmet whose name means the powerful one in ancient Egyptian language, was often depicted as a solar deity with the head of a fierce lioness with the body of a woman wearing red clothing, and on top of her head was a solar disc and a Uraeus which linked her to the Kemetic kingship and the goddess Wadjet. In Egyptian mythology, Sekhmet also known as Sachmis by the people of Kemet, was the goddess of war that led the pharaoh's armies to wars, she protected the pharaoh against his enemies and played a major role the celestial life of Egyptian pharaohs.
At the city of Memphis, she was viewed as the consort of Ptah, and the mother of the gods Nefertum and Maahes. The lion goddess Sekhmet was often linked with the cat-headed goddess Bastet as they both shared similarities, However, contrarily to the goddess Sekhmet who represent death and divine retribution, the goddess Bastet was a more motherly entity associated to fertility and the home. But both Sekhmet and Bastet played the same role in lower and upper Egypt.
As many Egyptian gods and goddesses, Sekhmet had also a benign personality, where she is often seen as the goddess of medicine and thus the patroness of healers and physicians of all kinds, goddess of disease and healing. Although she was known as the goddess of disease, earning the epithet ''lady of the plague'', Sekhmet could also save people from diseases.
The most popular story about the goddess Sekhmet, which in a way also tells the story of her birth is when the sun god Ra sent forth the eye of Ra in the form of the goddess Hathor to exact vengeance upon men. Once she reached the earth, the peaceful goddess Hathor turned into the fierce goddess of divine retribution, Sekhmet, in an ecstasy of slaughter. But then Ra realized that she had to be stopped for the sake of humanity. Ra managed to tricked Sekhmet and saved humanity from the Sekhmet's wrath. Later on the goddess Sekhmet returned to her father but had to be pacified with music, dance and drunkenness.
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