Mehit

Mehit MḤjt

Mehit is a goddess in Egyptian mythology.

Representation

Mehit was shown in the Frühdynastik as dormant Lioness with three or four curved bars in the back. Since the New Kingdom it was presented as a lion-headed woman with Atef crown.

Documents

Mehit appears in the pre-and Frühdynastik on numerous ivory artifacts and Tonsiegeln, usually together with the iconographic representation of the reed mat decorated shrine as a symbol of the Egyptian royal family.

Cult and meaning

As places of worship are mainly the eastern Behdet and Thinis known. In both places Mehit was together with her husband Onuris, the city god of Thinis worshiped. But even in Edfu, Abydos, Sebennytos and in the temple of Hibis found the goddess worship.

As a wife of Onuris she stood her husband as a fighter to the side. She was often equated with the fire-spitting uraeus, the eye of Re. Their importance in Egyptian mythology is closely associated with the cult places: So was equating with the goddess Tefnut, which in Edfu, a merger with the goddesses Hathor and Sekhmet had the consequence.