Goddess Anuket

Goddess Anuket name

Goddess Anuket

Goddess Anuket was to begin with the personification and goddess of the Nile, in arenas such as Elephantine, at the start of the Nile's journey through Egypt, and in hot parts of Nubia. Anuket was break of a triad with the God Khnum, and the goddess Satis. It is potential that Anuket was seen the daughter of Khnum and Satis in this triple, or she may have been a junior consort to Khnum instead. Anuket was showed as a woman with a headdress of plumes (thought by most Egyptologists to be a detail deducting from Nubia). Her sacred animal was the gazelle. A  temple  dedicated  to  Anuket  was  erected  on  the  Island  of  Seheil.  Inscriptions  show  that  a  shrine  or  altar  was given  to  her  at  this  site  by  the  thirteenth  dynasty  Pharaoh  Sobekhotep  III.  Much  later,  during  the  18th dynasty, Amenhotep II paid a chapel to the goddes. During the New Kingdom, Anukets cult at Elephantine included a river procession of the goddess during the first month of Shemu. Dedications mention the prosodion festival of Khnum and Anuket during this time period.

Ceremonially,  when  the River Nile  went  its  annual  flood,  the  Festival  of  Anuket  begun.  People  threw  coins,  gold, jewelry, and precious gifts into the river, in thanks for the life-giving water and rendering benefits derived from the wealth left by her fertility to the goddess. The taboo held in different parts of Egypt, against eating distinct fish which were taken dedicated, was lifted during this time, indicating that a fish species of the Nile was a totem for Anuket and that they were consumed as part of the ritual of her leading religious fete.