An reading of the Milky Way was that it was the serious snake, Wadjet, the protector of Egypt. In this interpretation she was nearly associated with Hathor and other early deities among the different views of the great mother goddess, including Mut and Naunet. The association with Hathor got her son Horus into connexion also. The cult of Ra sucked most of Horus's traits and included the certain eye of Wadjet that had shown her connection with Hathor. When discovered as the shielder of Ra, who was as well a sun deity affiliated with heat and fire, she was sometimes said to be effective to send fire onto those who might attack, just as the cobra spits toxicant into the eyes of its oppositions. In this role she was addressed the Lady of Flame.
She later got identified with the war goddess of Lower Egypt, Bast, who moved as another design symbolic of the nation, consequently becoming Wadjet-Bast. In this part, since Bast was a lioness, Wadjet-Bast was often represented with a lioness head. After Lower Egypt had been captured by Upper Egypt and they were unified, the lioness goddess of Upper Egypt, Sekhmet, was considered as the more hard of the two warrior goddesses. It was Sekhmet who was seen as the Avenger of Wrongs, and the Scarlet Lady, a address to blood, as the one with blood lust. She is depicted with the solar disk and Wadjet, yet.
Eventually, Wadjet's place as patron led to her being placed as the more powerful goddess Mut, whose cult had come to the fore in connective with rise of the cult of Amun, and finally being engaged into her as the Mut-Wadjet-Bast triad. When the pairing of deities occurred in later Egyptian myths, since she was related to the land, after the uniting of Lower and Upper Egypt she came to be considered of as the wife of Hapi, a deity of the Nile, which flowed finished the land. Wadjet is not to be confused with the Egyptian demon Apep, who is also presented as a snake in Egyptian mythology.
Wadjet-Bast, with a lioness head, the solar disk, and the cobra that represents Wadjet (Picture source wikipedia Encyclopedia) |
Eventually, Wadjet's place as patron led to her being placed as the more powerful goddess Mut, whose cult had come to the fore in connective with rise of the cult of Amun, and finally being engaged into her as the Mut-Wadjet-Bast triad. When the pairing of deities occurred in later Egyptian myths, since she was related to the land, after the uniting of Lower and Upper Egypt she came to be considered of as the wife of Hapi, a deity of the Nile, which flowed finished the land. Wadjet is not to be confused with the Egyptian demon Apep, who is also presented as a snake in Egyptian mythology.