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| Goddess Anuket name |
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| 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.
