Goddess Sopdet in Ancient Egyptian Religion

Abstract

This paper deals with one of the astral goddesses in Ancient Egyptian religion, Sopdet; she was goddess of the brightest star in the southern sky. She personified the Dog Star, Sirius, she was known as Sothis to the Greeks , she was worshipped at Saft el-Hinna. Sopdet was known as the wife of god sah (Orion)[i] and mother of god Sopdu[ii], she was associated to many deities like Isis in the form of Isis Sothis, she was known since the first Dynasty as the goddess who brings the new year and the innundation, as each year the coming of the flood coincided with the moment of its brightness on the horizon at dawn after its absence for about 70 days (This phenomenon is called a heliacal rising of Sothis. )[iii] , so she was considered as a fertility goddess because of the soil braught by the flood .her appearance also corresponded with the beginning of the ancient Egyptian year [iv] , and she was considered as the queen of all decans, as she preceded all the stars .[v] She appeared in different forms, as she appeared in a human form , a cow , a lioness headed serpent, and a dog headed serpent.she is characterized by many qualities and titles. The research studies the archaeological and textual evidences of goddess Sopdet referring to her titles, qualities, forms, roles and her relations to other deitie. [i]Sah was the personified god for the southern constellation known as Orion , and he was the father in the triad consisted of sah, Sopdet as the mother and their son was sopdu, he is manifestated to Osiris in the pyramid texts as he was mentioned as the father of gods; R. H. Wilkinson, The complete gods and goddesses of Ancient Egypt ,Cairo, 2003, p. 127 [ii] Sopdu was the god of the eastern borders. He is represented as a crouching falcon or Bedouin warrier wearing a crown of tall feathers with long hair and pointed beard. His main cult center was at saft el henna ( per sopdu) and he was worshipped together with Hathor at Serabbit el khadem ; G. Hart, The Routledge Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses, London, 2005,p.151. [iii] L. Depuydt, ''Sothic Chronology and the Old Kingdom'', JARCE 37, 2000, p. 168 [iv] Joachim Friedrich Quack, Astronomy in Ancient Egypt, Oxford, 2018, p.3 [v] L.S. Bull, '' An Ancient Egyptian Astronomical Ceiling-Decoration'', The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin , Vol. 18, No. 12, Nov., 1923, p. 286