Head of the goddess Sekhmet

“Sekhmet, whose name means ‘the powerful one,’ was a warlike, bloodthirsty goddess. She was usually portrayed as a slender woman with the head of a lioness. As the daughter of the sun-god Re, Sekhmet waged war against both the enemies of the sun-god and the enemies of the king, who was the ‘physical son of Re.’ The Glencairn Sekhmet shows the goddess wearing both the solar disk and the uraeus, the fire spitting cobra that symbolized kingship (the head of the uraeus is broken off). The ruff around her face is characteristic of a female lioness and does not represent a lion’s mane. This head is a fragment from a full statue representing Sekhmet as a lion-headed woman seated on a throne.” (Ed Gyllenhaal, label text, Glencairn Museum, Egypt gallery.)

Sources:
- Ed Gyllenhaal, label text, Glencairn Museum, Egypt gallery.
- Jennifer Houser Wegner, “Cats, Lions and the Fabulous Felines of Ancient Egypt,” _Glencairn Museum News_, Number 7, 2015.