# Sekhmet Source: https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/gods/sekhmet Language: en # Sekhmet The lioness — plague and healing held in the same goddess. **Also written**: Sakhmet · Sachmis · The Powerful One · سخميت Useful clues to take into the temple. ## How to recognise them A lioness-headed woman with a sun disc is a useful starting clue for Sekhmet, not an exclusive identifier. Other lioness goddesses share features; read the caption where it survives. ## Who they were Sekhmet’s lioness form links destructive power with protection and healing. Numerous statues associated with Amenhotep III make her a particularly visible presence in the archaeology of Thebes. ## Where you meet them In numbers, in the Mut precinct at the south of Karnak and scattered through the Amun precinct, where the statues stand and sit in rows — most of them originally made for Amenhotep III’s mortuary temple (a temple for royal commemoration and divine worship, active during a king’s life and after death) on the west bank, the ruined temple that stood behind the Colossi of Memnon, and moved across the river afterwards. There is one in the sanctuary of the temple of Ptah at Karnak, standing in the dark in a small chamber of her own. God ## Who they are shown with [ God ### Ptah Ptah commonly appears wrapped in a close-fitting garment, with a skullcap and a staff combining familiar divine symbols. Compare the headgear and staff together, and use the inscription to confirm the name. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/gods/ptah)[ God ### Mut Mut often appears as a woman with a vulture headdress and the double crown. She can also take a lioness form. These attributes guide recognition, but inscriptions and the scene’s context are needed when deities share features. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/gods/mut)[ God ### Hathor Cow horns around a sun disc can point to Hathor. A sistrum is a hand-held ritual rattle; a menat is a beaded necklace with a counterweight at the back. Both are associated with her worship. Isis and other deities can share attributes, so check the inscription too. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/gods/hathor)[ God ### Ra By day: a man with a falcon’s head carrying a plain sun disc on top, almost always with a cobra coiled at the front of it. Falcon head plus disc is Re or Re-Horakhty; falcon head with a crown but no disc is far more likely to be Horus, and that is the distinction worth holding on to. At night, in the tombs, he changes: inside the boat, in a shrine, stands a man with a ram’s head, often labelled as the flesh or body of Re — a ram-headed figure in a boat on a tomb wall is the night sun, not Amun. In the morning he is a scarab beetle pushing the disc up in front of it, and on many burial-chamber ceilings the scarab and the ram-headed figure appear at the two ends of the same journey. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/gods/ra) Continue reading ## Where to look 1–1 / 2 [Temple complex · East bank ### Karnak Temple Complex Two thousand years of building, rebuilding and royal ambition, gathered around the temples of Amun. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/karnak)[Monument · West bank ### Colossi of Memnon Two seated figures of Amenhotep III mark the entrance area of a once vast royal temple. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/colossi-of-memnon) Sources & further reading 3 Tier 2 The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt, Richard H. Wilkinson Thames & Hudson Tier 2 Egyptian Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Goddesses and Traditions of Ancient Egypt, Geraldine Pinch Oxford University Press Tier 1 The Colossi of Memnon and Amenhotep III Temple Conservation Project — field reports The Colossi of Memnon and Amenhotep III Temple Conservation Project Source review is incomplete. Consultation dates are shown only for checked references. Published works and institutional references for further reading. [Sources and review status](mailto:corrections@egyptmore.com?subject=Luxor101%20correction) [Gods](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/gods)