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Ta-Bitjet was a scorpion goddess referred to as the wife of Horus in a number of magical medical spells against poisonous bites. The power of the spell stems from the conjuration of the blood that flowed when Horus took her virginity upon an ebony bed.
The goddess Tasenetnofret' name means "the good (or beautiful) sister, consort of Haroeris and mother of Panebtawy in the western sanctuary of Kom Ombo temple. She is only a colorless manifestation of Hathor in the role of divine wife.
Taweret (Taueret, Taurt, Toeris, Ipy, Ipet, Apet, Opet, Reret)
- The Great Female - was the ancient Egyptian goddess of maternity and childbirth,
protector of women and children. Like Bes, she was both a fierce demonic fighter
as well as a popular deity who guarded the mother and her newborn child.
She was depicted as a combination of a crocodile, a pregnant hippopotamus standing
on her hind legs with large breasts and a lion. Unlike the composite demoness
Ammut, her head and body were that of the hippo, her paws were that of the lion,
and her back was the back of a crocodile. All of these animals were man killers,
and as such she was a demoness. All three animals were regarded as fierce creatures
who would kill to protect their young.
It was in her role of a protector that she was seen as a goddess. As the mother hippo is protective of her young, Taweret was believed to be protective of Egyptian children. She was often shown holding the sa hieroglyph of protection or the ankh hieroglyph of life. She was thought to assist women in labour and scare off demons that might harm the mother or child.
... because hippos are denizens of the fertile Nile mud, Egyptians also saw them as symbols of rebirth and rejuvenation. The birth-related aspect of the hippo's powers also appears in the complicated shape of the goddess Taweret, who protects women in childbirth.
She was also a goddess relating to fertility. She was goddess of harvests as well as a goddess who helped with female sexuality and pregnancy. In this capacity, she was linked with the goddess Hathor. As a fertility goddess, she was closely associated with the inundation of the Nile especially at Jabal al-Silsila.
Amulets of Taweret were popular, used by the expectant mother because of Taweret's protective powers. These were even found at Akhetaten - Akenaten had no power to stop his people from needing the protection of this goddess (or of Bes), despite his attempts to replace the gods and goddesses of Egypt with the Aten. Her picture was also found on women's cosmetic tools, headrests, jewelry. There were even vessels in the shape of the goddess, with a hole in one of her nipples for pouring. It was thought that she would assign magical protection, when accompanied with a spell, to the milk poured through these vessels.
Another way that Taweret was thought to scare away evil that could hurt a mother and child was through the use of magic. She was associated with the magic 'wand' or 'knife' that the Egyptians used because she was a hippopotamus goddess:
Childbirth and early infancy were felt to be particularly threatening to both mother and baby. Magic played the primary role in countering these threats; various evil spirits needed to be warned off, and deities invoked to protect the vulnerable. These magic knives, also known as apotropaic (that is, acting to ward off evil) wands, were one of the devices used. They are usually made of hippopotamus ivory, thus enlisting the support of that fearsome beast against evil.
The depictions on this knife encompass a range of protective images. They include a grotesque dwarf, probably known as Aha at this date, but later the more famous Bes, and Taweret ... both of whom are associated with childbirth.
Taweret was a household deity, rather than a specific deity of the pharaoh, and she enjoyed huge popularity with the every day Egyptian. She wore a low, cylindrical headdress surmounted by two plumes or sometimes she wore the horns and solar disk of Hathor. Although her popularity was strongest in later periods, she first appeared in the Old Kingdom as the mother of the pharaoh, offering to suckle him with her divine milk. In later times, the pharaoh Hatshepsut depicted the goddess attending to her birth along side other deities of childbirth. During Egyptian history, she was called by three names - Ipet ('harem'), Taweret ('great one') and Reret ('the sow'). Of the three, the cult of Taweret assimilated the other two versions of this goddess, despite the Temple of Ipet (often translated to be 'Harem' rather than the name of the goddess) at Karnak.
In Egyptian astronomy, Taweret was linked to the northern sky. In this role she was known as Nebetakhet, the Mistress of the Horizon - the ceiling painting of the constellations in the tomb of Seti I showed her in this capacity. She was thought to keep the northern sky - a place of darkness, cold, mist, and rain to the Egyptians - free of evil. She was shown to represent the never-setting circumpolar stars of Ursa Minor and Draco. The seven stars lined down her back are the stars of the Little Dipper. She was believed to be a guardian of the north, stopping all who were unworthy before they could pass her by.
In all of the ancient Egyptian astronomical diagrams there is one figure which is always larger than all the rest, and most frequently found at the center of what appears to be a horizontal parade of figures. This figure is Taweret "The Great One", a goddess depicted as a pregnant hippopotamus standing upright. It is no mystery that this figure represents a northern constellation associated, at least in part, with our modern constellation of Draco the dragon.
...Precession and the Pyramid Astronomical Knowledge in Ancient Egypt, Jim Fournier
In the Book of the Dead Taweret, the 'Lady of Magical Protection', was seen as a goddess who guided the dead into the afterlife. As with her double nature of protector and guardian, she was also a guard to the mountains of the west where the deceased entered the land of the dead. Many of the deities relating to birth also appear in the underworld to help with the rebirth of the souls into their life after death.
She was thought to be the wife of a few gods, mostly because of her physical characteristics. She was linked to the god Sobek, because of his crocodile form. Occasionally Taweret was depicted with a crocodile on her back, and this was seen as Taweret with her consort Sobek. Bes, because the Egyptians thought they worked together when birthing of a child, was thought to be her husband in earlier times.
At Thebes, she was also thought to be the mother of Osiris, and so linked to the sky goddess Nut. Another part of this theology was that it was Amen, who became the supreme god rather than Ra, who was the father of Osiris. It was believed that Amen came to Taweret (called Ipet at this particular time) and joined with her to ensure the renewal of the cycle of life. Ipet herself had become linked with the original wife of Amen, Amaunet (invisibility). It was at Karnak that she was believed to have given birth to Osiris. In later times, Ipet was assimilated by Mut who took her place as the wife of Amen and mother goddess.
Plutarch described Taweret as a concubine of Set who had changed her ways to become a follower of Horus. In this form, she was linked to the goddess Isis. It was thought that the goddess kept Set's powers of evil fettered by a chain. This is probably because she was a hippo goddess while Set was sometimes seen as a male hippo. The male hippopotamus was seen by the Egyptians as a very destructive creature, yet the female hippopotamus came to symbolise protection. This is probably why Set was, in later times, regarded as evil while Taweret was thought to be a helpful goddess, deity of motherhood and protector of women and children.
Tayet was the goddess of weaving and the most crucial of her roles was providing woven cloth for embalming. In the letter which the pharaoh Senusret I sends to Sinuhe, an ex-harem official, inviting him back to Egypt after a long sojourn abroad, there is a fine passage evoking the rituals of the funerary cult. It provides that after Sinuhe's death there will be a night of unguents and "wrappings from the hand of Tayer. This refers to the mummy bandages of the embalmers that keep the corpse intact. In the Old Kingdom a prayer was addressed to the goddess to guard the king's head and gather his bones. Tayet also weaves the curtain (embroidered by the god Ptah) which hangs in the tent of purification where the ritual of embalmment is carried out.
In daily life, linen bandages were used sparingly for medical purposes. One spell that has come down to us had to be recited over threads of fabric. It was meant to prevent hemorrhage and the resulting defilement of the purity of the "land of Tayer", meaning the bandages.
Patron of: moisture, warm air.
Appearance: a woman lying horizontally between the firmament and earth. Sometimes she is pictured helping her consort Shu hold up Nut.
Description: Tefnut, along with her brother Shu, was the first deity created by Atum in the beginning. She was the goddess of moisture (remember that even in ancient times, very little rain fell in Egypt) and of the warm moist air near the Nile. At one time she argued with her father and left Egypt for Nubia. Only Thoth could persuade her to return.
The Egyptian god Tatenen, sometimes written as Tatjenen,
symbolizes the emergence of silt from the fertile Nile after the waters of the
inundation recede. The meaning of his name is uncertain but may possibly mean
"the rising earth" or "exalted earth".
He is usually depicted as entirely human (though with the beard of a god) in
appearance, though he may be shown wearing a twisted ram's horn with two tall
plumes (ostrich feathers), sometimes surmounted with sun disks, on his head.
However, his face and limbs are often painted green in order to represent his
connection as a god of vegetation. Furthermore, he could also be a she. One
papyrus in the Berlin Museum calls Tatenen "fashioner and mother who gave
birth to all the gods".
While we are not entirely certain of his origin, he may likely have been an originally independent deity at Memphis. He also seems to have had some close associations in Middle Egypt near modern Asyut. However, at Memphis he seems to have been a deity of the depths of the earth, presiding over its mineral and vegetable resources, though even as early as the Old Kingdom he had become entwined with Ptah as "Ptah of the primeval mound", viewed as a manifestation of that well known deity of Egypt's capital. Hence, we find him in an important role associated with the creation of the world as formulated on the 25th Dynasty (Nubian) Shabaka Stone of Memphite theology.
How he became associated with the Egyptian concept of creation is unsure, but several theories have been put forward. One theory holds that he was the counterpart at Memphis of the idea of the "high sand" or primeval mound (benben) of the Heliopolis theology. Other theories hold that:
Tatenen was the arable land that was reclaimed at Memphis
from papyrus swamps through irrigation projects.
He was a very specific piece of land at Memphis, submerged by the annual flood
that, after it receded, reappeared.
Tatenen was a personification of Egypt and an aspect of Geb, the earth god.
Regardless, as a creator god (Ptah Tatenen) he held the title, "father
of the gods" and was thus both the source and ruler of all gods. Ptah as
Tatenen is the one who begat the gods and from whom all things proceeded. Thus,
we find in the "Hymn to Ptah":
"Hail to thee, thou who art great and old, Ta-tenen, father of the gods, the great god from the first primordial time who fashioned mankind and made the gods, who began evolution in primordial times, first one after whom everything that appeared developed, he who made the sky as something that his heart has created, who raised it by the fact that Shu supported it, who founded the earth through that which he himself had made, who surrounded it with Nun [and] the sea, who made the nether world [and] gratified the dead, who causes Re to travel [thither] in order to resuscitate them as lord of eternity (nhh) and lord of boundlessness (td), lord of life, he who lets the throat breathe and gives air to every nose, who with his food keeps all Mankind alive, to whom lifetime, [to be more precise] limitation of time and evolution are subordinate, through whose utterance one lives, he who creates the offerings for all the gods in his guise the great Nun (Nile, in this case), lord of eternity, to whom boundlessness is subordinate, breath of life for everyone who conducts the king to his great seat in his name, 'king of the Two Lands'."
Of course, it must be noted that this hymn is specifically directed to Ptah as Tatenen. But in this guise he seems to have created everyone. Even Imhotep, after his deification, was also associated with Tatenen through Ptah. In a small temple dedicated to this great thinker of ancient Egypt, we find Imhotep described as "threat one, son of Ptah, the creative god, made by Tatenen, begotten by him and beloved by him..."
Though Tatenen is most closely associated with Ptha, we do find assimilation with other gods, including Osiris, Sokar in their function as earth deities, and later with Khnum. Also, in the Books of the Netherworld he is closely associated with Re.
During the New Kingdom he became particularly important, taking on a protective role towards the royal dead, guarding the kings and their family in their path through the Underworld. For example, in the tomb of Amunhirkhopshef in the Valley of the Queens, on the West Bank of Thebes (modern Luxor), Ramesses III, the father of Amunhirkhopshef is depicted in a scene where he asks Tatenen to look after his young son. In fact, in the Book of Gates, Tatenen personifies the entire area of the netherworld, protecting the deceased in the Beyond. He is able to rejuvenate the sun on its nocturnal journey. In the Litany of Re, however, another Underworld book, he is listed as the personification of the phallus of the dead king.
Patron of: knowledge, secrets, writing, and scribes
Appearance: A man with the head of an ibis holding a scribe's palette and stylus. He was also shown as a full ibis, or sometimes as baboon.
Description: Thoth is an unusual god. Though some stories place him as a son of Ra, others say that Thoth created himself through the power of language. He is the creator of magic, the inventor of writing, teacher of man, the messenger of the gods (and thus identified by the Greeks with Hermes) and the divine record-keeper and mediator.
Thoth's role as mediator is well-documented. It is he who questions the souls of the dead about their deeds in life before their heart is weighed against the feather of Maat. He was even sent by Ra to speak with Tefnut and ask her to return when she abdicated her position and went to Nubia. He is also the great counselor and the other gods frequently went to him for advice.
Thoth is considered a lunar deity and is often depicted wearing the lunar crescent on his head. There is a story told of how Thoth won a portion of Khonsu's light, and this may be the reason. As a lunar deity his totem animal is the baboon, a nocturnal animal that goes to sleep only after greeting the new day.
Worship: Worshipped widely throughout all of Egypt, his cult center was Hermopolis