PAKHET

Patron of: inner strength, especially that of women.

Appearance: a woman with the head of a lioness.

Description: Pakhet in all likelihood was a combination of Bast and Sekhmet. As her cult was centered in Middle Egypt, between the cult areas of Bast and Sekhmet, this may be the case. Her attributes of both ferocity and femininity further lend strength to this conclusion.

Worship: Middle Egypt, primary temple near Beni Hassan.


PELICAN

The Pelican found in livestock scenes on the walls of courtiers' tombs, figures in royal funerary texts frmo the Pyramid Age as a protective symbol against snakes. The description of the Pelican falling into the Nile seems connected with the idea of scooping up in its prominent beak hostile elements under the guise of fish- a concept comparable to the dragnets and bird nets used for trapping sinners in the Underworld.

That the Pelican is a divinty must be assumed from the reference to it in the Pyramid Texts as the 'mother of the king', a role which in religious documents can only be ascribed to a goddess. In non-royal funerary papyri the Pelican has the power of prophesying a safe passage for a dead person in the Underworld. The open beak of the Pelican is also associated with the ability of the deceased to leave the burial chamber and go out into the rays of the sun, possibly an analogy made between the long cavernous beak of the pelican and the tomb shaft.



CONTINUED - PTAH


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