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157941

Goddess Sopdet in Ancient Egyptian Religion

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Last updated: 24 Dec 2024

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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

DOI

10.21608/jaauth.2021.66298.1147

Keywords

Sopdet, Sothis, ISIS, Sirius, Saft el Hinna

Authors

First Name

mona

Last Name

ezz ali

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Faculty of Tourism and Hotels , Mansoura University

Email

monaezz@mans.edu.eg

City

CAIRO

Orcid

-

Volume

20

Article Issue

3

Related Issue

25105

Issue Date

2021-06-01

Receive Date

2021-03-05

Publish Date

2021-06-01

Page Start

15

Page End

42

Print ISSN

1687-1863

Online ISSN

2682-4612

Link

https://jaauth.journals.ekb.eg/article_157941.html

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https://jaauth.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=157941

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2

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Original Article

Type Code

997

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Journal

Publication Title

Journal of Association of Arab Universities for Tourism and Hospitality

Publication Link

https://jaauth.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

Goddess Sopdet in Ancient Egyptian Religion

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Article

Created At

22 Jan 2023