Mehet Weret | Goddess Of Water

Mehet Weret | Goddess Of Water

Mehet-Weret

was often shown as a cow on a reed mat a girl with a cow is head or a beautiful lady. She usually wore the sun disk between her horns and the Menat The Menat a piece of jewelry with a special counterweight is not just jewelry but a sacred instrument of Hathor.

As a goddess of water Mehet-Weret not only traveled on the water with the ruler or sun god but also brought life giving water to Egypt. Her name means Great Flood and connected her to the annual flood of the Nile the river in egypt the river in the underworld and the river in the sky (the Milky Way). Mehet-Weret was the goddess of the waters of Nun from which the sun god emerged and was called the Mother of Re (Ra).

In the time of the Pyramids Mehet-Weret represented the waterway in the sky sailed upon by the sun god and the king As a goddess of rebirth she was believed to give birth to the sun daily and to rebirth in the afterlife There is a ceremonial bed in the tomb of the Pharaoh styled after the goddess Mehet-Weret on which the body may have been placed to connect with her and her power to give birth in the underworld From the Eighteenth Dynasty onwards Mehet-Weret was the patron goddess of the necropolis at Waset (Thebes) and was shown in funerary papyri as a cow standing among papyrus plants at the foot of the mountains of the West with only her head visible Hathor was shown similarly.

As a celestial cow goddess she was associated with Hathor and Nut who were also shown as great cow goddesses of the sky. Like Nut she was believed to give birth to the sun daily She was closely linked to Nit and was shown as a cow goddess of creation called The Cow Who Gave Birth to Ra When Mehet-Weret gave birth to Re at creation she was said to have placed him in the form of a sun disk between her horns which is why she is shown wearing the attire of Hathor. In Thebes near Luxor and Karnak she was believed to be the mother of the local gods known as the Seven Wise People.