Menhit

History

Believed to have origins as a Nubian goddess, Menhit is always depicted as a lioness with solar disk and a uraeus symbol. Coffin texts associate her with being a tutelary and solar deity. Some sources identify her as the subject of the "Distant Goddess" myth. In one legend, the Eye of Ra flees from Egypt. Her counterpart, Ra, sends another god to track her down in Nubia, where she transforms into a lioness. When she is returned to Ra, she either becomes or gives birth to Menhit.

She also was believed to advance ahead of the Egyptian armies and cut down their enemies with fiery arrows, similar to other war deities. She was less known to the people as a crown goddess and was one of the goddesses who represented the protective uraeus on royal crowns.