Lady Of Drunkenness And How God Ra Wanted To Teach Humans A Lesson

A. Sutherland  - AncientPages.com - In ancient Egyptian beliefs, before Egypt had human kings, the ruler was the god Ra. He was the creator sun god and the ruler of gods and humankind.

Ra - the creator of all things - was born each morning and died each evening. The time of his reign is attested by a text inscribed on one of the shrines found in the tomb of King Tutankhamun (c. 1336 BC- 1327 BC).

The text was also found on the walls of royal tombs. It is also believed that the original version of this myth may have originated much earlier, probably in a year when the great Nile River failed to flood and thousands of people died.

When Ra grew old, people came out against him and began plotting to overthrow him. Their lack of respect for the highest deity, angered him very much and he decided to take revenge on them.

He summoned his divine Eye, in the form of the goddess Hathor accompanied by the eight primeval deities of the Ogdoad pantheon. He also sent for Geb, god of earth, Shu (a personification of dry air and wind), his wife Tefnut (goddess of moisture, moist air, rain dew), and their daughter Nut, the sky goddess.

One advice was to punish humankind by burning them with his blazing heat. However, when Ra directed his Eye on humans, most people on earth ran for shelter to the rocks and thus, managed to escape his fury.

See also:

Hapi: Early Egyptian God Of The Nile And Bringer Of Fertility, Abundance And Life

Serket: Scorpion Goddess Who Could Heal Poisonous Bites And Sting Evildoers

Eye Of Ra – Powerful Ancient Egyptian Symbol With Deep Meaning

More Myths And Legends

Frustrated, Ra called for another conference during which, the gods decided that Sekhmet, would be the best candidate to obey his order and punish people.

"No eye is better for this task than yours," concluded Nun.

"Let it go forth as Hathor- Sekhmet."

Hathor did as she was ordered.

He commanded his Eye Hathor to turn into Sekhmet, the lioness goddess and ordered her to teach the rebels a lesson.

Sekhmet slaughtered some of the people and splashed in their blood. No doubt, she could continue this malicious slaughter and totally destroy the rest of humankind, but Ra did not want it. By his revenge on humans, Ra only wanted to teach them a lesson but definitely not to wipe them out. It was time to act quickly to stop Sekhmet’s killing.

The Egyptian God Ra. Image credit: Bill Stanley (via ancient-egypt-online)

Ra ordered the high priest of his temple at Heliopolis to prepare 7,000 jars of beer and to dye it red. When this had been prepared, the beer-like intoxicating beverage was poured out on the ground so that it looked like a lake of blood. The lioness Sekhmet also assumed the lake was full of blood and without hesitation, she swooped down for a drink. She lapped up too much the dyed beer and became so drunk that she forgot about her killing mission.

When she finally regained her senses, she was immediately transformed from the ferocious lion into the beautiful and benevolent goddess Hathor. Humanity was safe again.

To restore friendly relations between the gods and humanity, Ra declared that the Egyptian people could drink as much as they liked at Hathor's festivals, in commemoration of Hathor, Lady of Drunkenness.

Written by – A. Sutherland  - AncientPages.com Senior Staff Writer

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