Sekhmet – whose name means ‘she who is powerful’ – was one of the most revered and feared goddesses in the Egyptian pantheon. Goddess of war, with the head of a lioness, her bloodthirsty antics were the subject of popular myths. As legend has it, Sekhmet was the daughter of the sun god Ra; she was the manifestation of his vengeful power, the ‘Eye of Ra’. At one time, Ra ruled Egypt as the Pharaoh on Earth, and humankind wanted for nothing. But man grew greedy and conspired against Ra. Angered, he sent Sekhmet down to Egypt, and set her lose among the conspirators. Sekhmet gladly tore through them with the righteous anger of the sun behind her. But after the battle was over, and Ra’s power was restored, Sekhmet was still not satiated. She continued the slaughter, killing almost all of humanity. Ra grew concerned that his creation would not survive, and so he hatched a plan: he dug a lake, and filled it with beer coloured with red ochre. Sekhmet mistook the lake for blood, and hungrily consumed it. She soon became drunk, and fell asleep. Ra returned her to the heavens, and humanity was saved.

But Sekhmet was not only fearsome in her aspect. She was the great defender of Egypt, imbuing the Pharaoh with the power to smite the nine traditional enemies who plagued Egypt’s borders. She also defended the Pharaoh’s own person, protecting him from threats at home and abroad like she had protected Ra’s own kingship. And she was a healing goddess, the patron of physicians. It was in this guise that the statues – life-sized and larger – of the goddess were created. The beginning of this trend is associated with the magnificent reign of Amenhotep III, a long-lived Pharaoh who oversaw an explosion of artistic and architectural achievement. It is estimated that Amenhotep III had some 730 Sekhmet statues made, two for each day of the year. They were supposed to ensure his long life and good health, as well as the safety of the Kingdom’s borders. Around 600 of these statues survive; some standing, some seated; some with solar disks on their head, and some bare headed. All surviving examples are made from black granodiorite, a hard dark stone with a velvety finish, which was incredibly difficult to work with the technology available to the Egyptians. They were originally dedicated by Amenhotep at the Temple of Mut, part of the sprawling religious complex at Karnak, and at his own mortuary temple, where his spirit was to be looked after for eternity. But many later Pharaohs, impressed with the artistic quality of the pieces, removed them to other parts of Egypt and Nubia to adorn their own temple complexes.

This dramatic, stunning bust is a fragment of a once-larger statue. Whether Sekhmet was originally depicted sitting or standing is hard to guess, but the angle of her arms, held straight by her side, suggests the traditional striding pose. If so, the statue would have stood at well over two metres. Before her, there was probably a papyrus staff which ended somewhere in her mid-abdomen. Her leonine face is exceptionally well-carved, showing a developed knowledge of the anatomy of the lion probably taken from direct observation in the royal menageries. She has a short forehead, piercing feline eyes with marks below them to indicate that she is indeed the Eye of Ra, an elegant muzzle, with a flat nose and geometrically perfect whiskers. Her head is framed by a stylised mane, which outlines her face in an ovoid disk. The mane is patterned like the lotus opening with the dawn, perhaps another reference to the goddess’ solar origins. She wears the traditional heavy wig, used by Egyptian artists to mask the point at which the animal and human parts of the goddess intersect. She also wears a broad jewelled pectoral collar (wesekh), of a kind popular among elite Egyptians. She wears a sheer, skin-tight dress, which reveals the curvaceous form of her breast and lightly toned stomach. Her slender arms hang directly by her side. Her ears are damaged, but contain the exquisite details of fur around their interior. It is unlikely that this sculpture had a solar disk on her head, as there is no evidence of a breakage on the top of her scalp. It is possible that it may have been incorporated into the badly damaged back pillar, which would once have borne Amenhotep’s name and dedication, but this is pure speculation. Indeed, some examples of Sekhmet sculptures without the solar disk are known (e.g. British Museum EA50, EA520; the North Carolina Museum of Art 82.11). This sculpture demonstrates both the power of the goddess, and the skill of the sculptor who created her. It exemplifies the Egyptian knack for creating a bounded realism, in which the abstraction of forms complements, rather than detracts from, the overall essence of the creatures depicted.

References: similar Sekhmet statues without the solar disk are known from London (British Museum EA50, EA520) and Raleigh (North Carolina Museum of Art 82.11).