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Found first in Ancient Egypt the sphinx, which had the
head and shoulders of a human and the body of a lioness,
represented the goddess who was the protector of the
pharaohs. Later pharaohs were depicted as sphinxes, being
thought as the offspring of the deity. Bast (cat goddess
of protection and the eye of Ra) originally was depicted
as a lioness.. |
The war goddess Sekhmet typijcally was depicted as woman with
a lioness head or, just as a lioness. During the New Kingdom
the Nubian gods Maahes (god of war and protection and the son
of Bast) and Dedun (god of incense, hence luxury and wealth)
were depicted as lions. Maahes was absorbed into the Egyptian
pantheon, and had a temple at the city Leontopolis "City of
Lions" in Lower Egypt attached to that of the temple of his
mother. The later, Dedun was not absorbed into the Egyptian
religion and remained a Nubian deity. The Egyptians held that
a sacred lioness was responsible for the annual flooding of
the Nile River. Lions were represented in other middle-eastern
cultures; The Dying Lioness is a relief panel from 650 BCE,
Nineveh (modern day Iraq) depicting a half-paralyzed lioness
pierced with arrows, while the Babylonian goddess Ishtar has
been represented driving a chariot drawn by seven lions.
Ishtar's Sumerian analogue Inanna was frequently depicted
standing on the backs of two lionesses.
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