This granite sculpture that occupies a very important location in the ROM Egypt gallery is the goddess of war in Upper Egypt, named Sekhmet.
She is depicted as a lioness, a fierce hunter, the daughter of the sun god Re, and the wife of the creator god Ptah. Her name means "powerful" and some say her breath formed the desert. She was seen as the protector of the pharaohs and guided them in wars.
This sculpture carves out the lioness' head, but does not show the sun disk and the holy snake Uraeus on her head, which are symbols of royal power.
Legend has it that Sekhmet was sent to start a war against those who believed that the sun god Re had weakened. Unexpectedly, the more she killed, the more she enjoyed killing. After killing those who opposed the Sun God, she began to massacre innocent people, almost killing all human beings. Because the destruction was too serious, Re had to find a way to stop her. Knowing that she liked to drink blood, Re dyed 7000 barrels of beer red with pomegranate juice and tricked her into drinking it, which she mistakenly thought was blood. Sekhmet finally got drunk, and humanity was saved.
To be honest, this legend is not that convincing. Is it so difficult to distinguish the taste of blood from beer?
Sekhmet is also the goddess of healing. She also saves lives and heals the wounded while fighting.