African & Egyptian Goddesses

African Goddesses

According to generally accepted evolutionary theory, Africa is the ancient home of all human kind--all homo sapiens can trace their descent from the peoples who first walked upright across Africa's mountains and plains... As the oldest inhabited continent, Africa should present us with a rich tradition of mythology, folklore, hero tales and ritual. And, to an extent, it does so... But much of African culture has been lost or altered. Some was lost through natural processes: cultures changed, and so rituals and tales which no longer communicated a society's mores were abandoned.

Aha Njoku, Lady of Yams

This popular Goddess is worshipped by the Ibo people of Nigeria. She is responsible for yams, a central ingredient in the Ibo diet, and the women who care for them.

Aja, Lady of Forest Herbs

This forest Goddess is honored by the Yoruba people of Nigeria. She teaches Her faithful the use of medicinal herbs found in the African forests.

Ala, Earth Mother

This much-loved Earth Mother is the highest Goddess of the Ibo pantheon of Nigeria. She is responsible for many aspects of civilization, as well as guardianship of women and children in general.

Dziva, Lady Creatrix

Dziva is the generally benevolent Creatrix Goddess of the Shona people of Zimbabwe--but there is also an awful aspect to Her nature....

Gbadu, Holy Daughter

Gbadu is the daughter of Mawu (profiled below). She is the Goddess of Fate of the Fon (or Dahomey) people of modern Benin, Who is saddened by the fighting among Her Mother's mortal children.

Inkosazana, Lady Heaven

She is a popular and much-loved Goddess of the well-known Zulu people of Southern Africa. She is responsible primarily for cereal grains, an important element of the Zulu diet.

Mawu, Lady Supreme

Mawu is the Supreme Deity of the Fon (or Dahomey) people of modern Benin. With Her husband, Lisa, She created the universe. They are sometimes presented as Mawu-Lisa the great androgymous Creator. One of Her daughters is Gbadu (profiled above).

Mbaba Mwana Waresa, Lady Rainbow

Mbaba Mwana Waresa is a beloved Goddess of the Zulu people of Southern Africa, primarily because She gave them the gift of beer. The story of Her search for a husband is well-known, and recently appeared in a beautifully illustrated children's book.

Mella, Courageous Daughter

Mella's story is as much folklore as it is myth. She is a deified Queen honored by the Buhera Ba Rowzi people of Zimbabwe.

Minona, Protectress

This Protectress of Women is honored by the Fon (or Dahomey) people of Benin. In some tales, She is the Mother of Mawu and the Grandmother of Gbadu (both profiled above).

Oshun, Lady of Sweet Waters

Oshun is one of the few native African Goddesses whose name is recognized in the West. She is honored by the Yoruba people of Nigeria primarily as a Goddess of fresh water, an element important to any people. She is also responsible for fertility, love and divination.

Oya, Lady of the River

Oya is the Orisha of the Niger River, and Her violent rainstorms are said to be its source. Like Oshun, She is worshipped not only in Africa but in Brazil, where the Amazon is said to be Her river, and where She is equated with the Virgin Mary as Our Lady of La Candelaria.

Egyptian Goddesses

Egypt is an ancient land. It is one the most continuously inhabited regions of the world, with an archaeological record stretching back tens of thousands of years. The Nile Valley was one of the first sites at which agriculture was discovered, some nine thousand years ago, along with Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, the He Huang Valley and South-East Asia. (The peoples of Central America discovered the magic of seeds some centuries later.)... The Nile was a clock; it set the pace of the seasons, of the agricultural cycle, and of the lives of the Egyptians themselves. It was their lifesource, and it was benevolent. The River rarely failed the people; it flooded every year, depositing a layer of rich alluvial soil in which the Egyptians grew crops to feed themselves and their children and their cattle. As the River was steady and benevolent, so the Universe was largely perceived to be.

Long considered polytheists, Egyptologists have recently speculated that in fact the Egyptians... believed in a Web of Life, much as many Native Americans and Africans did and still do... Because of the perceived interconnectedness of life, the multifaceted nature of existence, Egyptian Deities rarely fit into neat categories (eg Goddess of the Sun, God of the Moon); rather, They often shared attributes, responsibilities, and even spouses and children.Over the course of some three thousand years, Egypt flourished under the rule of native Pharaohs, Assyrians, Nubians, Greeks and Romans. Only in the fourth century of the common era, under the aegis of Christian Byzantium, were the temples of the Goddesses and Gods closed. The invasion of Muslim Arabs in the seventh century destroyed or drove the few remaining faithful underground. The death of the Old Religion was a long and painful struggle. Comprehension of Egyptian hieroglyphic script was lost until the nineteenth century. Only then were native myths of Gods and Goddesses, unfiltered by the cultural bias and perceptions of Greeks and Romans, revealed. Only then were centuries of sand brushed away and the temples uncovered.

Amenti, Lady at the Gates

This Goddess of the Underworld was responsible for greeting the dead on their arrival in the West. As is often the case in Egyptian religion, Amenti's place was by no means permanent: other tales say Nut, Hathor, Neith or Ma'at greeted the dead.

Ammit, Devourer of Souls

Ancient Egyptians had no conception of Hell or place of punishment; if one died with a soul weighed heavy with sin, the soul was destroyed, devoured by the monster Ammit.

Bast, Sacred Cat

Bast ( Bastet, Bastis, Bubastis, Pacht, Ubast) is a name well-known in the West. Family pets so named are not uncommon. Cats, as manifestations of Deity, were sacred; cemeteries of mummified felines have been unearthed by archaeologists. Bast was the daughter and/or wife of Ra, the God of the Sun.

Hathor, Lady Mother

Hathor is generally presented as a Cow Goddess and Mother Goddess. She is a complex Deity, who is Matron of Love, yet also has a destructive element to Her nature. Some versions of the Egyptian creation myth identify Her as the Primal Creatrix.

Isis, Lady of Life

Isis is the most well-known Egyptian Deity. Her worship flourished in Egypt for all of its three thousand years. Her faith eventually spread throughout the Near East and Mediterranean; the roads and ships of the Roman Empire carried Isis to ancient France, Germany and Britain.The image is an oil painting by Jonathon Earl Bowser, entitled ISIS: CHILDREN OF EARTH AND SKY.

Ma'at, Cosmic Balance

There is much debate among Egyptologists as to whether Ma'at is an "actual" Goddess or only the personification of a concept. Evidence weighs heavily on both sides. Many Egyptian temples show Her in human form. Yet cosmic balance, right order, natural law, was very much the idea at the heart of Egyptian civilization.

Neith, Lady Supreme

Neith is a perfect example of the evolving, syncretistic nature of Egyptian religion. She appears in both bovine and human form and Her titles are almost endless. The rational Greeks, attempting to quantify and contain Her unlimited Divine Essence, equated Her with their Goddess of War and Handicrafts and Civilization, Athena (see Minerva, Graeco-Roman Goddesses).

Nekhbet, Lady Vulture

Nekhbet is a very ancient Goddess of Upper (southern) Egypt. In some cosmogonies, She is the Creatrix. She is rarely represented in human form.

Nephthys, Lady of the House

Nephthys (or Nebthet) is generally interpreted by Egyptologists as the Dark Twin of Isis. They are sisters married to Their own brothers. Isis, Osiris, Nephthys and Set are the children of Nut (profiled below) and Geb, the Earth.

Nut, Celestial Mistress

Nut is the Mother of four of the primary Deities of the Egyptian pantheon: Isis, Osiris, Nephthys and Set. Her body is the Sky, Her husband the Earth.

Qetesh, Sacred Love

Her name, meaning "Holy One," is usually mistranslated as "Sacred Prostitute." She came to Egypt from the Near East.

Sekhmet, Fierce Lioness

Sekhmet (Sakhmis, Sekhet, Ubastet), is often confused or combined with Bast. Sometimes She is another form of Bast, sometimes another form of Hathor, sometimes an autonomous Goddess.

Seshat, Mistress of Books

In very ancient Egypt, priestess and scribe were often one and the same. Seshat's Divine position, and the earthly position of Her priestesses, were eventually taken over by Thoth and His priests.

Taueret, Lady of Birth

While Her name is not often recognized, Her manifestation in the form of a hippopotamus often is. She is primarily a Goddess of Midwives and Birth.

Uadjet, Lady Cobra

Uadjet is an extremely ancient Goddess of Lower (northern) Egypt. She is often paired with Nekhbet, and is personified by the uraeus, the cobra on the Pharaoh's crown. She is sometimes called Buto.