| In Egyptian
mythology, Tawaret (also spelt
Taurt, Taueret, Tuart, Ta-weret, Taweret,
and Taueret, and in Greek, Thoeris
and Toeris) was originally the demon-wife
of Apep, the
original god of evil. Since Apep
was viewed as residing below the horizon,
and only present at night, evil during
the day was envisaged as being a result
of Tawaret's malificence. As the counterpart
of Apep, who
was always below the horizon, Tawaret
was seen as being the northern sky,
the constellation roughly covering
the area of present-day Draco, which
always lies above the horizon. |
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Thus Tawaret was known as mistress of the
horizon, and was depicted as such on the
ceiling of the tomb of Seti I in the Valley
of the Kings.
In art, Tawaret was depicted as a composite of all the things
the egyptians feared, the major part of her being hippopotamus,
since this is what the constellation most resembled, with
the arms and legs of a lioness, and with the back of a crocodile.
On occasion, later, rather than having a crocodile back, she
was seen as having a separate crocodile resting on her back,
which was thus interpreted as Sobek, the crocodile-god, and
said to her consort.
Early during the Old Kingdom, the Egyptians came to see female
hippopotamuses as less agressive than the males, and began
to view their aggression as one of protecting their young,
particularly since it is the males that are territorially
agressive. Consequently, Tawaret became seen, very early in
egyptian history, as a deity of protection in pregnancy and
childbirth, and pregnant women wore amulets with her name
or likeness to protect their pregnancies. Her image could
also be found on knives made from hippopotamus ivory, which
would be used as wands in rituals to drive evil spirits away
from mothers and children.
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In most subsequent depictions, Tawaret
was depicted with features of a pregnant
woman, in a composite addition to
the animal-compound she was also seen
as, which usually took the form of
pendulous breasts, pregnant stomach,
and long straight (human) hair (from
her head). As a protector, she was
often shown with one arm resting on
the sa symbol, which symbolized protection,
and on occasion carried an ankh,
the symbol of life, or a knife, which
would be used to threaten evil spirits. |
As such a protector, Tawaret was also given titles reflecting
a more positive nature, including Opet (also spelt Ipet, Apet,
and Ipy), meaning harem, and Reret (also spelt Rert, Reret,
Rerit, and Rertu), roughly meaning sow. Putting emphasis on
the more getting pregnant aspect of Tawaret's protection,
her cult centre at Thebes predominantly referred to her as
Opet, wheras her cult at Karnak preferred the more motherly
side, and so predominantly used the title Reret. Her cult
at Thebes identified her as a form of Nuit, the Ennead goddess
of the sky, since her constellation was always above the horizon,
indeed was at the highest point. Consequently, in her motherly
aspect, this lead to her, as Opet, being seen at Thebes as
the mother of Osiris, who was more generally seen as the son
of Nuit.
As the hippopotamus was associated with the Nile, these more
positive ideas of Tawaret allowed her to be seen as a goddess
of the annual flooding of the Nile, and the harvest that it
brought. Ultimately, although only a household deity, since
she was still considered the consort of Apep, Tawaret was
seen as one who protected against evil by restraining it,
and became known as (one) who is great, which is what Tawaret
means.
| When Set fell
from grace in the Egyptian mindset,
as a result of being favoured by the
(xenophobically) hated Hyksos rulers,
and gradually took over the position
of Apep, as
the god of evil, Tawaret became seen
as his concubine. She was seen as
concubine rather than wife, as Set
was already married to the extremely
different Nephthys. It was said that
Tawaret had been originally an evil
goddess, but changed her ways, and
held Set back
on a chain. As the goddess of motherhood,
Tawaret was eventually assimilated
into the identity of Mut,
the great-mother goddess. |
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