Sacred Symbols

Sacred Symbols of Aset

Aset’s associations with these animals mirror the attributes of the goddess. Aset was a fierce protector as a lioness and cobra, a keen predator as a bird of prey, a shrill mourner as the kite, a protective mother as a scorpion, pig, vulture and a hippopotamus, a stealthy hunter as the lioness and leopard, and the goddess of the starry heavens as both the cow and the leopard.

Sacred Animals of Aset

1. Akhet-Cow or Celestial Cow
2. Dolphin (Lepidotus or Nile Tilapia of Hatmehyt)
3. Female Baboon
4. Female Black Kite
5. Female Dog
6. Female Falcon
7. Female Hippopotamus
8. Female Scorpion
9. Female Snake
10. Female Vulture
11. Female Winged Scarab
12. Gray Goose
13. Greyhound
14. Hawk
15. Hmt-Fish
16. Lioness
17. rA DA-Fish
18. Sow
19. Tern (a type of bird)
20. Two Female Black Kites (with Nebet Het)
21. Two Hwrt-Birds (with Nebet Het)
22. Two Red Cows  (with Nebet Het)[1]

 

More Sacred Animals

1. Cobra[2]
2. Feline[3]
3. Female Leopard or Panther[4]
4. Oryx[5]

Her Crowns

1. Throne:  The three-stepped throne
2. Horns/Sundisk:  Solar disk encircled by cow horns ontop of a modius crown (most of the time with a Uraeus)
3. Uraei-Horns:  Horns with sundisk and uraeus on a modius crown encircled with a circlet of uraei
4. Two Plumes: Shuty crown (sundisk between cow horns on two plumes and sometimes with a Uraeus)[6]

 

Regalia

1. Ankh
2. Menat Necklace
3. Mirror
4. Papyrus Sceptre
5. Tyet Knot Amulet (Isis Knot)
6. Sistrum
7. Situla (curved libation jug)[7]

Natural Forces

1. Rain
2. Nile River
3. The Sky (Day and Night)
4. Sopdet (Sirius)
5. Sun and Stars

[1] Leitz, Christian, ed. Lexicon der Aegyptischen Goetter und Goetterbezeichnungen (LAGG, OLA 129, Band 8). (Peeters, 2003), 16-17.    Tyldesley, Joyce. “Isis: Great of Magic,” in The Penguin Book of Myths and Legends of Ancient Egypt. (Penguin Books, 2011), 211.   For Hatmehyt and Lepidotus:  Lurker, Manfred.  An Illustrated Dictionary of the Gods and Symbols of Ancient Egypt.  (Thames and Hudson, 2006), 88.

[2] Zabkar, Louis V. Hymns to Isis in Her Temple at Philae. (London: University Press of New England, 1988),  58.  Wilkinson, Richard H.  The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt.  (New York: Thames and Hudson, 2003), 147.

[3] Cauville, Sylvie.  Dendara III: Traduction. (Peeters, 2000), 221-223.

[4] Zabkar, Louis V. Hymns to Isis in Her Temple at Philae. (London: University Press of New England, 1988), 51 and 53.

[5] Capel, Anne K. and Glenn E. Markoe, ed. Mistress of the House, Mistress of Heaven: Women in Ancient Egypt.  (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1996), 70.

[6] Mair, Melissa. “The Transformation of a Goddess: Depictions of Isis throughout the Ancient Mediterranean World.”  (Dissertation: Emory University, 2012), 11-12.  Tyldesley, Joyce. “Isis: Great of Magic,” in The Penguin Book of Myths and Legends of Ancient Egypt. (Penguin Books, 2011), 211.

[7] Tyldesley, Joyce. “Isis: Great of Magic,” in The Penguin Book of Myths and Legends of Ancient Egypt. (Penguin Books, 2011), 211.  Roberts, Alison. My Heart My Mother: Death and Rebirth in Ancient Egypt. (England: Northgate Publishers, 2000),  64.   Wilkinson, Richard. Reading Egyptian Art. (New York: Thames and Hudson, 1992), 47 , 201 and 213.