Taweret- Egyptian GodDeity"The Great One"
Also known as: Tꜣ-wrt, Taueret, Taurt, and Thoeris
Titles & Epithets
Domains
Symbols
Description
Hippopotamus body, crocodile tail, lion limbs, pregnant belly. Taweret combined Egypt's most dangerous animals into a single monstrous form and turned all that ferocity toward protecting women and children. Evil spirits fled from the sight of her.
Mythology & Lore
Terror as Protection
Taweret's body was designed to frighten. She bore the head and torso of a hippopotamus, the tail of a crocodile, and the limbs of a lion. She stood upright on those lion legs, pregnant, pendulous-breasted, her distended belly prominently displayed.
Childbirth in ancient Egypt was perilous for both mother and child, and the demons believed to cause complications were deterred by terror. Women wore Taweret amulets and called upon her through the dangerous hours of labor. Birth tusks carved from hippopotamus ivory were passed over mother and child as her name was spoken. She held the sa sign, meaning protection, and sometimes torches to light the way through the darkness of delivery.
The Goddess in Every Home
Taweret had no great temples, no elaborate priesthoods. She was a goddess of the household: amulets worn against the skin, images placed in bedrooms. Her faience figurines are among the most common Egyptian artifacts to survive, found by the thousands across every period and every site.
On the astronomical ceiling of the Temple of Hathor at Dendera, Taweret appears as a circumpolar constellation, the great hippopotamus who never sets below the horizon. She circles the northern sky, vigilant through every night. A guardian who does not sleep.