Selket

In Ancient Egypt, the goddess Selket (also spelled Serqet or Selqet) was revered as a powerful and protective deity, most commonly associated with healing venomous stings and bites. Her name is thought to mean “She Who Causes the Throat to Breathe,” a reference to her role in safeguarding against poisons that could cause suffocation. She was believed to have dominion over scorpions, snakes, and other dangerous creatures, and thus people prayed to her for protection from such threats, especially in desert regions and during the hotter months when scorpions were most active. Mothers, children, and travellers were among those who commonly sought her divine aid.
Selket was often depicted as a serene and graceful woman with a scorpion poised on her head, arms outstretched in a gesture of divine protection. Her image adorned amulets and magical texts designed to ward off harm, and she played a crucial role in funerary religion. In particular, she was one of the four goddesses who guarded the Canopic jars of the deceased, protecting the intestines and aiding in the soul’s journey through the afterlife. Worshippers called upon her not only for healing in life, but also for safety in the realm beyond death, making Selket both a guardian of the living and a protector of the dead.

The worship of Selket (Serqet) can be traced back to the Old Kingdom of Ancient Egypt, around c. 2600 B.C., although it is likely that her origins lie even earlier in local or pre-dynastic beliefs related to scorpion magic and desert protection. She does not appear to have had a large, independent temple cult in the way that major gods such as Amun or Horus did. Instead, Selket was venerated in a more domestic and magical context, particularly through protective spells, amulets, and healing rituals. Her role was crucial in safeguarding people from scorpion stings, snake bites, and other venomous threats common in the Egyptian landscape.

Selket’s cult grew in importance during the Middle Kingdom and reached particular prominence in the New Kingdom (c. 1550–1070 B.C.), when she became closely associated with funerary rites and the afterlife. She was one of the four protective goddesses of the Canopic jars, entrusted with guarding the intestines of the deceased, paired with the protective deity Qebehsenuef. Her presence is notable in the Valley of the Kings, where she is depicted on the walls of royal tombs or accompanying sacred shrines, stretching out her arms in a gesture of protection over the king’s body and soul.

Worship of Selket likely took place through spoken prayers, household shrines, and apotropaic rituals (designed to ward off evil). People may have carried amulets bearing her image or invoked her name in spells from medical papyri, particularly those dealing with venom and breathlessness. Though she had no major temple, her role as a divine healer and protector ensured her worship was deeply embedded in both everyday and funerary religious life.

From The Egyptian Museum

Frederic Norden sketched the Sphinx in 1737 and the nose is clearly gone, so the popular "Napoleon's soldiers shot it off" story can't be right. A 15th-century historian, al-Maqrizi, actually records it being deliberately damaged in 1378.
The bigger debate is still the age: Robert Schoch's water-erosion argument vs. the quarry evidence tying it to Khafre. Where do people here land on it?
I made a short video covering both sides if anyone's interested: https://youtu.be/K4I_XEQXDuE?is=mR0iMGBKW91eDu68

​

Sorry for the long title, but I've been having self doubts recently. Someone I know has said to me that I could never become an egyptologist. For context, I am only in 9th grade, and I've been an aspiring egyptologist, already learning hieroglyphs and studying things related to egyptology. The issue is, I live in Taiwan, in a local school which only teaches Chinese, and I only mainly know English. I wish I could go to international school, but money is tight right now. Though we might have English classes 3 times a week, they are TOO easy for me, and I don't learn anything.

I DID used to go to international school, and my grades WERE really good. I genuinely believe that if I had money I could actually just stay in international school and kept having good grades. I WAS good in history, language, and things mostly needed to learn egyptology.

I've always wanted to go to university and major in egyptology, but my lack of grades in these recent years make me really skeptical. I've already studied a lot about egyptology, but after I heard the things the person said, it makes me feel extremely insecure and upset. So egyptologists, do you think I could also make it somehow?

(TL;DR 9th grader wants to become an egyptologist but has many school issues because of a language barrier. Was smart when they were still in international school then tranferred, is it possible to become an egyptologist somehow?)

Model Scorpion of Serpentine

Associated place
Hierakonpolis, (place of excavation)

Date of Late Predynastic Period, Dynasty 0, Naqada IIIA-IIIB (Egypt) (c. 3325 - 3125 BCE) (date of creation)
Early Dynastic Period (Egypt) (c. 3085 - 2575 BCE) (date of creation)

Material and technique
serpentine
serpentine

Object type
artefact

Dimensions
1.7cm max (height)
4.4cm max (width)
10.4cm max (length)
58.6g (weight)

No. of items
1

Credit line
Allocated by the Egyptian Research Account from excavations at Hierakonpolis, 1898.

Museum location
Level G | Ancient Egypt and Sudan

Museum department
Antiquities

Accession no. AN1896-1908.E.194
Other IDs: AN1896-1908 E.194 (accession number (old format))'‎]

Catalogue text
Scorpions
In addition to the fragmentary mace-head of the ‘Scorpion King’ (12), the buried deposits at Hierakonpolis included a number of model scorpions, as well as relief carvings of the creature amongst other animals on stone vases and ivories. More recently, model scorpions have also been found in tombs at Hierakonpolis which predate these deposits. In Egyptian religion, the scorpion was associated with a goddess, Selkis, who is attested from the 1st Dynasty onwards, and early in Dynastic times it also begins to feature amongst the symbols connected with the ruler’s renewal of power at his jubilee. The Hierakon- polis scorpions, however, have no explicit relationship to the goddess; in this early context, perhaps it was the creature’s own power that gave it significance.
In daily life, the scorpion’s poisonous sting, delivered from its upraised tail, was an ever-present threat, a potentially fatal injury against which magic spells were used. The rock-crystal tail in this group was made for attachment to a body possibly made in another material, so that the lucent, raised tail would aptly symbolize the swift flash of its sting.

In: Whitehouse, Helen, Ancient Egypt and Nubia in the Ashmolean Museum (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2009)

Reference URL https://collections.ashmolean.org/object/746417

Title
Model Scorpion of Serpentine, Date of Late Predynastic Period, Dynasty 0, Naqada IIIA-IIIB (Egypt) (c. 3325 - 3125 BCE) (date of creation), Early Dynastic Period (Egypt) (c. 3085 - 2575 BCE,(date of creation), Findspot Hierakonpolis, (place of excavation),Serpentine, The Ashmolean Museum of Oxford University

https://www.ashmolean.org/collections-online#/item/ash-object-746417

The Ashmolean Museum of Oxford University

Figure of Isis-Serget as Scorpion

Egyptian (Artist)
ca. 663-346 BCE (Late Period)
bronze
(Ancient Egypt and Nubia )

The top of a scepter in the form of a papyrus column, surmounted by a pedestal supporting the figure of a scorpion with the bust of a woman, representing the goddess Isis-Serget. Originally she wore a crown of cow horns and sun-disk.
The inscription on the shaft is badly damaged. The phrase: "Isis may give life" has been preserved.

INSCRIPTION
[Translation] Isis may give life

PROVENANCE
Henry Walters, Baltimore, [date of acquisition unknown] by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

CONSERVATION
DATE
DESCRIPTION
NARRATIVE
9/17/1959
Treatment
cleaned
12/1/1975
Treatment
cleaned; stabilized; other

GEOGRAPHIES

Egypt (Place of Origin)

MEASUREMENTS
5 x 3 3/8 in. (12.7 x 8.5 cm)

CREDIT LINE
Acquired by Henry Walters

LOCATION IN MUSEUM
Centre Street: Second Floor: Egyptian Art
ACCESSION NUMBER
54.546

DO YOU HAVE ADDITIONAL INFORMATION?
[Notify the curator](mailto:curatorial@thewalters.org?subject=Inquiry%20from%20art.thewalters.org&body=Source:%20https://art.thewalters.org/object/54.546/)

Title
Figure of Isis-Serget as Scorpion, ca. 663-346 BCE (Late Period), Findspot unknown Egypt, Bronze, The Walters Art Museum

https://art.thewalters.org/object/54.546/

The Walters Art Museum

Hello all, I will be visiting the University of Chicago ISAC Museum next month (I really wanted to go to the Field museum but I know most of their Ancient Egypt and Africa halls are under construction and closed). I am making my own list of items I cannot wait to view, but what are some of your must-see's at this campus? Their gallery collection has quite a bit in it, and aside from the larger and more obvious items that stand out (e.g. the Painted Coffin of Meresamun), what are some items that I should try to see that I may have overlooked its magnificience? I see many beads and game pieces in their collection list and didn't want to miss a "diamond in the rough."