Heqet ( Egyptian ', also ' "Heqtit"), sometimes spelled Heket, is an Egyptian goddess of fertility, identified with

Hathor Hathor ( egy, ḥwt-ḥr, lit=House of Horus, grc, Ἁθώρ , cop, ϩⲁⲑⲱⲣ, Meroitic: ) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion who played a wide variety of roles. As a sky deity, she was the mother or consort of the sky ...

, represented in the form of a

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely Carnivore, carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order (biology), order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-f ...

. To the Egyptians, the frog was an ancient symbol of fertility, related to the annual

flooding of the Nile The flooding of the Nile has been an important natural cycle in Egypt since ancient times. It is celebrated by Egyptians as an annual holiday for two weeks starting August 15, known as ''Wafaa El-Nil''. It is also celebrated in the Coptic Church ...

. Heqet was originally the female counterpart of

Khnum Khnum or also romanised Khnemu (; egy, 𓎸𓅱𓀭 ẖnmw, grc-koi, Χνοῦβις) was one of the earliest-known Egyptian deities, originally the god of the source of the Nile. Since the annual flooding of the Nile brought with it silt an ...

, or the wife of Khnum by whom she became the mother of Her-ur."The frog appears to have been worshipped in primitive times as the symbol of generation, birth and fertility in general; the Frog-goddess Ḥeqet or Ḥeqtit was identified with Hathor, and was originally the female counterpart of Khnum, by whom she became the mother of Heru-ur. The great antiquity of the cult of the frog is proved by the fact that each of the four primeval gods, Ḥeḥ, Kek, Nāu, and Amen is depicted with the head of a frog, while his female counterpart has the head of a serpent. The cult of the frog is one of the oldest in Egypt, and the Frog-god and the Frog-goddess were believed to have played very prominent parts in the creation of the world." E. A. Wallis Budge, ''The Gods of the Egyptians: Or, Studies in Egyptian Mythology'' vol. 2 (1904)
p. 378
It has been proposed that her name is the origin of the name of

Hecate Hecate or Hekate, , ; grc-dor, Ἑκάτᾱ, Hekátā, ; la, Hecatē or . is a goddess in ancient Greek religion and mythology, most often shown holding a pair of torches, a key, snakes, or accompanied by dogs, and in later periods depict ...

, the Greek goddess of witchcraft.

Name

The name is written as ' with the determinative "frog" ( I7). The phonetic spelling may use the biliteral ' hieroglyph ( S38) in place of uniliteral ' ( V28). The alternative form ' adds an explicit feminine ending, used alongside the " egg" determinative ( H8) to emphasize the deity's femininity. The

Middle Egyptian The Egyptian language or Ancient Egyptian ( ) is a dead Afro-Asiatic language that was spoken in ancient Egypt. It is known today from a large corpus of surviving texts which were made accessible to the modern world following the deciphe ...

pronunciation of the name may have been close to , which has been proposed (among other possibilities) as the origin of the name of Greek

().

Worship

The beginning of her cult dates to the Early Dynastic Period at least. Her name was part of the names of some high-born Second Dynasty individuals buried at

Helwan Helwan ( ar, حلوان ', , cop, ϩⲁⲗⲟⲩⲁⲛ, Halouan) is a city in Egypt and part of Greater Cairo, on the bank of the Nile, opposite the ruins of Memphis. Originally a southern suburb of Cairo, it served as the capital of the now d ...

, such as prince Nisuheqet, and was mentioned on a

stela A stele ( ),Anglicized plural steles ( ); Greek plural stelai ( ), from Greek , ''stēlē''. The Greek plural is written , ''stēlai'', but this is only rarely encountered in English. or occasionally stela (plural ''stelas'' or ''stelæ''), wh ...

of Wepemnofret and in the

Pyramid Texts The Pyramid Texts are the oldest ancient Egyptian funerary texts, dating to the late Old Kingdom. They are the earliest known corpus of ancient Egyptian religious texts. Written in Old Egyptian, the pyramid texts were carved onto the subterran ...

. Early frog statuettes are often thought to be depictions of her. Heqet was considered the wife of

, who formed the bodies of new children on his potter's wheel. In the

Osiris myth The Osiris myth is the most elaborate and influential story in ancient Egyptian mythology. It concerns the murder of the god Osiris, a primeval king of Egypt, and its consequences. Osiris's murderer, his brother Set, usurps his throne. Meanwhil ...

, it was Heqet who breathed life into the new body of

Horus Horus or Heru, Hor, Har in Ancient Egyptian, is one of the most significant ancient Egyptian deities who served many functions, most notably as god of kingship and the sky. He was worshipped from at least the late prehistoric Egypt until the ...

at birth, as she was a goddess of the last moments of birth. As the birth of Horus became more intimately associated with the

resurrection Resurrection or anastasis is the concept of coming back to life after death. In a number of religions, a dying-and-rising god is a deity which dies and is resurrected. Reincarnation is a similar process hypothesized by other religions, whic ...

of Osiris, so Heqet's role became one more closely associated with resurrection. Eventually, this association led to her amulets gaining the phrase ''I am the resurrection'' in the Christian era along with cross and lamb symbolism. A temple dedicated to Horus and Heqet dating to the Ptolemaic Period was found at Qus. As a fertility goddess, associated explicitly with the last stages of the

, and so with the germination of corn, she became associated with the final stages of childbirth. This association, which appears to have arisen during the Middle Kingdom, gained her the title ''She who hastens the birth'' (cf. the role of Heqet in the story of ''The Birth of the Royal Children'' from the

Westcar Papyrus The Westcar Papyrus (inventory-designation: ''P. Berlin 3033'') is an ancient Egyptian text containing five stories about miracles performed by priests and magicians. In the papyrus text, each of these tales are told at the royal court of king K ...

). Frog amulets representing Heqet were probably worn by women during childbirth to ensure an easy delivery.

Gallery

File:DendaraMamisiKhnum-10.jpg, The god

, accompanied by Heqet, moulds Ihy in a relief from the mammisi (birth temple) at

Dendera Temple complex Dendera Temple complex ( Ancient Egyptian: ''Iunet'' or ''Tantere''; the 19th-century English spelling in most sources, including Belzoni, was Tentyra; also spelled Denderah) is located about south-east of Dendera, Egypt. It is one of the bes ...

File:Statue of Heqat, the Frog Goddess, about 2950 BC, Predynastic Period, Late Naqada III Period to early Dynasty 1, travertine - Cleveland Museum of Art - DSC08796.JPG, Early Dynastic Period (c. 3000 BC) frog statuette (

Cleveland Museum of Art The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in Cleveland, Ohio, located in the Wade Park District, in the University Circle neighborhood on the city's east side. Internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian and Egyptian ...

)

References

External links

* {{Ancient Egyptian religion footer, collapsed Agricultural goddesses Childhood goddesses Egyptian goddesses Fertility goddesses Legendary amphibians Piscine and amphibian humanoids Hecate Hathor