User:Spawn Man/Sandbox
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Welcome to My sandbox, a collection of my recent workings & draughts for articles & pages on Wikipedia. -- Spawn Man
The Ancient Egyptian goddess Sekhmet was closely associated with bloodlust, death, and vampiric behaviour derived from her role in an older legend known as The Revenge of Ra. Possessing the head of a lion, Sekhmet was considered the greatest hunter known to the Egyptians and was originally the warrior goddess of Upper Egypt, who devoured humans and drank blood after battle. She was closely related with the warrior goddess Bast, but was often depicted as the fiercer of the two, with names such as Lady of Slaughter, Mistress of Dread, Avenger of Wrongs, and the Scarlet Lady. Sekhmet was usually shown in red was seen as a special goddess for women as well as a patron god of menstruation. In The Revenge of Ra, she was created by Ra in order to take vengeance on mankind after he found them to be plotting against him. She soon had destroyed most of mankind, devouring humans and drinking blood. However, Ra relented and ordered her to cease destroying the land; Sekhmet refused, now thirsty for more blood and no longer wishing to listen to Ra. Fearing the worst, Ra decided to trick her by turning the Nile red as if it were blood. Sekhmet went to drink the river, but when she did so Ra turned the red water into beer, intoxicating the goddess; Sekhmet fell asleep and awoke much later, having forgotten why she was on earth. She returned to Ra[1] and turned into a more benign god named Hathor.[2]
There are many variations on this legend; one is that Sekhmet drank the Nile in order to save the world from its overflowing waters. Another is that it was the humans, not Ra, that turned the Nile River red, with beer mixed with pomegranate, in order to stop her bloodlust. Whatever the case, the legend is closely linked to the Nile's own flood cycle; at the beginning of each calendar year during the river's inundation, the Nile is often laden with sand and silt from the lands upstream, giving the water a red, blood-like appearance due to the Arabian sand's red properties. This depiction gave rise to Sekhmet's portrayal as a vampiric being in later mythology.[1] In order to appease the goddess, a special festival was held by the Ancient Egyptians each year during the Nile's inundation, where records show that thousands of followers attended. At the festival, all the alcohol was coloured red in her honour.[2]