A standing figure of the goddess Bastet with a lion's head and inset eyes. Observation of the Nile's annual cycle floods and droughts gave rise to the ancient Egyptian myth of the goddess Bastet, which tells that Ra's daughter, the Eye of the Sun, flew into a rage, turned into a lioness and fled to Nubia. ...
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A standing figure of the goddess Bastet with a lion's head and inset eyes. Observation of the Nile's annual cycle floods and droughts gave rise to the ancient Egyptian myth of the goddess Bastet, which tells that Ra's daughter, the Eye of the Sun, flew into a rage, turned into a lioness and fled to Nubia.
Once she had calmed down the fiery lioness took the character of the cat goddess, Bastet, a docile feline (symbolising the fertilising flood).
Here she has her lioness face, with the circumflex eyebrows that give her a ferocious look. The cartouche engraved with the name of Piankhi, the first known Sudanese statesman, dates the statuette to the 25th dynasty. Gaining control over Upper Egypt about 730 BC, he founded a dynasty of Nubian pharaohs who ruled over Egypt for half a century.
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