Mehturt

In Egyptian mythology, Mehturt ("great flood"; also Mehurt, Mehet-Weret, Mehet-uret) . Her name means “Great Flood.” Some of the titles of Mehet-Weret were “Lady of Heaven and Earth” and “The Great Cow in the Water.” Mehet-Weret was a goddess of the sky, and represented the waterway in the heavens, sailed upon by both the sun god and the king. The Egyptians called the Milky Way the “Nile in the Sky,” and believed it to flow from the udders of Mehet-Weret. Mehet-Weret was also a goddess of the yearly inundation of the Nile. There was a funerary bed found in the tomb of Tutankhamen, in the form of the goddess Mehet-Weret. As a manifestation of primeval waters, she was considered to be the mother of Ra. Sometimes Mehert-Weret appears in birthing scenes as a herald of imminent birth. The Great Flood is when the waters of the ammonitic sac break to signal that the child will soon emerge.

Mehet-Weret was pictured as a cow lying on a mat of reeds, holding the sun disk between her horns, sometimes wearing a menat (musical necklace). Occasionally she was pictured as a woman with a cow’s head and protruding breasts, holding a scepter entwined with a lotus flower. The sound of rustling papyrus plants were believed to announce Mehet-Weret’s approach, as she parted the rushes with her horns. A popular goddess throughout ancient Egyptian history, Mehet-Weret’s name was still in use even into the Greek period.