ES - EN - FR - PT - IT

Louvre

Don't miss anything

The boat of the goddess Anuket

This sculpture is important because it shows us an image of the goddess Anuket, very important for the Egyptians. This goddess was worshiped throughout Nubia, particularly in the area of ​Sehel (near the first Nile waterfall) and Komir (south of Esna). She is represented as a black woman with a crown decorated with ostrich feathers and vegetables, or as a black woman with the head of a gazelle (animal very present in the region of the first cataract). It is also known as the 'Lady of the South'.

She is the daughter of the god Amun Re, whose mission is to watch over the Nile so that its fertile mud leads to good harvests and water the Elephantine population with fresh water.

With the goddess Satis and the ram-headed god Khnum form the divine triad of Elephantine, guardians of the falls of Philae, Esneh and Sehel.

It will be associated during the Ptolemaic period with sexuality (fertility) and lust. Among the Greeks, it will be venerated under the name of the goddess Hestia.

Louvre