Statues of Sakhmet

Complex of Mut, Karnak

Sakhmet was identified with Mut, the wife of Amun, since both goddesses were leonine in origin. Sakhmet (also spelled "Sekhmet") was the goddess of plague; Amenhotep III dedicated over seven hundred life-size statues of this goddess at Karnak, suggesting that Egypt, and perhaps the pharaoh himself, may have been stricken by some kind of pestilence towards the end of his reign. (Reference: Charlotte Booth, The Boy Behind the Mask: Meeting the Real Tutankhamun, Oneworld Publications, 2007, p. 5.)

Other statues of Sakhmet on this website are: a seated example from the Egyptian Museum, and a standing example from the Temple of Ptah at Karnak.