SAKHMET
Real Name:
Sekhmet (original spelling)
Occupation:
Goddess of war, patron god of lions
Legal Status:
Citizen of Celestial Heliopolis
Identity: The general populace of Earth is unaware of the existence of Sakhmet except as a mythological deity.
Other Aliases:
Hathor I, The Eye of Ra
Place of Birth:
Marital Status: Separated
Known Relatives:
Ammon-Ra (father), Bast I (mother),
Mihos (brother, alias Bast II),
Atum-Re
(grandfather), Gaea
(grandmother, alias Nun I), Horus, Min, Neper,
Anubis, Bata
(uncles), Hathor
I (possible half-sister), Ptah (husband), Nefertum, Imhotep
(sons),
Group Affiliations: The Gods of Egypt
Base of Operations:
Celestial Heliopolis
First Appearance: (behind the scenes) Avengers I #112, (name) All-New Official handbook of the Marvel Universe Update #4
History: Sakhmet is a member of an extra-dimensional race of beings known as the Ennead who were worshipped by the Ancient Egyptians. According to ancient myths, their divine ancestor, Re was born from Nun, the physical personification of the watery abyss. Re became known as Atum and later mated with Nun to sire the Ogdoad, the first generation of the Egyptian gods. There is some indication that Nun, later known as Neith, was actually Gaea, patron goddess of the Earth who later gave birth to all the gods of Earth. (The similarities between Gaea as Nun to Atum-Re and Atum-Re to Ouranus suggests the Olympian gods and the Egyptian gods may have developed from common ancestors, but this is undetermined.) Among the Ogdoad, Ammon-Ra later seduced the goddess Bast, descendant of other Egyptian gods, and sired Sakhmet, who became goddess of war, and Mihos, who stood guard at the gates of Heliopolis.
When Atum-Re became too infirmed to rule over the Egyptian gods, he called upon Sakhmet to act as his defender. In this role, she became known as the Eye of Ra. Atum had become dissatisfied with mortal man and sent Sakhmet to Earth to slaughter them. She appeared on Earth with the terrifying power of the sun and created a massive bloodbath. Atum eventually tried to call her back to prevent her from fully killing off humanity, but she did not respond. Atum had the Earth around her drenched with wine mixed with juice. Mistaking it for blood, Sakhmet drank the potion and became so inebriated that she fell out of her frenzy and became docile. (In some myths, Sakhmet is the violent bloodthirsty form of the goddess Hathor, but in later myths taken to Greece by the Greeks, they are two distinct characters. Hathor later became wife of the sun-god, Horus.)
Sakhmet was later given or taken by Ptah, the tutelary god of Memphis and artisan of the gods, as his wife and she sired Nefertum, the lotus-god, and Imhotep, the beneficent god of medicine. At some point, Sakhmet became contrary with her brother, Mihos, who had the favor of Osiris, who had replaced Ammon-Ra as ruler of the gods. Mihos served as guardian to the gates of Celestial Heliopolis, the home of the Egyptian gods, while Sakhmet was often invoked by the pharaohs of Egypt against their enemies. Their mother, Bast, at some point became patron goddess to the Wakandans with Mihos appearing as her representative on Earth. Eventually, Mihos was worshipped as the male form of his mother and was also called Bast. Possibly jealous of her brother's worshippers in Bast, Sakhmet decided to support Seth in conquering Celestial Heliopolis and he overthrew Osiris, imprisoning him and his relatives and supporters in a pyramid that he then sank beneath the sands. Sakhmet seized her brother's worshippers in Wakanda after Bast and Mihos vanished.
Sakhmet, however, possibly knew that Osiris and the Ennead would eventually escape their imprisonment and sought to preserve her power. She imparted a fraction of her power and life-force into a totem later placed into a staff and presented it to her priest, N'Laka, who used it to impart superhuman powers on his followers to became avatars of Sakhmet. (In the native reality of Femforce, female archaeologist Jessica Hunt gained the powers of Sakhmet and became the costumed heroine, She-Cat.) N'Laka eventually used it upon an African journalist named Umbala who became possessed by Sakhmet and began calling himself the Lion God. He placed the ruler and protector of Wakanda, T'Challa, the Black Panther under his control and tried to subvert his friends and allies in the Avengers into serving him. Unaware that Sakhmet was gaining more and more power over him, the Lion God was briefly defeated by the Asgardian god, Thor,. Recouping his losses, the Lion God soon returned assisted by the power of Mantis, an associate of the Avengers. Mantis feigned an alliance with the Lion God, and helped Iron man to defeat him. Trapped within an Adamantium prison, the Lion God was dispatched by Thor into another dimension.
Eventually, Osiris and his brethren escaped the pyramid they
had been bound to with the help of Thor and his father, Odin, Chieftain of the
Asgardian gods. Seth was briefly exiled upon their return, and Sakhmet possibly
fled Celestial Heliopolis fearing retribution. Her current whereabouts are
unknown.
Height: 5' 5"
Weight: 345 lbs.
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Black
Strength Level: Sakhmet possesses superhuman strength enabling her to lift
(press) 30 tons under optimal conditions.
Known Superhuman Powers: Sakhmet possesses the
conventional physical attributes of the Ennead or Egyptian gods. Like all of the
Egyptian gods, she is extremely long-lived, but she is not immortal: she has
aged at an extremely slow rate since reaching adulthood and cannot die by any
conventional means. She is immune to all Earthly diseases and is resistant to
conventional injury. If he were somehow wounded, her godly life force would
enable her to recover with superhuman speed. It would take an injury of such
magnitude that it dispersed a major portion of her bodily molecules to cause her
a physical death. Even then, it might be possible for a god of significant
power, such as Ammon-Ra, Osiris and Seth or for a number of Egyptian gods of
equal power working together to revive her. Sakhmet also possesses superhuman
strength and his Ennead metabolism provides her with far greater than human
endurance in all physical activities. (Ennead flesh and bone is about three
times as dense as similar human tissue, contributing to the superhuman strength
and weight of the Egyptian gods.)
Sakhmet has greater strength, stamina, endurance and resistance to injury than any other Egyptian goddess, with the obvious exception of gods like Osiris, Seth and Horus. She has some mystical powers enabling her to tap into the searing heat of the sun and wield it as a weapon. She can cast and imbue objects with her life-force and powers, enabling her to take mental control of mortals as unwillingly subjects. The full range of her power is unrevealed, but she is not as powerful as Osiris or Seth.
Abilities: Sakhmet is a powerful warrior.
Weapons: Sakhmet carries number of weapons charged with the destructive
powers of the sun, notably a bow and arrow.
Comments: This bio includes Sakhmet as she appears in the Marvel and AC (Americomics)
Universes; it is unrevealed if she has appeared in the DC Universe.
In the All-New Official handbook of the Marvel Universe
Update #4, the relatives for Sakhmet are a little askew. Ammon is confused with
Atum, and Nun is erroneously identified with the Demiurge, the primeval sentient
biosphere of Earth. While Ra is often referred to as the parent of all the
Egyptian gods, it should be noted that terms as grandfather and grandson do not
appear often in mythology.
Mythological info from the Ultimate Encyclopedia of World
Mythology by Arthur Cotterell and the Oxford Companion of World Mythology by David
Leeming.
Last updated: 03/08/08