Egyptian mythology - Sekhmet - head of Sekhmet, the Fire and lioness goddess, known as the Great Cat, in contrast to her sister, Bast, who was the Little cat. Luxor Museum of Egyptian Antiquities. - Sekhmet was usually depicted as a woman with the head of a lioness, wearing the sun disk and the uraeus serpent. She was believed to be a manifestation of the enraged Eye of Re, who devoured the enemies of the Sun God. Sekhmet was the goddess of war and strife, but paradoxically, she was also a goddess of healing who drove away sickness. She had a more protective side that manifested itself in her aspect of goddess of healing and surgery. Part of her destruction side was also disease and plague, as the 'Lady of Pestilence'... but she could also cure said ailments. The priests of Sekhmet were specialists in the field of medicine, arts linked to ritual and magic. They were also trained surgeons of remarkable calibre. - 固opFoto / Charles Walker