woman with the head of a lioness “whose back
was the color of blood with fire emanating from
her mane and eyes.” Her fiery body would glow
when she used her weapons of arrows piercing the
hearts of her enemies. Her hot breath came from
the desert winds of Egypt.
For it was written that the creator god Ra,
in his declining years, had become grieved by a
decline of respect for him in the world he had cre-
ated, and especially by a few among the human
race, the product of his own tears. He reached out
to his closest followers to convene a divine assem-
bly of his nearest relatives. Messengers were sent
out quietly to the gods and especially to his
daughter, Hathor. He addressed the gods as to
what they felt should be the punishment for those
tormentors. Nun, the eldest of the gods, suggested
that Ra’s eye in the form of Hathor be sent out to
kill those who attacked the great god. The other
gods quickly agreed to this strategy, and Hathor,
in the manifestation of the enraged Eye of the sun
god, Ra, became Sekhmet, a fierce and ferocious
lion, to seek revenge. Sekhmet quickly set out to
attack the tormentors and found that she took
delight in the slaughter. Her taste for blood was
overwhelming, so much so that she raced over the
extent of the land, consuming the people in her
pleasure for more. Ra observed Sekhmet and was
pleased with her work and called to her to stop
before she performed the total destruction of
humankind. “Come in peace, Hathor. Have you
not done that which I gave you to do?” But her
thirst for blood was greater than her father’s plea.
Due to her divine power, no one could stop
Sekhmet, not even Ra himself. The cries of the
people were heard everywhere.
As Sekhmet rested, Ra and the gods, seeing the
despair of the people and the Nile River flowing
with the blood of humanity, thought to devise a
plan that would cease the lioness’s whirl of
destruction. They ordered the brewing of 7,000
jars of beer, to which red ochre from the ground
was added to give it the color of blood. Ra told his
messengers to spread the beer all over the Earth.
Shortly, Sekhmet arose to continue her enjoyable
task of looking for more prey. Instead, she saw the
blood-like liquid over the land and rejoiced,
drinking all that she wanted. Finally, the mixture
caused her to sink into a peaceful slumber. While
in her slumber, her father, Ra, quickly called to
her: “Come, come in peace, O fair and gracious
goddess.” Sekhmet, the lioness, was then trans-
formed again into the goddess Hathor, and the
world began to heal. The Nile River ran blue, and
thus humanity was saved.LaRese HubbardSee alsoRaFurther Readings
Armour, R. A. (2003).Gods and Myths of Ancient
Egypt(2nd rev. ed.). Cairo, Egypt: American
University Cairo Press.
Meeks, D., & Favard-Meeks, C. (1996).Daily Life of the
Egyptian Gods. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.SENUFO
The Senufo are made up of a number of diverse
groups who have lived in Northern Côte d’Ivoire
and Mali since the 15th and 16th centuries. Their
neighbors are the Guro, Yaure, Baule, Malinke,
Bamana, Bobo, Lobi, Kulango, and Toussiana.
Among the people of the Sahel region, the belt
between the Sahara and the Forest, the Senufo
have established a reputation for art, tradition,
and customs that elevate their ancestral spirits.
Because religious practices express the cosmol-
ogy of the African world, it is demonstrated
nowhere any better than in the Senufo society. The
cultural practices of the Senufo people are reflec-
tive of their cosmological beliefs.
The Senufo believe that the first two celestial
beings were Maleeo, Ancient Mother, and
Kolotyole (Kòlotyöö), Creator God. When
Kòlotyöö created the first male and female, they
became man and wife. The first two offspring of
this first pair were male and female twins. The con-
cept of male and female principles (duality), begin-
ning at the dawn of creation, is consistent with the
ideas of Africans in antiquity. Moreover, this con-
cept establishes a basis for equality, and a balance
of power between males and females is observable
in the beliefs and practices of the Senufo.
Yirigefölö, the owner or chief of “creating, mak-
ing, bringing forth,” and Nyëhënë, which meansSenufo 603