THE SHRINE OF
SERKET


Serket (Serqet, Selket), a scorpion-goddess, is shown as a beautiful woman with a scorpion poised on her head; her creature struck death to the wicked, but she was also prayed to to save the lives of innocent people stung by scorpions; she was also viewed as a helper of women in childbirth. She is also depicted as binding up demons that would otherwise threaten Ra, and she sent seven of her scorpions to protect Isis from Set. She was the protectress of Qebhsenuef, the son of Horus who guarded the intestines of the deceased. She was made famous by her statue from Tutankhamen's tomb, which was part of the collection which toured America in the 1970's. "She who causes the throat to breath". An Egyptian scorpion-goddess, and an early a tutelary deity of the Egyptian monarchs. She is one of the goddess who guards the canopic jars containing the viscera of the deceased. From this association she came to be a tutelary goddess of the dead. She is represented as a woman with a scorpion on her head or with a scorpion-shaped headdress, but also with a scorpion body and a human head. Serket was called upon to avert venomous bites and stings.