#meshkenet

[starsandepithets]

Hello! Would you happen to have any information or resources on the goddess Meskhenet, such as centers and periods of worship? I'm curious about her connection to other netjeru.

Hey @blogssuchasthis

I haven’t directly worked with Meskhenet or even gotten so far as contacting her. So my answer is going to be quite academic :)

I believe that she works with Renenuet, a protector of women during childbirth who gives children their names. Meskhenet is also a a protector of children and childbirth, could determine a child’s fate and was considered a personification of the birthing brick (a brick on which women would stand squatting to give birth, which allowed gravity to help and the raised position allowed midwives access when necessary). She has a crown which is apparently a bovine uterus.

Resources

☀️ https://henadology.wordpress.com/theology/netjeru/meskhenet/

Mentions depictions at Speos Artemidos (New Kingdom) which is worth looking into.

☀️ https://seshkemet.weebly.com/meskhenet.html

☀️ https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/isiopolis.com/2012/12/15/isis-meskhenet-and-a-bunch-of-magical-bricks/amp/

Mentions Isis-Meskhenet at Dendera

(Interesting and really useful dissertation on Dendera).

☀️ http://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/etd/ucb/text/Richter_berkeley_0028E_12249.pdf

☀️☀️☀️

That’s all I have at the moment, I hope that this was helpful! If I find anything else I’ll update :D

[merflk]

MYTHICAL:

Meshkenet was the overseer of childbirth in Egyptian mythology. She determined the destiny of a child when it was born. She had the unusual distinction of being portrayed with her head emerging from two bricks. Women in ancient Egypt gave birth sitting on a birthing stool or squatting on birthing bricks, so the bricks represented the goddess of childbirth. Meskhenet, mentioned in the Westcar Papyrus, a magical papyrus with tales about the Old Kingdom, is one of five deities who assist the expectant mother Rudjedet when she is about to deliver triplets.

[platospluckedchicken]

Shay

Shay is in the same image as Renenet and Meshkenet, located under the birthing block. Shay means destiny or fate, Renenet and Meshkenet determine him for each person. There is nothing obvious to tell that it is him.

[platospluckedchicken]

Renenet and Meshkenet

Renenet and Meshkenet are the two goddesses who assign destiny. I’ll shorten their names to R and M for this post. R has a cobra head and M has a tall crown with loops on the top. They are shown in an image under a Ba bird. These two are part of the judgement of the afterlife, part of the birth into the afterlife. A birthing block is also in the image for a woman to put her feet on to give birth, this object is specifically associated with M. M was in the story of Red Djedet and she actually had dialogue, unlike Heket who we talked about earlier. Her dialogue contained her predicting the future of the children as they were born.