Egyptian mythology
Sopdet
The Star That Brings the Flood
Sopdet was the goddess of Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, whose annual reappearance on the eastern horizon signaled the imminent flooding of the Nile and the start of the Egyptian New Year. She was the celestial timekeeper who ordered Egypt's agricultural and religious calendar. In funerary texts she became closely identified with Isis, and her star was understood as the eye of the goddess watching eternally over the land.
- Mythology
- Egyptian mythology
- Appears in
- The Journey Through the Duat
Sopdet, known to the Greeks as Sothis, is the goddess of Sirius, the brightest star in the Egyptian sky. After seventy days unseen, its dawn rising each year heralded the Inundation, the flood that laid down the silt all Egyptian farming depended on, and marked the New Year. Crowned with a five-pointed star, she presided over this most sacred moment as its herald, goddess of fertility and renewal. By the Middle Kingdom she was identified with Isis, her starlight said to carry the soul of Osiris and quicken the Nile.
Related figures
Listen to the stories of Sopdet
MythologyNow launches in September. Join the waitlist and claim the Zeus founder card.
Free, no spam. Save your seat for launch. We'll tell you the moment the gates open.