Egyptian mythology
Werethekau
She Who is Rich in Magic Spells
Werethekau, meaning 'Great of Magic' or 'She Who is Rich in Magic Spells,' was a cobra goddess of immense and ancient power, present at the coronation of every pharaoh and responsible for imbuing the king with supernatural protection. She suckled the pharaoh with divine magic as a nursing mother, transferring her extraordinary power into the royal body. Her name was so potent that other great goddesses, among them Isis and Hathor, bore it as an epithet.
- Mythology
- Egyptian mythology
- Appears in
- The Divine Birth of the Pharaoh
Werethekau, meaning Great of Magic, appears as a cobra-headed woman or a rearing cobra crowned with the double crown of united Egypt. She is heka, Egyptian magic, in its most sovereign and protective form, closely tied to the uraeus, the fire-spitting cobra on the pharaoh's brow. At the coronation she transforms a mortal into a divine king, suckling the new pharaoh and infusing him with a protection no human mother could give. That Isis and Hathor sometimes bore her name as a title shows she stood for a magic so vast any great goddess might be called by it.
Listen to the stories of Werethekau
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