ANUBIS (ALSO ANQET, ANUKET) Important in the Old KINGDOM, ANUKET is a water goddess from the south. Her title, she who embraces, reflects her association with the Nile. Anu is were worshipped in southern Egypt and NUBIA and were honored with an important cult center at Aswan. She was said to be a daughter of RE, the sun god, but ANUKET's most important role was her position in the ELEPHANTINE TRIAD. She was the wife of KHNUM, the ram-headed god who created mankind on the potter's wheel. Egyptian triads traditionally have a father, mother, and son, but curiously, ANUKET's child was daughter SATIS, guardian of Egypt's southern frontier.
In some versions of the myth, Satis is said to be the consort, or wife, of Khnum. One of ANUKET's titles was Goddess of the CATARACTS of the Southern Nile, and her temples were at Sehel Island (south of Aswan) and Elephantine Island. As Goddess of the Hunt, her sacred animal is the gazelle. An ostracon (a piece of broken pottery) shows ANUKET as a gazelle and gives her titles such as Mistress of the Gods and Lady of (Abu Island). Although her name means to embrace, ANUKET, like many Egyptian goddesses, has a dual nature both sweet and fierce. It was said that her embrace could also become a chokehold of Heaven. Most often ANUKET is portrayed as a woman holding a papyrus scepter and an ANKH and wearing a tall headdress made of ostrich feathers or reeds. Because of her popularity in the south, she was known as Mistress of Nubia.
