The placard accompanying this sculpture indicates that the goddess was "the patroness of surgeons and healing. She was goddess of plague and the hot desert wind. The Egyptians believed that if she cause a disease, she could certainly heal it.
This statue of Sekhmet was commissioned by the pharaoh Amenhotep III to thank the goddess for guring his health problems. The statue was installed at Karnak." Presumably, the statue is not the original but a replica as are almost all the other statues in this museum.
It depicts the Sekhmet standing to mid thigh.
Wikipedia (
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"In Egyptian mythology, Sekhmet...also spelled Sakhmet, Sekhet, or Sakhet, among other spellings) was originally the warrior goddess as well as goddess of healing for Upper Egypt, when the kingdom of Egypt was divided. She is depicted as a lioness, the fiercest hunter known to the Egyptians. It was said that her breath formed the desert. She was seen as the protector of the pharaohs and led them in warfare.
Her cult was so dominant in the culture that when the first pharaoh of the twelfth dynasty, Amenemhat I, moved the capital of Egypt to Itjtawy, the centre for her cult was moved as well. Religion, the royal lineage, and the authority to govern were intrinsically interwoven in Ancient Egypt during its approximately three millennia of existence.
Sekhmet also is a Solar deity, sometimes called the daughter of the sun god Ra and often associated with the goddesses Hathor and Bast. She bears the Solar disk and the uraeus which associates her with Wadjet and royalty. With these associations she can be construed as being a divine arbiter of the goddess Ma'at (Justice, or Order) in the Judgment Hall of Osiris, associating her with the Wedjat (later the Eye of Ra), and connecting her with Tefnut as well."
As for the asteroid, Wikipedia (
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"5381 Sekhmet is an Aten asteroid whose orbit is sometimes closer to the Sun than the Earth's. It was discovered on 14 May 1991 by Carolyn Shoemaker at Palomar Observatory. It is named after Sekhmet, the Egyptian goddess of war.
Sekhmet is believed to be an S-type asteroid, and to measure approximately 1 km in diameter.
In December 2003, a team of astronomers at Arecibo Observatory announced that the asteroid may have a moon that measures 300 m in diameter and orbits approximately 1.5 km from Sekhmet. This moon is not yet confirmed."