| Raet-Tawy | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Raet-Tawy, is often depicted as a Female Goddess wearing a headdress similar, or identical toHathor. | ||||||||
| Name inhieroglyphs |
| |||||||
| Major cult center | Medamud, el Tod,Thebes | |||||||
| Consort | Montu | |||||||
Raet-Tawy orRaet is anancient Egyptiansolar deity, the female aspect ofRa. Her name is simply the female form of Ra's name; the longer nameRaet-Tawy means "Raet of the Two Lands" (Upper Egypt andLower Egypt).
Mention of Raet occurs as early as theFifth Dynasty. As her name is simply the feminine form of Ra, it is evident she did not exist independently of him. It is unclear when the fuller form of her name, Raet-tawy, was first used. She was later referred to as "lady of heaven, mistress of the gods", mirroring Ra's titles.[1]
Raet was also considered a wife ofMontu, and she formed a triad with him andHarpocrates inMedamud. Her feast day was in the fourth month of the reaping season.[1] The centers of her cult were atMedamud,El-Tod, andThebes. A demotic manual from the Roman period with hymns to Raet has survived in fragments.[2] She never reached the importance ofHathor, who by then was also considered the wife of Ra (or, in other myths, his daughter).[1]
Images of Raet are rare. When she is depicted, she is shown as a woman with cow horns holding a sun disk on her head, similar to the headdress of Hathor. The headdress is adorned with auraeus, or sometimes with feathers.[1]
Media related toRattawy at Wikimedia Commons
