 


Anket, Anuket, Anjet, Anukis
As you see in all of the pics here, Anqet is
depicted as a woman wearing a tall headdress made either of reeds or of ostrich
feathers. In other depictions she is often holding a sceptre and/or the ankh
symbol. Some say the headdress was probably of Nubian origin.
She was occasionally, shown in the form of a
gazelle and is a water goddess. She is also known as a huntress, probably thought to be quick and agile like
the gazelle. Scholars believe she originated from Sudan, though she is not an
imported goddess. They say Anqet was a goddess of the whole Aswan area, of the
islands in the Nile and of the First Cataract and also a goddess of Nubia, the
land to the south of Egypt. She was a goddess of the waters of the Nile, a
goddess of fertility worshipped as a protective deity during childbirth, and was
thought to embrace the river. Her name means ''She Who Embraces". As ''She Who
Embraces'' she represents the banks of the Nile and the islands in the Aswan
area. Her specific islands were Setet Island (Sehel island) and Abu
(Elephantine) island. It could be that the word "embrace" may have originally
referred to the "embrace" of the waters of the inundation. She was a protective
deity, one who gave life to the pharaoh and the whole land of Egypt
itself.


It is said that she
originally was the daughter Ra,of Satet and Khnemu. Together, the three deities
formed the Triad of Elephantine, the principal deities of that city. Satet was
believed to pour out the water into the Nile that caused the inundation each
year. The inundation itself was known as the Night of the Teardrop. Every year,
Isis would shed a single tear, which would be caught by Satet in
her jars, then poured into the Nile. Khnemu
was originally a water or river god of the Nile-flood. He formed all of the
world on his potters wheel. These three water deities protected the Nile
cataracts and the area the Egyptians believed to be the source of the Nile.
She is also linked to Ra, as well as her mother,
Satet. In fact both these goddesses were closely associated with the "Eye of Ra"
along with Sekhmet , Bast and Hathor, amongst others. Similarly, both Anuket and
Satet were linked to the Ureas. In later times she was identified with Nephthys
at the temple "Per-Mer" due to Satet's links with the goddess Isis and Khnum´s
link with Osiris. Satet and Anqet are also closely linked to Isis, who took on the attributes of
the fertile waters of the Nile.


It is to be noted
that she was also worshiped throughout northern Nubia, and was not a goddess
confined to Egypt itself. Because of this, she was given the title of "Mistress
of Nubia". Some say that in southern Nubia, Khnum merged with the ram-headed
Amun and so Anuket and Satet (Satis) in some places also appear as wives of
Amun.
She was called the
"Lady of Sahal" (Nebt Satet). Anqet's temple at Sahal was called Amen-heri-ab.
which means "Amen's Heart is Content''. Her temple on Iat-Rek (Philae) island
was called "Per-Mer" when translated means "House of Love", where she was
identified with Nephthys.I believe this is where people get the notion that she
became a goddess of lust, whose attributes and cult were obscene during later
periods. In this form, she gained association with cowrie shells, which resemble
the vagina.

From China Shang and Zhou dynasty, 16th-8th century
BC
The earliest money in
China
The cowrie shell has been used as money in many
parts of the world, including China, Africa and Arabia. In China, inscriptions
which talk of 'gifts of cowries', 'cowries in the treasury', 'seizure of
cowries', 'use of cowries' and 'rewards of cowries' are found on bones and on
bronze vessels of the Shang (sixteenth-eleventh centuries BC) and Zhou (eleventh
century - 221 BC) dynasties.
Archaeologists have found that the distribution
of cowrie finds coincides with the gradual acquisition of territories by the
Zhou dynasty and noble lords. The natural supply of cowrie shells from the
coastal regions could not meet the growing demand inland. People began to make
imitation cowries out of bone, horn, shell, stone, clay, lead, bronze, gold and
silver. However, not all the cowries and imitation cowries were used as money.
Cowrie shells were also used as decoration, for example on clothes. Some cowries
and imitation cowries have been found in tombs as money for the
dead.
Source:
the British
Museum

The Festival of
Anuket was held when the innundation began. People threw coins, gold, jewelry,
and precious gifts into the Nile to please the goddess. From another source I
found this; Anqet "The Clasper"; water goddessof the Nile Cataracts. Her symbol was the cowrie shell.
Khnemu's second wife, she had a special dwelling place on the island of Seheil.
Also worshipped at Elephantine with Khnemu. Pictured as a woman wearing a tall
plumed crown. Sometimes she was pictured as having four arms which represented
the union of male and female principles. She was self-begotten and
self-produced. Producer and giver of life, water." Huh? Everyone is entitled to
their beliefs.
She was also a
nourisher not only of the land, but of the pharaoh as well. She has been shown
suckling a young Ramesses, while being described as the 'Giver of Live, and of
All Power, and of All Health, and of All Joy of the Heart'.
There is an
ostracon, a fragmented piece of pottery, on which she is depicted in the form of
a gazelle and called 'Lady of Heaven' and 'Mistress of the Gods'.


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