The Wrath of Sekhmet
When the earth was new, the gods walked among the people. The people respected the Neteru and the Neteru loved the people.
But as time went on the people forgot the Neteru. The people stopped sacrificing, they neglected prayer, and they even began to disrespect the Neteru deities. After they went astray and ignored the laws of ma’at, the people began to cheat, rob, murder, and commit all manner of crimes one against the other.
The great creator Amun-Ra looked out over the land, and he saw that the people were wicked. In his wisdom, Amun-Ra called a Great Council of the Neteru. The Neteru advised Amun-Ra to use his divine powers to punish the wicked, that they might repent.
Amun-Ra agreed and sent forth his daughter Sekhmet, the Eye of Ra, to destroy the evildoers so the righteous might once again travel the noble path set forth by the gods.
Sekhmet went out into the land and began killing evil men everywhere. But with each wicked person Sekhmet slaughtered, her rage grew more intense. After all the villainous men had been killed, Sekhmet did not stop. She began killing the righteous. And with each virtuous man Sekhmet slaughtered, her rage only grew in intensity.
As Amun-Ra surveyed the land, he saw the great slaughter Sekhmet had wrought on the people. He saw that she had slaughtered almost all the people in the world. He heard the prayers and pleas of the righteous, and he decided to put a stop to Sekhmet’s destruction.
Amun-Ra consulted Tehuti, and together they devised a plan to halt Sekhmet’s rampage. Amun-Ra called for great quantities of beer to be brought to the council chamber. Tehuti mixed the beer with red ochre to turn it a deep red color.
That night Amun-Ra ordered the red beer to be poured out over the fields. The next morning, when Sekhmet awakened, she looked out over the fields and believed they were soaked with the blood of the wicked she had slain. Being hungered at the sight of the blood of her victims, she began to devour great quantities of it. She drank the red beer until she was drunk and fell asleep under the hot midday sun.
Upon seeing her asleep in the fields, Amun-Ra sent Tehuti to retrieve Sekhmet and bring her back to the great creator. When she awoke, Sekhmet had calmed and reverted to her aspect of Hathor, goddess of maternal care.
