The Name of Sekhmet means “She who is powerful”or "Powerful Female”. She personified the aggressive aspects of the female forms of Netjer (god) and acted as the consort to Ptah. Sekhmet first appears as the avenging ‘Eye of Re” sent down to earth to punish mankind for willful wrongdoing and mockery of Him. It is only by Djehuty tricking Sekhmet by making Her drunk on mandrake spiked beer dyed red with berries to resemble blood, that Sekhmet then stops Her slaughter of mankind.

Sekhmet was a redoubtable warrior goddess Who could inflict death and disease. It was noted in antiquity that fear of the King was said to spread among nations as the fear of Sekhmet in a year of plague. Naturally Sekhmet’s trained Priests were designated to intervene and were considered doctors and surgeons of remarkable skill. Sekhmet's power to destroy would be invoked against the invisible "demons" of plague and disease in an attempt to erradicate them completely.

Sekhmet is usually portrayed as a woman with the head of a lioness, but as the Daughter of the Netjer of the Sun, Ra, She is closely linked to the Uraeus (Buto or Wadjyt) in Her role as the fire-breathing, ‘Eye of Re’. The pyramid texts themselves mention that the King or Pharaoh was conceived by Sekhmet, Herself.

Because of the shift in power from Memphis to Thebes during the New Kingdom (1550- 1069 BC) the Theban Triad, made up of Amun, Mut (Amaunet), and Khons, Sekhmet’s attributes were absorbed into that of Mut. This meant that Sekhmet was increasingly represented as an aggressive manifestation of Mut, and large numbers of statues of the lioness-goddess were therefore erected by Amenhotep III (1390 - 1352 BC) both in the Temple of Mut at Karnak and in his mortuary temple in Western Thebes.

Sekhmet is also closely linked to the Netjert (goddess), Het-Hert (Hathor in Greek). Sekhmet came to represent Het-Hert’s vengeful side. Both Het-Hert and Sekhmet were known as the “Eye of Re”. Het-Hert was often associated with love, sexuality, and merriment as well as drunkenness,. She was also known to be associated with music, as represented by the sistrum, ceremonial examples of which were often endowed with Het-Hert heads, sometimes surmoutned by a Naos, and frequently shaken by the Priestesses of Her cults. Het-Hert was also represented by the menat, and oftentimes the counterpoise on this ‘musical necklace’ would be fashioned in Het-Hert’s image.