Egyptian Gods

Wadjet was the Serpent Goddess of an ancient Egyptian since the predynastic period. Her name Wadjet also spelled as Wadjit, Uadjet, Ua Zit or Wedjet and in Greek as Uto, Edjo, Udjo, and Buto, whose name means “the Green One” which was a general name for the cobra. The color green also reference to the papyrus swamp and papyrus plant. As suggested in Pyramid Text, her name was written using the papyrus plant and it was the heraldic plant of Lower Egypt.

She is one of the nebty (the ‘two ladies’) of the pharaoh or the two protective goddesses of Egypt. Wadjet was the patron of the city of that the Egyptians named Per-Wadjet, House of Wadjet or Buto in Greek. She became the great goddess of Lower Egypt, while Nekhbat become the goddess of Upper Egypt. These two goddesses became the protecting deities for all of Egypt. They appeared together in many pieces of art as symbols of the Two Lands, a united Egypt.

Her appearance portrayed as a woman wearing red crown of Lower Egypt. Sometimes, she was depicted as a woman with the head of a cobra, a winged cobra or a lion. As a protector of the pharaoh, she was also shown as a rearing cobra that ready to strike and kill his enemies. Wadjet also often shown paired together with Nekhbat. The image of Wadjet with the sun disk is called the uraeus and it emblem on the crown of the rulers of Lower Egypt.

Wadjet became connected with the “Eye of Ra” and this also connected to the other goddesses who took this title such as Bastet, Tefnut, Sekhmet, Hathor, Isis, and her ‘twin’ in duality, Nekhbet. In her form of the “Eye of Ra” she was depicted as a lion-headed woman wearing a solar disc and the Uraeus (cobra).

She was worshipped throughout Egypt and her cult center was built to honour her at the two ancient towns Pe and Dep, which were called Buto together. As referred in the Pyramid Texts, this temple was already long established by the Old Kingdom.