Meskhenet

(also Mesekhnet)

Birth brick
Picture source: University of Pennsylvania Museum website

Protective goddess of the mother giving birth and her child. She was identified with the birth brick on which the woman crouched when giving birth. Thoth was said to inscribe on it the newborn's end. Meskhenet, after having created the foetus's ka while it was still in the uterus, anounces its destiny at birth.

They (i.e. the many manifestations of Khnum) have placed their four Mesekhnet at their sides, To repel the designs of evil by incantations;
Hymn to Khnum
M. Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Vol.3 p.114.

Four Meskhenet were also servants of Isis.
She is depicted as a woman or given the form of a birth brick with a femal head.

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October 2005