| Fact file |
| The annual beer festival at Heliopolis celebrated the rescue of mankind from Sekhmet’s wrath |
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Sekhmet delighted in slaughter and bloodshed and she ravaged both Upper and Lower Egypt, until the Nile ran red with men’s blood. Re began to pity men, but even he couldn’t stop the vengeful Sekhmet. So he sent messengers to the isle of Elephantine to bring back red ochre, which he told them to mix with beer and pour on the fields where Sekhmet planned her next slaughter.
When Sekhmet saw the beer, she thought she had already slain the people. She laughed for joy and drank the ‘blood’, until she was so intoxicated she could no longer kill. Re then changed her name to Hathor and from then on, she could only lay men low with the power of love.
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