The goddess Taweret, portrayed as a bipedalhippopotamus with limbs like those of a feline. Her hand rests on the sa sign, 𓎃, a hieroglyph that means 'protection' or 'lifesaver'.
Images of protective deities like Taweret and Bes were placed on the outer walls of Ptolemaic temples in order to keep evil forces at bay. Edfu, Egypt.
In Ancient Egyptian religion, Taweret (Ancient Egyptian: tꜣ-wrt, also spelled Taurt, Tuat, Tuart, Ta-weret, Tawaret, Twert and Taueret, and in Ancient Greek: Θουέρις, romanized: Thouéris, Thoeris, Taouris and Toeris) is the protective goddess of childbirth and fertility. The name "Taweret" means "she who is great" or simply "great one", a common pacificatory address to dangerous deities.[1] The deity is typically depicted as a bipedal female hippopotamus with feline attributes, pendulous female human breasts, the limbs and paws of a lion, and the back and tail of a Nile crocodile. She commonly bears the epithets "Lady of Heaven", "Mistress of the Horizon", "She Who Removes Water", "Mistress of Pure Water", and "Lady of the Birth House".[2]
^Geraldine Pinch, Magic in Ancient Egypt (London: British Museum Press, 1994), 39.
^Jennifer Houser-Wegner, "Taweret", in The Ancient Gods Speak: A Guide to Egyptian Religion, ed. Donald Redford (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 351–352.