TYPE: Snake goddess
ORIGIN: Egyptian
INFORMATION: Also possessing fertility connotations, she guarded the pharaoh in the form of a cobra. There is some evidence that she enjoyed a cult in the Faiyum, the highly fertile region of the Nile valley. She is depicted either in human form or as a hooded cobra, in which case she bears close association with the goddess Wadjet who is embodied in the uraeus. Her gaze has the power to conquer enemies. In her capacity as a fertility goddess she suckles infant rulers and provides good cropts and harvests, linked in this capacity to Osiris and the more ancient grain god Neper. She is also a magical power residing in the linen robe of the pharaoh and in the linen bandages with which he is swathed in death. At Edfu she takes the title, "Lady of the robes". In the Greco-Roman period. Renenutet became adopted by the Greeks as the goddess Hermouthis and was syncretized with Isis.