Selket (Apath)

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Mistress of the Beautiful House.

The deserts of Osirion contain many species of venomous scorpions, and the scorpion goddess Selket is both a protective and punitive deity, healing venomous bites and stings and afflicting the wicked with her own deadly sting. Like many of the ancient Osirian gods, she is a funerary deity, and she is responsible for protecting the canopic jar that holds the deceased's intestines.

Selket is the goddess of embalming, and her epithet, Mistress of the Beautiful House, refers to the embalming pavilion where bodies are prepared for burial.

Along with Isis, Neith, and Nephthys, Selket assists Anubis in protecting the dead. She is often paired with Neith, as Isis is with Nephthys, and in the form of seven scorpions, she guarded Isis when Isis was pregnant with Horus. When a woman later refused the expectant mother shelter, it was Selket who punished the woman for turning Isis away.

Selket also guards the other ancient Osirian gods against the poisonous bite of Apep, and has assisted Ra on numerous occasions in his battles against the Devourer of the Dawn. Selket normally appears as a woman wearing a scorpion with a raised tail on her head, or more rarely, as a lustrous black scorpion with the head of a woman.

Selket's priests are commonly found working as healers and embalmers in towns and villages. The goddess has few temples, but she is sometimes worshiped in the shrines of Anubis, Isis, Neith, or Nephthys.

Alignment: CG goddess of embalmin9, healing, and scorpions.

Weapon: Scorpion whip.

Symbol: Red scorpion.

Animal: Scorpion.

Pathfinder Domains

Chaos (Azata), Good (Azata), Healing (Restoration), Repose (Ancestors, Gravekeeper), Protection (Purity).

External Links

• XXX at Pathfinder Wiki.