Among the Egyptians’ various goddesses was Sekhmet, who had a lion’s head on a woman’s body, and thus was not too different in appearance from Bast, another
goddess. Bast was sometimes called the Lady of the East (meaning the east side of the Nile River), while Sekhmet was the Lady of the West. Over time the two similar goddesses were thought to be one and the same, both regarded as symbols of fertility, motherhood, hearth and home.
