Qetesh

Qetesh (also Qodesh, Qadesh, Qedesh,

Qetesh, Kadesh, Kedesh, Kadeš or Qades
/ˈkɑːdɛʃ/) was a goddess who was
incorporated into the ancient Egyptian
religion in the late Bronze Age. Her name
was likely developed by the Egyptians
based on the Semitic root Q-D-Š meaning
'holy' or 'blessed,'[2] attested as a title of
El and possibly Athirat and a further
independent deity in texts from Ugarit.[3]
 Qetesh

heavenly goddess

A digital collage showing an image of

Qetesh together with hieroglyphs taken from
a separate Egyptian relief
(the 'Triple Goddess stone')

Symbol Lion, snake, a

bouquet of papyrus
or Egyptian lotus,
Hathor wig

Parents Ptah or Ra[1]

Due to lack of clear references to Qetesh
as a distinct deity in Ugaritic and other
Syro-Palestinian sources, she is
considered an Egyptian deity influenced
by religion and iconography of Canaan by
many modern researchers, rather than
merely a Canaanite deity adopted by the
Egyptians (examples of which include
Reshef and Anat).[4][5]

Character
The functions of Qetesh in Egyptian
religion are hard to determine due to lack
of direct references, but her epithets
(especially the default one, "lady of
heaven") might point at an astral
character, and lack of presence in royal
cult might mean that she was regarded
as a protective goddess mostly by
commoners. Known sources do not
associate her with fertility or sex, and
theories presenting her as a "sacred
harlot" are regarded as obsolete in
modern scholarship due to lack of
evidence.[6]

Her epithets include "Mistress of All the

Gods", "Lady of the Stars of Heaven",
"Beloved of Ptah", "Great of magic,
mistress of the stars", and "Eye of Ra,
without her equal".[7] A connection with
Ptah or Ra evident in her epithets is also
known from Egyptian texts about Anat
and Astarte.[8][9]
Iconography

Stele of Qetesh / Kadesh, Dynasty XIX

(1292–1186 BC), Museo Egizio

Qetesh wearing the headdress of

Hathor and standing on a lion; she
holds a lotus flower and a snake and
is flanked by Min on the left and
Resheph on the right (Louvre).
On a stele representing the deity, Qetesh
is depicted as a frontal nude (an
uncommon motif in Egyptian art, though
not exclusively associated with her),
wearing a Hathor wig and standing on a
lion, between Min and the Canaanite
warrior god Resheph. She holds a snake
in one hand and a bouquet of lotus or
papyrus flowers in the other.[10][11]

Origin
Early researchers attempted to prove
Qetesh was simply a form of a known
Canaanite deity, rather than a fully
independent goddess. William F. Albright
proposed in 1939 that she was a form of
the "lady of Byblos" (Baalat Gebal), while
René Dussard suggested a connection to
"Asherat" (e.g. the biblical Asherah) in
1941. Subsequent studies tried to find
further evidence for equivalence of
Qetesh and Asherah, despite dissimilar
functions and symbols.[12]

The arguments presenting Qetesh and

Asherah as the same goddess rely on the
erroneous notion that Asherah, Astarte
and Anat were the only three prominent
goddesses in the religion of ancient
Levant, and formed a trinity.[13] However,
while Ashtart (Astarte) and Anat were
closely associated with each other in
Ugarit, in Egyptian sources, and
elsewhere,[14][15] there is no evidence for
conflation of Athirat and Ashtart, nor is
Athirat associated closely with Ashtart
and Anat in Ugaritic texts.[16] The
concept of Athirat, Anat and Ashtart as a
trinity and the only prominent goddesses
in the entire region (popularized by
authors like Tikva Frymer-Kensky) is
modern and ignores the large role of
other female deities, for example
Shapash, in known texts, as well as the
fact El appears to be the deity most
closely linked to Athirat in primary
sources.[17][18] One of the authors relying
on the Anat-Ashtart-Athirat trinity theory
is Saul M. Olyan (author of Asherah and
the Cult of Yahweh in Israel) who calls the
Qudshu-Astarte-Anat plaque "a triple-
fusion hypostasis", and considers
Qudshu to be an epithet of Athirat by a
process of elimination, for Astarte and
Anat appear after Qudshu in the
inscription.[19][20]

Modern egyptologists, such as Christiane

Zivie-Coche, do not consider Qetesh to
be a hypostasis of Anat or Astarte, but a
goddess developed in Egypt possibly
without a clear forerunner among
Canaanite or Syrian goddesses, though
given a Semitic name and associated
mostly with foreign deities.[21]
In popular culture
Qetesh is the name given to the Goa'uld
that once possessed Vala Mal Doran, a
recurring and then regular character in
Seasons 9 and 10, respectively of the
science fiction television series Stargate
SG-1.

Qetesh is also the name used in The

Sarah Jane Adventures episode Goodbye,
Sarah Jane Smith, and confirmed to be
the humanoid species (also known as
"soul-stealers") of Ruby White (the
episode's villain) who feeds off
excitement and heightened emotion and
have stomachs that live outside their
bodies.

Moreover is Qadesh, also called Qwynn, a

character in Holly Roberds' fantasy novel
"Bitten by Death", published in 2021.

See also
Shala, a Mesopotamian goddess also
depicted as nude and associated with
the sky
Queen of Heaven (Antiquity)

References
1. I. Cornelius, Qudshu (http://www.religions
wissenschaft.uzh.ch/idd/prepublications/
e_idd_qudshu.pdf) , Iconography of
 Deities and Demons in the Ancient Near
East (http://www.religionswissenschaft.u
zh.ch/idd/prepublication.php) (electronic
pre-publication), p. 1, 4
2. Ch. Zivie-Choche, Foreign Deities in Egypt
(https://escholarship.org/content/qt7tr18
14c/qt7tr1814c.pdf) [in:] J. Dieleman, W.
Wendrich (eds.), UCLA Encyclopedia of
Egyptology, 2011, p. 5-6
3. M. Krebernik, Qdš [in:] Reallexikon der
Assyriologie und vorderasiatischen
Archäologie (http://publikationen.badw.d
e/en/rla/index#9862) vol. 11, 2008, p.
176
4. S. L. Budin, A Reconsideration of the
Aphrodite-Ashtart Syncretism (https://ww
w.jstor.org/stable/3270523) , Numen vol.
51, no. 2, 2004, p. 100
5. I. Cornelius, Qudshu (http://www.religions
wissenschaft.uzh.ch/idd/prepublications/
e_idd_qudshu.pdf) , Iconography of
Deities and Demons in the Ancient Near
East (http://www.religionswissenschaft.u
zh.ch/idd/prepublication.php) (electronic
pre-publication), p. 1: "a goddess by the
name of Q. is not known in the Ugaritic or
any other Syro–Palestinian texts"
6. I. Cornelius, Qudshu (http://www.religions
wissenschaft.uzh.ch/idd/prepublications/
e_idd_qudshu.pdf) , Iconography of
Deities and Demons in the Ancient Near
East (http://www.religionswissenschaft.u
zh.ch/idd/prepublication.php) (electronic
pre-publication), p. 4
7. "The "Holy One" by Johanna Stuckey" (http
s://web.archive.org/web/2008013113273
8/http://www.matrifocus.com/LAM07/sp
otlight.htm) . www.matrifocus.com.
Archived from the original (http://www.ma
trifocus.com/LAM07/spotlight.htm) on
31 January 2008. Retrieved 19 March
2018.
8. M. Smith, 'Athtart in Late Bronze Age
Syrian Texts (https://www.academia.edu/
12709064/_Athtart_in_Late_Bronze_Age_
Syrian_Texts) [in:] D. T. Sugimoto (ed),
Transformation of a Goddess. Ishtar –
Astarte – Aphrodite, 2014, p. 66
 9. K. Tazawa, Astarte in New Kingdom
Egypt: Reconsideration of Her Role and
Function [in:] D. T. Sugimoto (ed),
Transformation of a Goddess. Ishtar –
Astarte – Aphrodite (https://www.zora.uz
h.ch/id/eprint/135405/1/Sugimoto_2014_
Transformation_of_a_Goddess.pdf) ,
2014, p. 110
10. Ch. Zivie-Choche, Foreign Deities in Egypt
(https://escholarship.org/content/qt7tr18
14c/qt7tr1814c.pdf) [in:] J. Dieleman, W.
Wendrich (eds.), UCLA Encyclopedia of
Egyptology, 2011, p. 6-7
11. I. Cornelius, Qudshu (http://www.religions
wissenschaft.uzh.ch/idd/prepublications/
e_idd_qudshu.pdf) , Iconography of
Deities and Demons in the Ancient Near
East (http://www.religionswissenschaft.u
zh.ch/idd/prepublication.php) (electronic
pre-publication), p. 1
12. S. A. Wiggins, The Myth of Asherah: Lion
Lady and Serpent Goddess (https://www.
academia.edu/1307032/The_Myth_of_As
herah_Lion_Lady_and_Serpent_Goddes
s) , Ugarit-Forschungen 23, 1991, p. 384-
386; 389
13. S. A. Wiggins, The Myth of Asherah: Lion
Lady and Serpent Goddess (https://www.
academia.edu/1307032/The_Myth_of_As
herah_Lion_Lady_and_Serpent_Goddes
s) , Ugarit-Forschungen 23, 1991, p. 387
14. M. Smith, 'Athtart in Late Bronze Age
Syrian Texts (https://www.academia.edu/
12709064/_Athtart_in_Late_Bronze_Age_
Syrian_Texts) [in:] D. T. Sugimoto (ed),
Transformation of a Goddess. Ishtar –
Astarte – Aphrodite, 2014, p. 49-51
15. G. Del Olme Lete, KTU 1.107: A miscellany
of incantations against snakebite (https://
www.academia.edu/4583174/2013_KTU_
1_107_A_miscellany_of_incantations_agai
nst_snakebite) [in] O. Loretz, S. Ribichini,
W. G. E. Watson, J. Á. Zamora (eds),
Ritual, Religion and Reason. Studies in the
Ancient World in Honour of Paolo Xella,
2013, p. 198
16. S. A. Wiggins, A Reassessment of
Asherah: With Further Considerations of
the Goddess (https://www.academia.edu/
1307031/A_Reassessment_of_Asherah_
With_Further_Considerations_of_the_God
dess) , 2007, p. 57, footnote 124; see also
p. 169
17. S. A. Wiggins, A Reassessment of Tikva
Frymer-Kensky's Asherah (https://www.ac
ademia.edu/17830631/A_Reassessment_
of_Tikva_Frymer_Kenskys_Asherah) [in:]
R. H. Bael, S. Halloway, J. Scurlock, In the
Wake of Tikva Frymer-Kensky, 2009, p.
174
18. S. A. Wiggins, Shapsh, Lamp of the Gods
(https://www.academia.edu/1307034/Sh
apsh_Lamp_of_the_Gods) [in:] N. Wyatt
(ed.), Ugarit, religion and culture:
proceedings of the International
Colloquium on Ugarit, Religion and
Culture, Edinburgh, July 1994; essays
presented in honour of Professor John C.
L. Gibson, 1999, p. 327
19. The Ugaritic Baal cycle: Volume 2 by Mark
S. Smith, page 295
20. The Origins of Biblical Monotheism:
Israel's Polytheistic Background and the
Ugaritic Texts by Mark S. Smith - Page
237
 21. Ch. Zivie-Choche, Foreign Deities in Egypt
(https://escholarship.org/content/qt7tr18
14c/qt7tr1814c.pdf) [in:] J. Dieleman, W.
Wendrich (eds.), UCLA Encyclopedia of
Egyptology, 2011, p. 5-6

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