Deity · Egyptian · c. 2600 BCE
Serqet
Also called Selkis, Serket · also recorded as Selket, Selcis (per Wikidata)
Goddess of venom and therefore of its cure — her priests were the physicians who treated stings and bites.
Well sourced
The scorpion goddess, and the direction of travel is the whole entry: she is named where a sting is being prevented rather than inflicted, invoked to close the throat of the venomous thing. That makes her a healer whose speciality is the animal she is drawn wearing, which is a pattern this compendium meets elsewhere and rarely so cleanly — the power over a danger and the danger itself are one figure. She is also one of the four guardians of the canopic jars, alongside Isis, Nephthys and Neith, which puts a goddess of venom on the protective side of the most vulnerable moment in the Egyptian afterlife.
Identity
Where does the name come from?
Where it was actually worshipped
None of her own; a protective goddess of the canopic chest and of scorpion-sting charms rather than of a shrine.
A figure with temples and a figure that only ever existed on a page are different kinds of thing, and the difference is easy to lose once both are entries in a list.
At a glance
Vitals
Vitals
Also known as
- First attested
- The Pyramid Texts · c. 2350–2100 BCE
- Rank
- Lady of the Scorpion
- Pantheon
- Egyptian
- Order
- Egyptian pantheon
- Base of operations
- None of her own; a protective goddess of the canopic chest and of scorpion-sting charms rather than of a shrine.
- Era
- c. 2600 BCE
- Traditions
- Egyptian
- Placed in
- The Great Gods of Egypt
Traits
- Domain
- Scorpion and snake venom, breathing, protection of the dead
- Traditional form
- A woman with a scorpion on her head
Stats
Known connections
Chain of command
Identified with
4 attributed
What is it said to do?
Where these powers cluster
The 4 offices attributed to Serqet, grouped by kind. Segment width is the share of powers falling in each category.
A bar dominated by one colour means a specialist; an even spread means a figure the sources credit with almost anything.
- martial2
- malefic1
- material1
2 texts
Which texts say so?
When these texts were written
Each dot is one of the 2 texts that names Serqet, placed at that text's approximate date.
A wide spread means the figure was carried across many centuries and traditions; a tight cluster means a single period produced the whole record.
2 texts spanning roughly 800 years
The scorpion goddess invoked to close the throat of the venomous thing rather than to open it, which is the direction of travel throughout: she is named where a bite is being prevented. One of the four canopic guardians in the same body of material.
Guards one of the canopic jars with Qebehsenuef; her priesthood handled scorpion stings and snakebite as a medical speciality.
Connections
What is it connected to?
Placement
Where does it sit in the hierarchies?
Answered from the sources
Common questions
Which texts mention Serqet?
Is Serqet the same as Resheph?
What rank is Serqet?
How else is Serqet spelled?
What is Serqet said to do?
How old is Serqet?
Nearest in the corpus
If Serqet is what you came for, these are next
Chosen by proximity rather than by popularity: the same pantheon first, then the same rank, then the same kind of figure.
Khepri
The Morning Sun · Egyptian
The sun at dawn, in the form of a scarab beetle rolling it up over the horizon — one of the three daily aspects of the sun, and a pun on the word for coming into being.
Anubis
Guide of the Dead · Egyptian
Embalmer and psychopomp, who leads the dead to the scales — the office Western tradition eventually gives to Michael and to Azrael.
Horus
Falcon King · Egyptian
Son of Osiris, who contends eighty years with Set for the throne. Every living pharaoh was understood to be his incarnation.
Isis
Great of Magic · Egyptian
The great magician who reassembles Osiris and tricks Ra into surrendering his secret name. Her cult eventually reached as far as Roman Britain.
Nephthys
Lady of the House · Egyptian
Set's wife who sides with her sister Isis against him, and mourns Osiris at the head of the bier.
Osiris
Lord of the Dead · Egyptian
Murdered by Set, reassembled by Isis, and installed as judge of the dead. He is the earliest fully developed dying-and-rising sovereign we have.
The books behind Serqet
Every claim on this profile is attributed to one of these. They are public domain, listed oldest first, and each links to a full text where one is freely available.
The Pyramid Texts
Anonymous; carved for the kings and queens of the Fifth and Sixth Dynasties · c. 2350–2100 BCE · Old Egyptian
Read The Pyramid Texts in full ↗The Egyptian Book of the Dead
Anonymous; tr. E. A. Wallis Budge · c. 1550 BCE onward · Egyptian
Read The Egyptian Book of the Dead in full ↗Cover: Public domain · Hunefer · Wikimedia file page
Corpus last revised 29 August 2026. A reference site’s credibility rests on being maintained, so this is the date the sourced records last changed — not the date the page was rebuilt.