Deity · Egyptian · c. 2000 BCE
Taweret
Also called Taurt, Thoueris · also recorded as Thoeris, Tueris, Thueris, Tuat, Taouris, Tuart, Ta-weret, Tawaret, Twert, Taueret, Thouéris, Toeris, Touaris, Ta‐ur, Ta‐ouert, Ta‐urt (per Wikidata)
A composite of the three most dangerous animals in Egypt, arranged to frighten off whatever threatens a woman in labour.
Narrow source base
Taweret works on the same principle as the Mesopotamian Pazuzu: to guard a birth you want something more frightening than what you are guarding against. She is assembled from hippopotamus, crocodile and lion — the animals most likely to kill an Egyptian — and pointed outward. Amulets of her are among the most common objects found in ordinary Egyptian houses, far more common than images of the great state gods, which is a useful corrective to a pantheon reconstructed from temple walls.
Identity
Where does the name come from?
Where it was actually worshipped
The household, not the temple. Her image stands in bedrooms and birthing rooms, at Deir el-Medina in quantity.
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
- Egyptian Amulets & Domestic Objects · c. 2000 BCE onward
- Named there as
- Taurt
- Rank
- The Great One
- Pantheon
- Egyptian
- Order
- Egyptian pantheon
- Base of operations
- The household, not the temple. Her image stands in bedrooms and birthing rooms, at Deir el-Medina in quantity.
- Era
- c. 2000 BCE
- Traditions
- Egyptian
- Placed in
- The Great Gods of Egypt
Traits
- Domain
- Childbirth, pregnancy, protection of the birth chamber
- Traditional form
- A standing hippopotamus with a crocodile's back, lion's limbs and heavy breasts
Stats
Known connections
Identified with
3 attributed
What is it said to do?
Where these powers cluster
The 3 offices attributed to Taweret, 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
- material1
1 texts
Which texts say so?
Stands over the birth chamber. Her amulets are among the commonest protective objects in domestic Egyptian archaeology, far more numerous than images of the great state gods.
Connections
What is it connected to?
Placement
Where does it sit in the hierarchies?
Answered from the sources
Common questions
Which texts mention Taweret?
Is Taweret the same as Pazuzu?
What rank is Taweret?
How else is Taweret spelled?
What is Taweret said to do?
How old is Taweret?
Nearest in the corpus
If Taweret 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 book behind Taweret
Every claim on this profile is attributed to one of these. It is public domain, listed oldest first, and each links to a full text where one is freely available.
Egyptian Amulets & Domestic Objects
Anonymous; recovered from settlements and burials · c. 2000 BCE onward · Material evidence
Read Egyptian Amulets & Domestic Objects in full ↗Cover: Public domain · Roland Unger · 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.