Deity · Egyptian · c. 3000 BCE
Wadjet
Also called Uatchit, Uto, Buto
The cobra goddess of Lower Egypt, worn on the king's forehead as the uraeus that spits fire at his enemies, and half of the pairing that made a king ruler of both lands.
Well sourced
Wadjet is the Delta and Nekhbet is the valley, and together they are the Two Ladies — one of the oldest components of the Egyptian royal titulary, older than most of the gods with famous myths. A king who ruled both halves of Egypt wore both, and the phrase for the united kingdom is built from their names.
The cobra on the brow is not decoration. The uraeus is understood as a living defender that rears and spits flame at whoever approaches the king with harm in mind, and the same protective serpent appears on shrines, crowns and coffins. It is one of the very few Egyptian symbols that is unambiguously aggressive on its owner's behalf.
She is a state goddess in a way most of this file's entries are not: her importance is constitutional rather than devotional, tied to what makes a king legitimate.
Identity
Where does the name come from?
What the name means
'The green one' — the colour of the papyrus marshes of the Delta she was patron of, and of the cobra itself.
Where it was actually worshipped
Buto in the Delta
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 Egyptian Book of the Dead · c. 1550 BCE onward
- Named there as
- Uatchit
- Rank
- Lady of Lower Egypt
- Pantheon
- Egyptian
- Order
- Egyptian pantheon
- Base of operations
- Buto in the Delta
- Era
- c. 3000 BCE
- Traditions
- Egyptian
Traits
- Domain
- Kingship, protection, the uraeus on the royal brow
- Traditional form
- A rearing cobra, or a woman with a cobra's head; often the uraeus itself
Stats
Known connections
Identified with
3 attributed
What is it said to do?
Where these powers cluster
The 3 offices attributed to Wadjet, 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
2 texts
Which texts say so, and where do they disagree?
When these texts were written
Each dot is one of the 2 texts that names Wadjet, 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, all inside a single century
Where the texts differ
- Name: given as Uatchit, Wadjet
- Rank: given as Lady of Buto; The uraeus
The cobra of the north, protector of the king and of the dead, whose fire is turned on those who approach with hostility.
Worn as the rearing cobra on crowns and amulets, a protective form placed where a threat would arrive first.
Connections
What is it connected to?
Answered from the sources
Common questions
Which texts mention Wadjet?
Is Wadjet the same as Renenutet?
What rank is Wadjet?
How else is Wadjet spelled?
What is Wadjet said to do?
How old is Wadjet?
Nearest in the corpus
If Wadjet 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 Wadjet
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 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
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.