Hathor-Sekhmet is an Egyptian warrior deity with male and female forms. As the masculine Lion God, they maintain a fringe cult who worships them in Egypt. As Sekhmet, they are a war goddess, the Lady of Slaughter, while as Hathor, they are the goddess of love and happiness.
Egyptian God and Goddess
Possessing male and female forms, the peaceful and amorous feline Hathor partially raises and later marries her great grandnephew, Horus. When the people of ancient Egypt rebel against the primordial sun god Ammon Ra, AKA Atum, he claims the Egyptians plotted against him, so he goads gentle Hathor into punishing humanity. Hathor’s bloodlust transforms her into the violent Sekhmet, and when she threatens to destroy humanity, Ra tricks her into drinking 7000 jars of red-dyed beer. Inebriated, Sekhmet loses consciousness and awakes the next morning as Hathor. To prevent another transformation into Sekhmet, Ra fashions the Orb of Ra from Hathor’s right eye, but overcome by bloodlust, Hathor soon becomes Sekhmet again and serves Upper Egypt as war goddess.
Her sister Bast, Lower Egypt’s war goddess, flees when the Pharaohs rise to power, and Sekhmet claims her territory. Sekhmet moves her sect to Memphis, where she protects the Pharaohs in battle while her benevolent aspect, Hathor, serves the people in matters of beauty and love. When the Pharaohs’ time fades, worship of Sekhmet diminishes, leaving her with a small cult following in Africa as the masculine Lion God. Circa 1000 AD, Hathor joins Earth goddess Gaea in gathering humans representing mankind’s highest ideals as a peaceful appeasement for the cosmic Celestials’ judgment of Earth.
Warrior Deity
Sekhmet’s potential power is awesome, but his Lion God incarnation, a spirit form requiring a host, is seemingly limited to mesmerism, teleportation, size-changing, superhuman strength, durability, speed, density-altering and imperviousness to pain. His totem-stick and hunting spear can summon lions and fire-force blasts. He always appears when summoned but requires a human sacrifice and a host.
Sekhmet’s conventional Ennead attributes include superhuman strength (lifting 75 tons), endurance, reflexes, resistance to conventional disease and injury and regenerative capabilities. Capable of limited mesmerism, size-changing and density-altering, she is impervious to pain. A fierce warrior, her uncontrollable bloodlust makes her easily distractible. She can lift 25 tons as Hathor and Lion God. Sekhmet utilizes Egyptian khopesh swords and can channel energy through weapons like her hunting spear and Totem-Stick. Sekhmet can command animals or animal-like beings and summon lions.
Sekhmet is apparently unaware of her actions as Hathor, believing she was a lioness transformed into Sekhmet by Ammon Ra. It is unrevealed if the Crown of Hathor mystic headpiece was empowered by or just named for Hathor.
Wrath of the Lion God
As the masculine Lion God and unable to ascertain the Panther God’s secrets, he abducts T’Challa, AKA Black Panther, and attacks the Avengers. Tony Stark, AKA Iron Man, Thor Odinson, AKA Thor, Mantis, and Jacques DuQuesne, AKA Swordsman, defend themselves until Thor sends him to another dimension.
As Sekhmet, she enslaves the demon Apep, a version of the Elder God Set. She also faces Thor again along with Amadeus Cho, AKA Brawn, who seeks the mystic Book of Thoth.
Honest to God Allies
Being a God of the Ennead, Hathor-Sekhmet allies with the Council of Godheads who warn her of incoming dangers.
A History of Jealousy
In modern times Sekhmet grew jealous of Bast, who had become the Wakandan nation’s Panther God patron after leaving Egypt. Lion God worshipers lured American journalist Mr. Umbala to an African village and sacrificed him to Lion God, who absorbed Umbala’s spirit. Posing as Umbala, Lion God traveled to New York City and led a demonstration at Avengers Mansion where he abducted Wakandan monarch and Black Panther, hoping to learn the Panther God’s secrets for gaining power and worshipers from him. When T’Challa resisted, Lion God attacked the Avengers with his Totem-Stick and summoned lions, but Thor Odinson, God of Thunder, struck the stick with lightning, forcing Lion God to flee to another dimension. Avengers’ associates Mantis and Swordsman, later sensed Lion God’s presence and, to preempt his inevitable return, they summoned him and feigned an alliance. But they ultimately hypnotized him while he was off-guard, allowing Iron Man to trap Lion God in an Adamantium cylinder that Thor sent to another dimension.
Some time later, somehow freed from the cylinder, Sekhmet enslaved the demon Apep (a manifestation or aspect of the Elder God Set) in the Egyptian underworld Duat. The Council of Godheads warned her of the imminent arrival of Thor and Amadeus Cho, AKA Brawn, who sought to steal the mystic Book of Thoth to stop Asgardian Vali Halfling from attaining omnipotence, which Cho himself sought to find his lost friend Heracles, AKA Hercules. Amadeus distracted Sekhmet with a bloody heart taken from funerary god Anubis, and then synthesized chloral hydrate, a sedative and hypnotic drug, and force-fed it to Sekhmet while she battled Thor, inducing her transformation into Hathor, who flirted with Thor and allowed them to proceed on their mission. The drug wore off, and Hathor became Sekhmet again. When Halfling was teleported to Duat as punishment for reading from the Book of Thoth, Sekhmet pounced on her new prey.
