Anuket was an ancient Egyptian goddess often depicted as a woman wearing a headdress of reeds or ostrich feathers, holding a scepter topped with an ankh.

Her sacred animal was the gazelle. During the New Kingdom, she was sometimes shown suckling the pharaoh. In later periods, she became associated with lust and fertility, symbolized by the cowrie shell.

During the annual inundation of the Nile, the Festival of Anuket was celebrated. People cast coins, gold, jewelry, and other precious offerings into the river to honor the goddess, thanking her for the life-giving waters and the prosperity brought by her fertility.

A special taboo, observed in various regions of Egypt against eating certain sacred fish, was temporarily lifted during this festival. This suggests that a species of Nile fish was regarded as Anuket’s totem and was ritually consumed as part of her major religious celebration.

Nineteenth Dynasty: 1292–1187 BC