Myths, Religions & Legends Power Ranking TOP100
I wrote a book ranking the most powerful gods, monsters, and heroes from world mythology, religion, and legend in order of strength! Of course, the rankings reflect a great deal of my own subjective judgment, but the reasoning behind each placement is grounded in the lore and episodes of each mythology, so I think itβs a book that will feel reasonably convincing.
This time Iβd like to introduce some of the characters featured in the bookβs ranking. Of course, many more characters appear in the ranking beyond those introduced here, so I think anyone interested in mythology, religion, and legend will enjoy it!
Rank 36: Sekhmet (Egyptian Mythology)
Overview
Sekhmet is the goddess of war and destruction in Egyptian mythology, and is said to be the daughter of the sun god Ra. She is depicted as a woman with the head of a lion, and the myth tells that when the supreme god Ra decided to punish humanity for beginning to disrespect the gods, he created Sekhmet from his own eye and sent her to earth.
This episode is recorded in detail in the βBook of the Heavenly Cowβ found in New Kingdom royal tombs. When the sun god Ra had grown so old that his bones turned to silver, his flesh to gold, and his hair to lapis lazuli, humans began to look down on Ra and plotted a rebellion against the gods.
Upon learning of this, Ra secretly gathered the primordial gods β Shu, Tefnut, Geb, Nut, and Nun β and held a council. Following the advice of Nun, the god of the primordial waters, they decided to send Hathor to earth as the destructive avatar Sekhmet.
When Sekhmet descended to earth, she began slaughtering the humans who had plotted rebellion in the desert. However, she found joy in the killing itself and became uncontrollable, unleashing such carnage from Upper to Lower Egypt that the land was drenched in human blood.
Realizing that humanity would be completely wiped out at this rate, Ra had 7,000 jars of beer brewed and dyed red with ochre to resemble blood, then had it poured across the ground where Sekhmet would return the next morning. When she came back, she mistook it for human blood, drank it all, and became so intoxicated that she could no longer even distinguish humans β and the slaughter finally stopped.
In other words, the fact that even the supreme god Ra could not stop her by force and had to resort to trickery speaks volumes about just how overwhelming Sekhmetβs destructive power truly was.
Reason for This Ranking
Sekhmet is a pure destruction goddess who, had Ra not stopped her, would very likely have annihilated humanity entirely β a staggering display of power.
As these depictions show, she is already far beyond anything an army of humans or heroes could stop. The fact that even the gods could only stop her by getting her drunk suggests she possesses power rivaling the greatest in Egyptian mythology.
Given also that her divine nature is literally a fragment of the supreme god Ra himself, her divine rank is extremely high, and in terms of sheer power alone, she may potentially rival even higher-ranking gods β but on the other hand, her divine authority is centered on bringing destruction and plague, which means it may not be particularly effective against opponents who are themselves of the destruction-deity class or above.
Taking all of this into account, I placed her at this position in the ranking.
