The ancient Egyptians told a story about how humanity was very nearly wiped out. The sun god Ra, who once ruled on earth as king of gods and humans, grew old. Humans began to plot against him. In his anger, he sent his Eye — his fierce daughter — to punish them. She became the lioness Sekhmet and began to slaughter them, wading in their blood. When Ra relented, he could not stop her. Only a clever trick with seven thousand jars of red beer saved the human race.
This myth, known as The Destruction of Mankind, is part of a longer text called the Book of the Heavenly Cow. It was inscribed on the walls of several royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings, including the outermost gilded shrine of Tutankhamun (c. 1325 BCE) and the tombs of Seti I and Ramesses II, III, and VI. It is one of the most dramatic myths to survive from Egypt, and it explains, among other things, why the gods no longer live among humans.
Ra the King
In the beginning, according to the myth, Ra ruled over gods and humans together on the earth. He was the first king. But he became old. The text describes his aging body vividly: his bones were silver, his flesh gold, and his hair lapis lazuli. (These were the materials from which divine statues were made.)
Humans noticed his weakness and began to plot rebellion against him in the desert.
The Council of the Gods
Ra learned of the plot and summoned a secret council. He called his Eye, together with Shu, Tefnut, Geb, Nut, and the primeval waters Nun, the oldest of the gods, from whom Ra himself had emerged at the beginning of time.
Ra asked Nun what to do about the rebels. Nun advised him to send his Eye against them: “Your Eye is great, the fear of you is great. Let your Eye go and strike those who plot evil against you.” None of the humans would be able to resist it.
The humans fled into the desert, afraid.
The Eye Goes Forth
The Eye of Ra was not simply an organ of sight. In Egyptian thought, the Eye was an independent goddess, the sun’s fiery power sent out into the world to act on its behalf. The Eye could take the form of several goddesses: the cobra Wadjet on the king’s crown, the cat Bastet, the lioness Sekhmet, and, in this myth, Hathor.
The Eye went out as Hathor. She hunted the rebels in the desert and killed them. When she returned, Ra welcomed her: “Welcome in peace, Hathor.” She answered: “As you live for me, I have prevailed over humankind, and it is pleasant to my heart.”
The text then says that from this moment, the goddess was called Sekhmet, “the powerful one” — the lioness of slaughter.
The Slaughter
Sekhmet went on killing. She waded in blood. She would not stop. Ra, having punished the rebels, now saw that she would destroy the whole human race. He decided to save the rest of humanity — but he could not simply command her to stop, since her fury was beyond his control.
The Beer Trick
Ra devised a plan. He sent swift messengers to Elephantine, at the southern border of Egypt, to bring red ochre (didi) in great quantities. At Heliopolis, the servant women ground barley to make beer, and the red ochre was mixed into it. Seven thousand jars of beer were brewed, and the mixture looked exactly like human blood.
That night Ra had the beer poured out over the fields where Sekhmet was going to hunt the next morning. The fields were flooded to a depth of three palms.
At dawn, the goddess came and found the fields flooded with what looked like blood. She saw her own face reflected in it, beautiful. She drank. She drank and drank until she was drunk, and she went back to Ra, having forgotten all about humanity.
Ra greeted her: “Welcome in peace, O gracious one.” And from then on, the story says, beautiful women were found in the city of Imau.
Ra ordered that beer be brewed for Hathor at every festival, and that there should be intoxicating drinks at her feasts, served by the servant women, “since the time of Hathor.” The myth explains the Festival of Drunkenness held in her honour.
Ra Withdraws to the Sky
The destruction of humanity was averted, but Ra no longer wished to live among humans. He said: “My heart is too weary to remain with them.” He withdrew into the sky.
The sky goddess Nut turned herself into a cow, and Ra climbed onto her back. As she rose higher and higher, she became dizzy, and Ra ordered the god Shu, god of air, to support her belly, and eight Heh gods to hold up her legs. The body of the Heavenly Cow became the sky, and the stars were set on her belly. Ra sailed across her body in his boat.
He then appointed Thoth as his deputy to rule on his behalf, especially at night, and created the moon as Thoth’s sign. He gave humans the knowledge of magic to protect themselves. He appointed Osiris as ruler of the underworld, and Geb to guard the serpents of the earth.
The separation of gods and humans was complete. From then on, the gods lived in the sky and the underworld, and humans on earth — with the pharaoh as the intermediary between them.
Why the Story Matters
The Destruction of Mankind offers several explanations at once:
- Why the gods no longer live on earth: humans rebelled, and Ra withdrew.
- Why the sky is held up: it is the body of the cow Nut, supported by Shu.
- Why beer is drunk at Hathor’s festivals: to commemorate the saving of humanity.
- Why the goddess has two faces: Hathor, the loving goddess, and Sekhmet, the destroyer, are one.
It also expresses a deep Egyptian anxiety about the relationship between gods and humans. The gods are powerful and can destroy. Order must be maintained. Rebellion against the rightful king — divine or human — brings catastrophe.
Sekhmet: The Lady of Slaughter
Sekhmet was worshipped throughout Egyptian history as a fierce goddess of war, plague, and healing. Her breath was the hot desert wind. She sent plagues — the “arrows of Sekhmet” — but her priests were also physicians, and she could cure the diseases she caused.
At the temple of Mut at Karnak, the pharaoh Amenhotep III (c. 1390–1352 BCE) set up hundreds of granite statues of Sekhmet — perhaps as many as 730, two for each day of the year — possibly in an attempt to appease the goddess during an epidemic. Many of these statues survive today in museums all over the world.
Parallels: The Flood
The myth has been compared with flood stories from Mesopotamia and the Bible, in which the gods (or God) decide to destroy humanity for its wickedness or noise, and a remnant is saved. In the Egyptian version, the flood is not of water but of blood-red beer — and it saves humanity rather than destroying it. The Nile’s annual flood, which turned the river red with silt from the Ethiopian highlands, may also lie behind the image.
Last reviewed: September 2026.