(Min - Qetesh - Reshep)


Qetesh is a Sumerian goddess adopted into Egyptian mythology from the Canaanite religion, popular during the New Kingdom. She was a fertility goddess of sacred ecstasy and sexual pleasure.

From the Semitic root Q-D-Š, meaning "Holy." Her other names are Quadshu, Qudshu, Qodesh, Qadesh, Qadashu, Qadesha, Qedeshet, Kedesh and Kodesh.[1]

In the Qetesh stele, she is represented as a frontal nude standing on a lion between Min of Egypt and the Canaanite warrior god Resheph. She is holding snakes in one hand and a lotus flower in the other as symbols of creation.

She is associated with Anat, Astarte, and Asherah. She also has elements associated with the goddesses of Myceneae, the Minoans of Crete, and certain Kassite goddesses of the metals trade in Tin, Copper and Bronze between Lothal and Dilmun.

On some versions of the Qetesh stele her register with Min and Resheph is placed over another register showing gifts being presented to Anat the goddess of War and below a register listing the lands belonging to Min and Resheph. She is sometimes shown standing on a horse.

She is called "Mistress of All the Gods", "Lady of the Stars of Heaven", "Beloved of Ptah", "Great of magic, mistress of the stars", and "Eye of Ra, without her equal". [2] Qadshu is also used as an epithet of Athirat, the Great Mother Goddess of the Canaanites.[3]

From: Wiki
Qetesh is a goddess of Semetic origin. She was worshipped as a nature goddess, and a goddess of sacred ecstasy and sexual pleasure. Her cult became popular in Egypt during the New Kingdom. Qetesh's sexuality led to a natural association with the Egyptian goddess Hathor.

In early portrayals she is shown as a naked woman standing upon a lion. On her head is the cresent moon and disk. Later interpretations show Qetesh again on the lion, but with the headdress of Hathor, wearing a deep necklace and a tight-fitting dress which extends to her ankles. Her hands hold symbols of eroticism and fertility. In her right hand she holds lotus flowers and in her left, two snakes. Like Bes (and contrary to Egyptian artistic convention), Qetesh is always pictured full-face.

Qetesh was part of a triad with the child, Min, and her husband, Reshep (who, like her, was another foreign god).

From: here
Qadshu, "the Holy One" is an epithet of various Canaanite and Syrian Goddesses, Who eventually seems to have become an independent Goddess of Sexuality, Sacred Ecstacy and Fertility.

Qadshu as the Goddess Anat represents Her in Her form as the consort of Amurru ("the God of the West"), another name for Aleyin or Ba'al. (In Egyptian texts this God is called Reshep and is a God of Thunder and Battle.) At the request of the Goddess Athirat, these two Deities perform a harvest-ritual involving the sacrifice of an ass, which is meant to keep the animal from eating the leaves and shoots of the vines.

Qadshu is also used as an epithet of Athirat, the Great Mother Goddess of the Canaanites.

Qadshu's cult involved the ritual of the sacred marriage, in which participants acted out the parts of the Goddess and Her consort, usually as a seasonal rite. The qadashah, (the "holy ones" or "religiously clean or pure ones"), were the women of Her temple, who may have acted as sacred prostitutes, giving themselves sexually to visitors while taking the role of the Goddess as a sacred act. If they did function as prostitutes, then the Canaanites had a very different (and, I would argue as a modern Pagan, far more healthy) attitude towards sex workers than we do today, as the meaning of the name, "the clean ones" implies. But then, they might have been nothing of the sort—the implication that these temple women functioned as "whores" is from the Bible, hardly an unbiased source when it comes to the competing religion.

Qadshu was adopted into the Egyptian pantheon during the New Kingdom under the spelling Qadesh, and formed part of a triad with Reshep and Min, a God of (Very Happy) Fertility. She was usually shown as a nude woman standing on the back of Her animal, the lion (which was an animal also sacred to both Canaanite Athirat and Babylonian Ishtar). In a break with conventional Egyptian artistic style that is indicative of Her non-Egyptian origins, Qadesh was shown in a frontal pose. As emblems of fertility She usually holds flowers (lotus or papyrus) or snakes in each hand. Her hair falls on Her shoulders in two curls, much like the typical hairstyle of the Goddess of Sensuality Hathor, and indeed the two were equated by the Egyptians.

Alternate spellings: Qudshu, Qodesh, Qadesh, Qadashu, Qadesha, Qetesh, Qedeshet, Kedesh

Epithets: in Egypt She is called "Mistress of All the Gods", "Lady of the Stars of Heaven"

From: here
Qadesh was originally depicted as a naked woman standing on the back of a lion (outside Egypt it is sometimes a horse) with a crescent moon on her head. After her adoption into the Egyption pantheon she was more commonly depicted wearing the headdress of Hathor or a pair of cows horns and a sun disc (also linked with Hathor and the "Eye or Ra") and a tight-fitting sheath dress. She was often shown holding snakes (thought to represent male genetalia) or a papyrus plant (representing Reshep) in her right hand and lotus flowers (representing either female genetalia or Min) in her left hand. Like Bes and Hathor, she is always pictured facing forward rather than in profile.

Her name is possibly related to the hebrew word "qedesh". The meaning of the word is problematic. It is often translated as "holy woman" and (according to some) refers to the sacred prostitutes of the cult of Asherah known as Quedeshot (the Semitic nature goddess who was associated with Hathor in Egypt). In fact, Qadesh is sometimes thought of as an aspect of Asherah rather than a distinct goddess. However, other scholars have suggested that she was a distinct goddess and that the connection with prostitution is due to early mistranslations of biblical texts. They suggest that actually the word related to temple staff, and held no sexual association.

From: here

Originally a Middle Eastern goddess identified with Ashtoret, Kadesh was introduced into the Egyptian pantheon as qdS (transliterated qdS) during the New Kingdom, when the Egyptians came into closer contact with the peoples of the Levant.
She was a love and sex goddess and as such at times given attributes typical of Hathor such as the sistrum. She was generally depicted frontally as a woman, naked or wearing a tight fitting dress, standing on a male lion, holding snakes, lotus stems, or lotus blossoms [1] in her hands and wearing the cow horns and sun-disk of Hathor on her head.

Kadesh, Stela in the Egyptian Museum of Turin
Kadesh was at times identified with Hathor or Isis and associated with Re, Min and Reshef. On the Turin and other stelae she is called Lady of Heaven, the mistress of all the gods, the eye of Re, without a second.
Her name is supposed to be derived from semitic qdS (qedesh), a temple prostitute.

From: here


Also see:
About the root of her name and words of similar meanings
Essay: The "Holy One" by Johanna Stuckey
Reshep(h) {God of the Week} -- her consort in Egypt
Short summary
Another short summary