What is Taweret resting on?

"In the stars of the Great Bear the Egyptians saw an adze or a fore-leg..." _Seth, God of Confusion_, pages 86-87

They called it 'Constellation of the Thigh'

Photo courtesy William Petty Set does not show in his usual form in the above astronomical scene, because he is represented with other symbology. From the museum info cards regarding a piece at the Brooklyn museum

"The strange vignette of a pregnant hippopotamus with a lion's mane, similar to the goddess Taweret, with a crocodile on her back and another nipping her paw is often found in Egyptian astronomical texts in connection with the northern constellations...." Wilkinson explains that Taweret was also "called the concubine of Set" in his _Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt_, page 185. I think there is also significance to the crocodile riding her back. As Wilkinson explains in his _Reading Egyptian Art_, the crocodile is associated with Set, with lust and possibly a sort of 'will to power'. (It could likely be Set riding her!) Of course, they changed the mythology somewhat as the view of Set dimmed. Also, Set is in the heavens as the 'constellation of the Thigh', as TeVelde explains:

"The constellation of the Great Bear is the sign of Seth, as Orion is the star of Osiris and Sirius the star of Isis. In the pap. Jumilhac it is related that Horus had cut out the fore-leg of Seth: "And after he had cut out his fore-leg he threw it into the sky. Spirits guard it there: The Great Bear of the northern sky. The great Hippopotamus goddess keeps hold of it, so that it can no longer sail in the midst of the gods." 2)

2) Pap. Jumilhac XVII, 11-12. "In the stars of the Great Bear the Egyptians saw an adze or a fore-leg..."

_Seth, God of Confusion_, pages 86-87 "In the course of the history of the Egyptian language, the [khepesh], which hieroglyphic writing and the use of the word in the Pyramid texts show to have been the fore-leg of a bull, came to mean not only the constellation of the Great Bear, but also "strong arm," "strength," and even "scimitar." 4) Seth uses this scimitar in the battle against demons of disease:"

Wooden fore-leg found at Met museum in a collection of small items from the mid-Eighteenth Dynasty So what looks like a sort of cane for Taweret to rest on is Seth's constellation. As 'opener of the mouth', and strong arm of defense, it was regarded as very powerful, indeed.