Thoeris, also known as Taweret, Ipy and Reret, was an Egyptian deity who attended women in childbirth, and became a patron for pregnant women accordingly. She was a household deity with no temple dedicated to her, but some form of shrine was in almost every house. Many women carried an amulet like this to assist them with labour and child rearing. From the New Kingdom onwards she was often depicted together with Bes, another apotropaic deity associated with women and children. Later, in the Amarna period, she gained importance as a funerary deity. This was because her powers were considered to be regenerative as well as protective. The longstanding importance of Thoeris/Taweret in daily life is evident from her continued presence on amulets throughout the Amarna period, and even after the establishment of Akhenaten’s henotheistic religion.
The vulture was a sacred bird, emblematic of two goddesses; Mut and Nekhbet. The former is often depicted wearing the feathers of a vulture as a headdress or as wings at her back. She was a principle deity, wife of the solar-god Amun and thus labelled as the mother of all gods.
To discover more about amulets in Egypt, please visit our relevant blog post: Egyptian Amulets and their Meanings: Ancient Egyptian Gods.