Wadjet

The Protective Cobra

Domain: Protection, Kingship & Lower Egypt
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Element: Light
Relics of Power: Royal Uraeus

Speak with Wadjet

The full Codex

5 sections of this entry are open to everyone: the summary, the people, the symbols, the lineage and the sources. The other 9 (Name and epithets, In the ancient sources, The myths, Worship and archaeology, How the god was depicted, What scholars debate, After antiquity, Did you know?, Codex relic) are part of the full Codex: PRO opens the whole study of all 500 deities, and without a subscription you can read one full entry a day, just like in the app.

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The People

People

Ancient Egyptians

Region

Nile Valley, Egypt

Period

c. 3100 BC – 400 AD

The Egyptian gods were worshipped for over three millennia along the banks of the Nile, with monumental temples at Karnak, Luxor, and Heliopolis. The pharaohs were held to be divine, and life revolved around cosmic order (Maat) and preparation for the afterlife. The cult endured until the rise of Christianity in Roman Egypt.

At the Opet festival, Amun's sacred barque sailed from Karnak to Luxor amid celebrating crowds. In the temples, priests woke, dressed, and fed the god's statue every day, and the Beautiful Festival of the Valley carried the deities to visit the shore of the dead.

At a glance

Wadjet (also spelled Uadjet, Uatchet or Wedjoyet) is the serpent goddess tied to Buto, a city of the northern Delta, and to the kingship of Lower Egypt. The glossary of James P. Allen's translation renders the name as “the Green One” and describes her as a cobra, the tutelary deity of Lower Egypt, with her cult center at Buto. The Pyramid Texts call her “Lady of Pe” and “She of Buto”. Budge presents her as the twin sister of Nekhebet, the vulture of the South, and as the cobra (uraeus) rising on the brow of Ra and of the king. Herodotus does not name her: he speaks of an oracle of Leto at Buto, whom he identifies with a local Egyptian goddess. The texts we have give titles, places and short formulas; none preserves a myth told only about her.

The ancient sources on this deity are scarce. This study gathers only what is on record.

9 min read · Reviewed on October 14, 2026 · How we research

Sacred symbols

The upright cobra, the uraeus, the papyrus and the red crown

Family

Siblings

Nekhebet (twin sister, according to Budge)

Wadjet

Genealogy according to E. A. W. Budge, The Gods of the Egyptians, vol. I, pp. 439-444; Textos das Pirâmides (Allen), onde a Senhora de Pe é chamada “irmã” do rei

Sources and further reading

Primary sources

Anonymous (Pyramid Texts), The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts. translation: James P. Allen, Society of Biblical Literature. read
Anonymous (Pyramid Texts), The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts. translation: Raymond O. Faulkner, Oxford University Press, 1969/1998. read
Herodotus, Histories, Book 2 (2.59, 2.67, 2.75, 2.83, 2.155-156). translation: A. D. Godley, Harvard University Press, 1920. read

Studies

E. A. Wallis Budge, The Gods of the Egyptians, vol. I. Methuen, 1904. open
E. A. Wallis Budge, The Gods of the Egyptians, vol. II. Methuen, 1904. open

Name and epithets

Allen renders the Egyptian name w3dt as “the Green One”, a reading taken from the glossary of his translation of the Pyramid Texts. Faulkner transliterates the form as Wedjoyet. Budge uses Uatchet or Uatchit.

In the ancient sources

Pyramid Texts, Old Kingdom (pyramids of Unas, Teti, Pepi I, Merenre and Pepi II). Earliest primary source: Wadjet appears as Lady of Pe, She of Buto and Lady of Dep, and her name serves as the model of something firm in…

The myths

The Lady of Pe weeps for the king who goes up to the sky. In the chambers of Unas and Teti, the king is purified through the eye of Horus.

Worship and archaeology

The center of the cult was Buto, made up of Pe and Dep. Allen places it in the northern Delta, at modern Tell el-Fara'in, and calls it the cult center of Wadjet.

How the god was depicted

Budge describes three images. Wadjet appears as a woman with the crown of the North, holding the papyrus scepter, sometimes with a serpent coiled around it, and at times offering the crown to the king.

What scholars debate

Who the goddess of Buto is in Herodotus. Herodotus speaks of Leto at Buto and of Bubastis as Artemis. That his Leto is Wadjet is an identification that older Egyptologists accepted, such as Budge, and not a statement of…

After antiquity

The sources I read contain no later history of reception. I can say only what the texts show: the uraeus on the king's brow, the pair Nekhebet and Wadjet in the royal titles, and the reading by Herodotus, who made the g…

Did you know?

In three pyramids, the name of Wadjet is used as the standard of what “is firm in Dep”, the same formula repeated to fix the name of the king and the pyramid.

Codex relic

Royal Uraeus. The cobra rises on the pharaoh's crown, spitting fire against the enemies of kingship.

The rest of this scroll is sealed

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