“The Egyptian goddess Sekhmet was imagined as a lioness, whose ‘mane smoked with fire, her back had the colour of blood, her countenance glowed like the sun, her eyes shone with a fire.’ A document from c. 2000 BC tells the tale of how the goddess could not be halted in her slaughter of the human race. The gods, to save humanity, ordered the brewing of 7,000 jars of beer, to which was added a red powder so that it resembled human blood, and then this liquid was poured out over the fields. With the coming of morning the goddess gazed at her reflection in it, drank it all and returned to her palace intoxicated. So it was that humanity was saved.”

—Anne Baring and Jules Cashford, from The Myth of the Goddess: Evolution of an Image, 2005.