Sothis
Egyptian Sopdet.
Personification of the Sirius star in the constellation of Orion, Sah - her consort, the yearly heliacal rising of which in early summer announced the beginning of the season of inundation, and which was the event marking the beginning of the agricultural year. Hence Sothis was also Lady of the New Year. Her festival Coming of Sopdet was celebrated on New Year's day.In the afterlife she served as the king's guide crossing the Field of Reeds. Rising to the sky the king is united with her. The Morning Star was thought to be her child by the pharaoh. Later she is called "mother" and "nurse". Like Satis she dispensed water to the dead for purification purposes.
During the second half of the first millennium Sothis was identified with Isis and Orion with Osiris. According to the Lamentations of Isis and Nephthys she will follow Osiris-Orion forever.
She was depicted as a woman wearing a star on her headdress, a cow with a star or flower between her horns, a dog or, in the Graeco-Roman Period, riding on a dog as Isis-Sopdet.
