( Also Selket, Selkis, Selchis, Selquet)
"She who causes throat to breathe"
Serket is the Egyptian scorpion goddess who was called upon mainly to avert venomous bites and stings. She is depicted as a beautiful woman with a scorpion on her head or a scorpion shaped headdress, or as a scorpion with the head of a woman. Her name might have come from the fact that those people who have been poisoned or bitten by a venomous insect may breath shallowly or rapidly, and the goddess's powers would have cured that. Her association with protection, healing and the recovering from poison is not limited to scorpion stings, but applied to all manner of stings.
Besides her main function as a tutelary deity to the Egyptian monarchs, Serket also acted as one of the guards of the canopic jars that contained the viscera of the dead (with Neith, Aishat and Nephtys). She is in this way associated with mortuary rites. She also was one of the protectors of the four sources of the Nile. Killing the wicked is listed among her duties.
She is sometimes considered an aspect of Isis, acting as the protector of the child Horus, and thus, by association, and protector of all children, women in childbirth, kings and fellow gods. She is credited with having protected Ra from demons and Isis from Set.
Sources:
http://www.panhistoria.com/users/www/TjetiPriest/serket.html
http://www.theearthcenter.com/serket.html
http://www.angelfire.com/realm/shades/egypt/serket.htm
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