Taweret, whose name means the Great One, is an ancient Egyptian household goddess who guarded women in pregnancy and childbirth. Her form is a deliberate assembly of dangerous animals turned to protective ends: she has the body and swollen belly of a pregnant hippopotamus standing upright, the paws and mane of a lioness, the back and tail of a crocodile, and pendulous human breasts, and she often rests one paw on the hieroglyphic sign for protection. Each element is fearsome, the hippopotamus, the lioness and the crocodile were among the most feared creatures known to the Egyptians, and the combination was meant to frighten away the demons and dangers that threatened a mother and her newborn at the most perilous moment of life.
Taweret was not a goddess of the great state temples but of the home, invoked in the ordinary crisis of the birthing room; her image appears on amulets, on beds and headrests, on cosmetic items and on the magical wands used to draw a protective circle around mother and child. She is often paired with the dwarf-god Bes, another cheerful and grotesque protector of the household and of childbirth. In the fierce, watchful, pregnant hippopotamus the Egyptians found a fitting guardian for the vulnerable beginning of a life.