Bastet goddess was a protective lioness goddess, however, and is useful only in deciphering the origin of the term, alabaster. Bastet was originally a fierce lioness warrior goddess of the sun throughout most of ancient Egyptian history, but later she was changed into the cat goddess that is familiar today, becoming Bastet. She was also seen as the daughter and consort of Atum-Ra. She also had a son with Atum-Ra, the lion god Maahes. As protector of Lower Egypt, she was seen as defender of the pharaoh, and consequently of the sun god, Ra. Along with other deities like Hathor, Sekhmet,
Eye of Ra as Hathor-Tefnut, Mut-Sekhmet, and Bastet-Sothis appear in Egyptian texts. Wadjet could sometimes be depicted with a lion head rather than that of a cobra, Nekhbet could take on cobra form as a counterpart of Wadjet, and a great many of these goddesses wore the sun disk on their heads, sometimes with the addition of a uraeus or the cow horns from Hathor's typical headdress. Beginning in the Middle Kingdom, the hieroglyph for a uraeus could be used as a logogram or determinative for the word "goddess" in any context, because virtually any goddess could be linked with the Eye's complex