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 to have sprung from the Eye of Ra. The ritual represents, in a playful form, the battle of Ra's Eye with its greatest foe. The concept of the solar Eye as mother, consort, and daughter of a god was incorporated into royal ideology. Pharaohs took on the role of Ra, and their consorts were associated with the Eye and the goddesses equated with it. The sun disks and uraei that were incorporated into queens' headdresses during the New Kingdom reflect this mythological tie. The priestesses who acted as ceremonial "wives" of particular gods during the Third Intermediate Period (c. 1059–653