Wadj-wer

Wadj-wer is the sea, which Egypt had a complicated relationship with. The phrase means 'great green', and what exactly it covered — the Mediterranean, the lagoons and marshes of the Delta, or both at different dates — has been argued over, because Egyptian geography did not distinguish them the way a modern map does. He is drawn as a fertility figure with water-ripples across his body carrying offerings, which is the Delta reading: the great green as a wet, productive place rather than as the hostile open water Egyptian sailors mostly avoided.

Domains

• sea

Sources

• Reference treatment of Wadj-wer, his name and his sphere.