White faience amulet representing an Egyptian goddess with body of a woman and head of a lioness, wearing a cobra headdress (or uraeus), standing with right arm against her side, and her left arm bent up across her chest, holding a papyrus-sceptre. Dorsal pillar with carved inscription in hieroglyphics and loop for suspension at the top.

Amulets in the shape of lion-headed female figures are quite numerous and it is not always easy to determine which goddess is being represented. In this case, the figure has been identified with Sekhmet but it is more likely to be Bastet, as the rather crude and garbled inscription at the back seems to suggest.

Sekhmet ('The Powerful One') is the Egyptian goddess associated with warfare and fire as well as healing and medical treatment. She symbolises the pharaoh's unvanquishable heroism in battle and she could both bring and ward off pestilence and destruction.

Bastet ('She of the bast', bast being an ointment jar) is associated with protection from diseases and against evil spirits. Originally represented as a lioness-headed figure, similar to Sekhmet but popular in Lower Egypt, she later became more frequently depicted as a cat-headed deity embodying a more protective and motherly aspect, especially if compared with the more aggressive-looking Sekhmet.

The object looks like an authentic piece and it is therefore likely to have been imported to Rhodes from Egypt. Imported objects often represented status symbols in antiquity and pieces such as this one also offered the model for Rhodian artisans to produce local imitations for both internal circulation and further afield markets.