Which goddess is depicted as a lioness or with a lioness head? Sekhmet is the canonical answer.
Sekhmet was an ancient Egyptian warrior and solar goddess, often shown as a woman with the head of a lioness. Her name is commonly translated as “the Powerful One,” fitting her role as a fierce force of protection and destruction. She was also associated with healing and medicine, making her a deity of both disease and its cure.
In Egyptian mythology, Sekhmet was closely connected with the Eye of Ra, the destructive and protective power of the sun god. One famous story says that Ra sent her to punish rebellious humans. Her bloodlust grew so extreme that the gods dyed beer red and spread it across the land. Mistaking it for blood, Sekhmet drank until she became intoxicated and stopped her rampage.
Hathor and Bastet are common mix-ups because both could have feline associations. Hathor could take the form of Sekhmet in myths, while Bastet was more often represented as a domestic cat or cat-headed woman. Sekhmet’s lioness imagery is the decisive clue.