Kali

==Comparative scholarship==
Scholar Marvin H. Pope in 1965 argues that the [[Hinduism|Hindu]] goddess Kali, who is first attested in the 7th century CE, shares some characteristics with some ancient Near Eastern goddesses, such as wearing a necklace of heads and a belt of severed hands like [[Anat]], and drinking blood like the Egyptian goddess [[Sekhmet]] and that therefore that her character might have been influenced by them.{{sfn|Pope|Röllig|1965|page=239}}

=== Levantine Anat ===
The Bronze Age epic cycles of the [[Levant]]ine city of [[Ugarit]] include a myth according to which the warrior goddess [[Anat]] started attacking warriors, with the text of the myth describing the goddess as gloating and her heart filling with joy and her liver with laughter while attaching the heads of warriors to her back and girding hands to her waist{{sfn|Pope|1977|pages=606–607}} until she is pacified by a message of peace sent by her brother and consort, the god [[Baal|Baʿlu]].{{sfn|Pope|1977|page=601}}

The Hindu goddess Kālī similarly wore a necklace of severed heads and a girdle of severed hands, and was pacified by her consort, Śiva, throwing himself under her feet. The sickle sword wielded by Kālī might also have been connected to similar sickle swords used in [[Early Dynastic Period (Mesopotamia)|early dynastic]] [[Mesopotamia]].{{sfn|Pope|1977|pages=608}}

=== Egyptian Sekhmet ===
According to an [[Ancient Egypt]]ian myth, called {{transliteration|en|The Deliverance of Mankind from Destruction}}, the ancient Egyptian supreme god, the Sun-god [[Ra]], suspected that mankind was plotting against him, and so he sent the goddess [[Hathor]], who was the incarnation of his violent feminine aspect, the [[Eye of Ra]], to destroy his enemies.{{sfn|Pope|1977|pages=607–608}}

Hathor appeared as the lion-goddess [[Sekhmet]] and carried out Ra's orders until she became so captured by her blood-lust that she would not stop despite Ra himself becoming distressed and wishing an end to the killing. Therefore, Ra concocted a ruse whereby a plain was flooded with beer which had been dyed red, which Sekhmet mistook for blood and drank until she became too inebriated to continue killing, thus saving humanity from destruction.{{sfn|Pope|1977|pages=607–608}}

Similarly, while killing demons, Kālī became ecstatic with the joy of battle and slaughter and refused to stop, so that the [[Deva (Hinduism)|Devas]] feared she would destroy the world, and she was stopped through ruse when her consort Śiva threw himself under her feet.{{sfn|Pope|1977|pages=608}}