kauket

Kauket, also spelled Keket, Keket, or Kaeket, is a goddess in ancient Egyptian mythology associated with primordial darkness. In most sources she is the female counterpart to the male god Kek, the deity of darkness before creation. As part of the Hermopolitan Ogdoad, Kauket forms one of eight primordial beings that personify cosmic elements at the dawn of the world.

In the Hermopolitan cosmogony, Kauket and Kek make up the dark pair, alongside other couples such as Nun and Naunet (water) and Heh and Hauhet (infinity). Through them, the primordial void is conceptualized, the state from which order emerges. Kauket's role is not a moral figure but a cosmological principle, marking the boundary between the pre-existent darkness and the light that follows.

Worship of Kauket was not the focus of a large, individual cult; she is primarily a scholarly and mythological figure known from inscriptions and temple liturgies that discuss the Ogdoad. The variations of transliteration (Kauket, Keket, Keket) reflect the challenges of rendering ancient Egyptian names in modern languages.

In modern Egyptology, Kauket is discussed in studies of Hermopolitan theology and cosmogony, and she remains a relatively obscure but standard example of primordial darkness within the broader Egyptian mythological system.