This is an Egyptian Goddess known as Sakhmet. She was also known as “the powerful one” a violent and powerful goddess. She now stands at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the Egyptian section. She originated from Upper Egypt, Thebes, Karnak. Dated from ca. 1390-1952 B.C. during the Reign of Amenhotep III. The Goddess’s head is of a lion and in her hand she “clasps an ankh, shaped like a cross, with a loop at the top. For the ancient Egyptians, the ankh was a symbol of life.” She is also sometimes found to have a sun disc over her head which represents “the flame” that she used as her weapon. She is one of the six hundred statutes of the goddess that were created and can be traced from “the mortuary complex of the king at Kom el Heitan on the Theban west bank, and the Mut Temple Complex at Karnak on the east bank at Thebes.” The Sakhmet statute is known to have the power to bring illness and the power of healing. She was the protector of the king from his enemies. What was understood from the statutes was that it seem as though there were 730 statutes originally, one seated and other standing positions which indicated for each day of the year. It was imagined that theses statutes stood with other godlike statutes across a huge court of the Kom el Heitan in which they formed an enormous spiritual chart “that served as the king’s eternal ritual calendar.” The goddess Sakhmet was worshiped in all great temples of Egypt. I believe it is a very symbolic statute because the goddess was known to carryout important roles for the king and the people of the city.
http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/544484
http://www.globalegyptianmuseum.org/glossary.aspx?id=324

Samira Yakubova