Bat is attested from the earliest records of Egyptian religious practice; her cult seat was the 7th nome of Upper Egypt (Seshesh, also called Hu or Diospolis Parva) and the centre of her worship was termed the 'Mansion of the Sistrum'. Sources describe her cult as dating to the late Predynastic period and note that by the Middle Kingdom her identity and attributes had been largely absorbed into the wider cult of Hathor.
Bat is depicted commonly with a human face bearing bovine features (cow ears and inward-curving horns) or as a woman. She is sometimes shown as a celestial bovine surrounded by stars. On sistra she often appears as the head and neck forming the handle and is represented with 'two faces' in funerary Pyramid Texts formulae. Her horns are described as curving inward, contrasted in sources with Hathor's slightly outward-curving horns.
Funerary texts and later summaries associate Bat with protective and salvific roles; a Pyramid Texts formula cited in the sources reads: 'I am Praise; I am Majesty; I am Bat with Her Two Faces; I am the One Who Is Saved, and I have saved myself from all things evil,' identifying her with protection and salvation. Modern summaries of the tradition additionally report that Bat was understood to have visionary or oracular capacities (phrased in sources as the power 'to see the past and into the future'). Her cultic presence is closely linked to the sistrum, indicating an active role in temple ritual, invocation, and liturgical sound.
Weaknesses
- otherNo recorded vulnerabilities — sources do not report specific weaknesses for Bat
Wards
- mantraPyramid Texts hymnic formulae invoking Bat (e.g., 'I am Bat with Her Two Faces; I am the One Who Is Saved...')
- symbolSistrum bearing Bat's head — cult instrument used in ritual and invocation
Aani
Aani (ancient Egyptian jꜥnr) is the lexical term for the baboon in ancient Egyptian language and functions in religious contexts as an animal icon and theophoric epithet. Attested repeatedly in Egyptian texts and images, the baboon image is used to represent or denote aspects of gods such as Thoth, Hapy, Khonsu, and Osiris rather than implying the animal itself is an independent deity.
Aker
Aker is an ancient Egyptian personification of the horizon and an earth and underworld deity who is described in surviving summaries as guardian of the eastern (Bakhu) and western (Manu) horizons, marking liminal boundaries between day and night and between the living world and the netherworld.
Akhty
Akhty (also read Netjer-akhty) is an ancient Egyptian deity identified with the northern bald ibis and linked to the akh (the transfigured, luminous human spirit). Attested from early 2nd dynasty inscriptions and in Old Kingdom personal names and priestly titles, Akhty was associated with the evening horizon and believed to guide the setting sun and carry the deceased's spirit into the night sky.
Amaunet (Amunet)
Amaunet (also spelled Amunet, Amonet) is a primordial female deity of ancient Egyptian religion, attested from early religious texts and represented as the feminine counterpart and consort of the god Amun. She is presented in sources as a pre-creation or primeval principle associated with hiddenness; Thebes is recorded as a principal center of her cult into the late dynastic and Ptolemaic periods.
Amenhotep, son of Hapu
Amenhotep, son of Hapu was a historically attested 18th‑Dynasty official who was posthumously venerated and integrated into Egyptian temple cult as a deified, local healing intercessor. His cult appears in Thebes and resurges in the Ptolemaic period, represented in votive reliefs, chapels, and statues.
Ammit
Ammit is an ancient Egyptian funerary guardian-demon of the Duat who stands at the Hall of Two Truths during the weighing of the heart. Feared and not worshipped, she awaits the verdict and consumes hearts judged impure, thereby preventing the deceased from joining the blessed dead.
Ammut
Ammut is an ancient Egyptian chimeric creature associated with the Judgment of the Dead; traditionally described as a composite of lion, hippopotamus, and crocodile, she is said to consume the souls or the symbolic heart of those judged unworthy, preventing admission to the afterlife. Modern artistic and speculative retellings recast Ammut as a large scavenging semi‑aquatic animal whose corpse‑consuming habits inspired funerary beliefs.
Amset (Imsety)
Amset (Egyptian Imsety) is one of the four sons of Horus in ancient Egyptian mortuary religion, a named funerary guardian commonly associated with protection of the liver and represented as the human-headed canopic-jar lid in mummification and afterlife iconography.
Amun
Amun is a major ancient Egyptian deity whose name (imn) means 'the hidden one.' Originating as a local Theban tutelary god, he rose to national prominence and was syncretized with the sun‑god Ra (Amun‑Ra), becoming a transcendent, self‑created creator and king of the gods closely tied to royal legitimation and personal petitionary religion.
Amun-Re
Amun-Re is a major ancient Egyptian state deity formed by syncretism of Amun with the sun-god Re. Attested from the Old Kingdom and rising to prominence as the patron god of Thebes by the 11th Dynasty, Amun-Re is closely tied to pharaonic kingship, temple cult, and oracular activity (notably at Siwa).
Amunet
Amunet (jmnt) is a primordial Egyptian goddess originally one of the female members of the Ogdoad of Hermopolis whose name means ‘The Hidden One.’ In later Theban religion she became a localized consort and cult companion of Amun, serving protective and liturgical roles in royal coronation, Sed festivals, temple liturgies, and funerary invocations.
Ancient Egyptian corkscrew-horned sheep
An extinct ovicaprine form identified in modern scholarship as Ovis longipes palaeoaegyptiacus and depicted in early pharaonic art; its distinctive loosely spiralling horns were adopted as the horn-type for several ram-headed Egyptian deities and persisted in iconography after the animal vanished from the record.
Community Record
- [1]Bat (goddess) - Wikipedia. Wikipedia contributors, 'Bat (goddess)', Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopediawiki
- [2]Ancient Egypt: the Mythology - Bat. Ancient Egypt: the Mythology, 'Bat'other
- [3]agoodwinsmith | Hathor and Bat (blog commentary referencing sources). Dreamwidth post 'Hathor and Bat' summarizing scholarship and iconographyother