Satis, the goddess of the flood

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Satet

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Gender        Feminine
Usage        Egyptian Mythology
Other Forms        Satis, Satit, Satjet, Satjit
Meaning & History
Derived from the Egyptian word sṯ, meaning "eject", "shoot", "pour" or "throw". It is the name of an Egyptian goddess and her name can be translated as "she who shoots" or "she who pours". As a warrior goddess, she protected Egypt's southern frontier by killing the pharoah's enemies with arrows; as a fertility goddess, she granted the wishes of those who sought love.
Added 1/11/2021 by Furcifer

User-submitted name Satet - Behind the Name
https://www.behindthename.com/name/satet/submitted

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In [[Egyptian mythology]], '''Satis''' (also spelt '''Satjit''', '''Sates''', ''Satet'', and '''Sati''') was the deification of the [[flood]]s of the [[Nile River]], and her cult originated in the [[Ancient Egypt|ancient]] city of [[Swenet]], now called [[Aswan]] on the southern edge of [[Egypt]]. Her name means ''she who shoots forth'' referring to the annual flooding of the river. She was an early [[war goddess|war]], [[hunting]], and [[fertility goddess|fertility]] deity who was seen as the mother of the [[Nile River]], [[Anuket]], and a protector of southern Egypt.

One of her titles was ''She Who Runs Like an Arrow'', which is thought to refer to the river current, and her symbols became the arrow and the running river. Satis was pictured as a woman wearing the conical [[crown]] of [[Upper Egypt]] with [[gazelle]] or [[antelope]] horns, or as an antelope, a fast moving creature living near the banks of the river in the southern portion of [[Ancient Egypt]]. She also was depicted with a bow and arrows.

Other interpretations say her primary role was that of the war goddess, a guardian of Egypt's southern (Nubian) frontier and killing the enemies of the Pharaoh with her arrows.

She usually is depicted as holding an [[ankh]] also, due to her association with the life giving flooding of the Nile. Consequently, it is true that Satis acted as a fertility goddess, thus granting the wishes of those who sought love. Satis is also described as offering jars of [[purification|purifying]] water.

Later she became regarded as one of the consorts of [[Khnum]], the god identified as the guardian of the source of the Nile, with whom she was worshipped at [[Elephantine]] (the 1st [[Nome (Egypt)|nome]] of [[Egypt]]), indeed the centre of her cult was nearby, at Sahal, another island of the Nile. Since she was most dominant at the southern end of Egypt, she became regarded as the guard of Egypt's southern border with [[Nubia]].

Satis's child was [[Anuket]], goddess of the [[Nile River]] herself, who formed the third part of the Elephantine triad of deities when formed. After Khnum became considered a form of [[Ra]], Satis became known as the ''[[Eye of Ra]]''.

[[Category:Egyptian goddesses]]
[[Category:Egyptian mythology]]
[[Category:Sea and river goddesses]]


www-labs.iro.umontreal.ca/~felipe/IFT6010-Automne2009/Data/TP2/docs/english/s/Satis
https://www-labs.iro.umontreal.c ... ocs/english/s/Satis

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Satet (Setet, Sathit, Satit, Sati, Setis, Satis) was the archer-goddess of the Nile cataracts, her name linking her to Setet Island (Sehel Island) and the area around it. She was also a fertility goddess, due to her aspect as a water goddess and a goddess of the inundation, and a goddess who purified the dead with her water. She was a goddess of the hunt who protected Egypt and the pharaoh with her bow and arrows.

Close Up of the Goddess Satet

Depicted as a woman, Satet was often shown wearing the crown of the south - Upper Egypt - and a pair of long antelope horns. She was originally worshiped as an antelope goddess. She was sometimes shown carrying a bow and arrows. More often she was shown carrying a sceptre and the ankh symbol.

As a goddess of the hunt, she was also believed to be a protector of Egypt and of the pharaoh. It was her arrows that protected the southern border, keeping the enemies at bay. Yet she was more closely linked to water than to the bow and arrow. There may be a connection between water and the bow and arrows she sometimes was shown to wield:

The name probably means 'to pour out' or 'to scatter abroad', so that it might signify a goddess who wielded the powers of rain. She carries in her hands a bow and arrows, as did Neith, typical of the rain or thunderbolt.

-- Egypt, Myths and Legends, Lewis Spence

A Broken Image of Satet, from her Temple on Setet Island (Sehel Island)

Originally, Satet's name was written with the hieroglyph for a shoulder knot (st) and was replaced with a sign of a cow's skin pierced by an arrow (st). This was probably in relation to her function as a goddess of the hunt, giving her the name 'She who Shoots'. The sign was not only used for 'to shoot', but with water related words as well meaning 'to pour'. Satet could also mean 'She who Pours', a link with her guardianship over the Nile cataracts.

...And behold Satet washes him with the water which is in her four vases in Abu (Elephantine).

-- Pyramid Text of Pepi I

To the dead, she was one who washed them to purify them so that they might enter through the gates of the Egyptian heaven. Her water was the water that came up from the underworld, where the Nile was believed to have poured out into the world. It was this water that she used to cleanse the departed so they were washed clean of all impurities for their afterlife.

A Pharaoh Worshiping Khnum, Satet and Anqet on the Setet Island (Sehel Island) Stele

By the New Kingdom she was believed to be the wife of Khnum and the mother or sister of Anqet and made the third member of the Abu triad. Like Anqet, she was originally thought to have been a daughter of the sun god Ra, his protector. As Khnum was related to Osiris, and Anqet was to Nephthys, Satet was connected with Isis, especially at the time of the Nile flood. It was believed that she released the inundation while the star Sirius appeared in the sky. In this, she was also linked to the goddess Sopdet (Sothis), a personification of that star. In Iunyt (Esna) she formed a triad with Khnum and another huntress, the goddess Neith.

The inundation itself was known as the Night of the Teardrop. Every year, Isis would shed a single tear, which would be caught by Satet in her jars, then poured into the Nile.

-- Satet, TourEgypt

A Close-Up of Satet and Khnum

It was due to her link with the inundation that she was a fertility goddess. She gave fertility to the land by releasing the flood and the Nile's silt, allowing the land to be able to grow crops again, and to give the life-giving water back to the Egyptians each year. She was eventually linked with Hathor, and became not just a goddess of the flood, but a goddess of human fertility and love as well.

Her main temple was on Abu Island, in the Aswan area. She was worshiped through the Aswan area, especially on Setet Island, and Upper Egypt, though early items with her name on them were found in Saqqara.

Satet was a goddess of protection, an archer goddess of the extreme south of Egypt. She was linked to the waters of the Nile, and became a guardian of the cataracts and over the inundation itself. She had the power to purify the deceased and to help with their rebirth in the afterlife, which was a connection to her powers of a goddess of fertility. She was a goddess who helped provide life to both the land and the people of Egypt.

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Last Updated: Aug 1st, 2011


Egypt: Satet, Archer-Goddess of the Inundation and the Nile Cataracts
https://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/satet.htm

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Temple of Satet
The Temple of Satet or Satis is an ancient Egyptian temple dedicated to the goddess Satet, a personification of the Nile inundation. Founded during the late Predynastic Period around 3200 BC, it was enlarged and renovated several times from the Early Dynastic Period onwards over the next 3000 years until the Ptolemaic Period. The temple of Satet is the best example of an ancient Egyptian temple whose construction is attested over the entire Pharaonic period.

Table Of Contents
Location of the Temple of Satet
Earliest times to the first intermediate period
Middle Kingdom
The New Kingdom and later times
Nilometer
Discover
Location of the Temple of Satet
The Temple of Satet was located on the Nile Valley island of Elephantine, north of the Temple of Khnum, which was only recently restored by the German Archaeological Institute under Dr Gunter Dryer.


Earliest times to the first intermediate period
The earliest temple was built in c. 3200 BC and was little more than a cultic niche between three large natural granite boulders. This earliest temple was tiny, housing a sanctuary of about 2 m × 2 m (6.6 ft × 6.6 ft) made of mud bricks. There were some mudbrick houses in front of the sanctuary on the Eastside. The temple was enlarged during the 1st and 2nd Dynasties and rebuilt during the Third Dynasty, but its old plan was kept. Some granaries were added on the Southside outside the niche between the boulders.

The temple was again rebuilt during the Fifth Dynasty, possibly under Nyuserre Ini, at which point the sanctuary at the centre of the rock niche was enlarged. In front of it was a forecourt, about 5 m × 5 m (16 ft × 16 ft) in size, surrounded by an open walkway. A deposit of votive offerings was discovered under the floor of the sanctuary. These were dedicated to the goddess over a few hundred years during the Old Kingdom by royal and private individuals and comprised mainly of small faience figures showing humans and animals. Beyond that, granaries and a mudbrick administrative building were located on the Southside.

Pepi I, the second pharaoh of the Sixth Dynasty, ordered the rebuilding the temple. The old plan was kept, but the brick walls were enlarged, and a granite sanctuary for the goddess’ statue was added. By this time, the god Khnum was also worshipped in the temple.

Middle Kingdom
Towards the end of the First Intermediate Period, the Theban king Intef III renovated the temple in the early Eleventh Dynasty. The central chapel was left at its original place between the three natural boulders. The hall in front of the chapel was paved and decorated with limestone slabs for the first time.

The temple was mainly made of mud bricks, with only the most important walls lined with decorated limestone blocks. Shortly after, Mentuhotep II made further modifications to the temple, building an entirely new sanctuary. He added new inscriptions and, on the Northside, a columned courtyard and a lake part of an installation to celebrate the Nile flood, which the Ancient Egyptians believed started in Elephantine.

Less than 100 years later, early in the subsequent Dynasty, pharaoh Senusret I replaced Mentuhotep’s structure with a new temple and courtyard. While all earlier buildings followed the same layout and used mudbricks exclusively, the new temple was limestone. By this time, the temple level was above the rock niche of the Old Kingdom. However, the main sanctuary was built directly over the old one, keeping the old tradition. The temple of Senusret I was fully decorated, but only a few fragments of the decoration survived; these include the remains of a long inscription of the king. At the same time, the god Khnum was given a separate temple on the island. The temple of Satet was initially adorned with many statues, among which is a statue of the Thirteenth Dynasty king Sekhemkare Amenemhat V that bears a dedication to the goddess:

The good god, lord of the two lands, lord of the ceremonies, the king of Upper and Lower Egypt Sekhemkare, the son of Ra Amenemhat, beloved of Satet, lady of Elephantine, may he live forever.

Another statue that once adorned the temple belonged to King Senusret III. There is also a dyad of King Sobekemsaf I adoring the goddess that was undoubtedly once in the temple. Indeed, even though these statues were all discovered in the nearby sanctuary of the local saint Heqaib, according to their inscriptions, they must have initially been in the temple of Satet.

The New Kingdom and later times
During the New Kingdom period, the temple was rebuilt anew under Queen Hatshepsut (1507–1458 BC) in the early 18th Dynasty and further enlarged by her successor, Thutmose III. The temple was then a solid rectangular building, some 15.9 m × 9.52 m (52.2 ft × 31.2 ft) in size, surrounded by a 20.10 m × 13.52 m (65.9 ft × 44.4 ft) walkway that had seven × ten pillars on the outside. The sanctuary of the new temple was placed directly over the sanctuary of the older periods. The New Kingdom temple kept the ancient tradition of the sanctuary’s place.

There are indications for further construction work during the 26th Dynasty (664–525 BC), but very little of that building has survived. Several blocks of a gateway that was once about 7.35 m (24.1 ft) high led to a brick enclosure wall, the latter perhaps once belonging to the temple. Shortly before the Persian conquest of Egypt, pharaoh Amasis II (570–526 BC) added a colonnade or kiosk to the temple. Six limestone columns and screen walls were found.

A new temple was built under Ptolemy VI (180–145 BC). It was again a rectangular building. There was the main sanctuary at the back on the Westside; in front of it was a broad hall, and in front of the latter were two other smaller halls, with smaller rooms leading from them on the short sides. In front of the new temple, a free-standing kiosk was erected. The sanctuary was no longer built over the place of the Old Kingdom sanctuary. It seems that the location and its importance were forgotten. Ptolemy VIII (182–116 BC) finally added a pronaos to the temple with two by four columns.

Nilometer
One of the two best-preserved nilometers is associated with the Temple of Satis.


Temple of Satet
https://landioustravel.com/egypt ... p=available#respond

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Satet Goddess
Satet, also known as Setet, Sathit, Satit, Sati, Setis or Satis, was an archer-goddess of the Nile cataracts. Her name comes from the term “sat” (to shoot, eject, pour out, and throw). Satet, also known by numerous related names, was an Upper Egyptian goddess who, along with Khnum and Anuket, formed part of the Elephantine Triad. A protective deity of Egypt’s southern border with Nubia, she came to personify the former annual flooding of the Nile and to serve as a war, hunting, and fertility goddess.

She was sometimes conflated with Isis and Sopdet, goddess of the bright star Sirius, which the Egyptians connected with the onset of the Nile flooding. Under the interpretatio graeca, she was conflated with Hera and Juno.

Table Of Contents
Titles of Goddess Satet
History
Mythology around Goddess Satet
Representation
Titles of Goddess Satet
The exact pronunciation of Egyptian is often uncertain since vowels were not recorded until a very late period. In transcription, the goddess’s name also appears as Setis, Sati, Setet, Satet, Satit, and Sathit. Derived from sṯ, meaning “eject”, “shoot”, “pour”, or “throw”, her name can be variously translated as “She who Shoots” or “She who Pours”, depending on which of her roles is being emphasized.

Her name was initially written with the hieroglyph for a linen garment’s shoulder knot (S29); this was later replaced by Anuket’s animal hide pierced by an arrow (F29). Goddess Satet was also known by epithets, such as “Mistress of Elephantine” and “She Who Runs Like an Arrow”, thought to refer to the flowing river current.

History
A goddess of the Upper Egyptians, her cult is first attested on jars beneath the Step Pyramid of Saqqara (Dynasty III). In the Pyramid Texts (Dynasty VI), she appears to purify a deceased pharaoh’s body with four jars of water from Elephantine.

Her principal centre of worship was at Abu (Elephantine), an island in Aswan on the southern edge of Egypt. Her temple there occupied an early predynastic site shown by Wells to be aligned with the star Sirius. Other centres include Swenet (Aswan proper) and Setet (Sehel Island nearby). She was particularly associated with the upper reaches of the Nile, which the Egyptians sometimes considered to have its source near Aswan. She is invoked in Aramaic as Sati on a divorce document in the Elephantine papyri.

Mythology around Goddess Satet
Satis protected Egypt’s southern Nubian frontier as a war goddess by killing the pharaoh’s enemies with her sharp arrows. As a fertility goddess, she was thought to grant the wishes of those who sought love.

Goddess Satet seems to have been initially paired with the Theban god Montu but later replaced Heket as the consort of Khnum, guardian of the source of the Nile. By Khnum, her child was Anuket, goddess of the Nile. After Khnum was conflated with Ra, she sometimes became an Eye of Ra in place of Hathor. Together Khnum, Anuket, and Satis formed the Elephantine Triad.

Representation
Satis was usually pictured as a woman in a sheath dress wearing the hedjet, the conical crown of Upper Egypt, with antelope horns. Satet is sometimes depicted with a bow and arrows, holding an ankh or sceptre, or offering jars of purifying water. She also appears in the form of an antelope. Her symbols were the arrow and the running river.


Satet Goddess
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Satet
Other Names:
Satis
(G/R Satis) - "She Who Shoots (Arrows)" Consort to Khnum of Abu (and sometimes of Montu at Uaset), Satet is protectress of Kemet's southern border, felling the enemies of the Two Lands with Her bow. She is depicted as a woman wearing the Hedjet (White Crown) of Upper Kemet decorated with either ostrich plumes (called an atef crown, like one commonly worn by Wesir), or more often, gazelle or antelope horns. Satet protected the source of the Nile and was said to purify the ruler with jars of its sacred waters. She is sometimes attributed as being the mother of Anuket.

Source Author: Rev. Dr. Tamara L. Siuda


Satet | Kemet.org
https://www.kemet.org/taxonomy/term/107

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Khnum, ancient Egyptian god of fertility, associated with water and with procreation. Khnum was worshipped from the 1st dynasty (c. 2925–2775 bce) into the early centuries ce. He was represented as a ram with horizontal twisting horns or as a man with a ram’s head. Khnum was believed to have created humankind from clay like a potter; this scene, with him using a potter’s wheel, was depicted in later times. The god’s first main cult centre was Herwer, near Al-Ashmūnayn in Middle Egypt. From the New Kingdom (1539–1075 bce) on, however, he was the god of the island of Elephantine, near present-day Aswān, and was known as the lord of the surrounding First Cataract of the Nile River. At Elephantine he formed a triad of deities with the goddesses Satis and Anukis. Khnum also had an important cult at Esna, south of Thebes.

Khnum | Ram-Headed, Creator, Nile River | Britannica
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Khnum