Bat

**Bat**


 * Other Names:**

Bata


 * Meaning of Name:**

The name of Bat is thought to be the feminine form of the word //ba// (soul.)


 * Hieroglyphics:**




 * Titles:**

“The Female Soul with Two Faces”

“She Who Lows”

“Great Wild Cow”

There were strong connections between Hathor and Bat, though they had differing origins - Bat is thought to have been imported from Mesopotamia. As their iconography shows such likeness, it has created some confusion among scholars. Although Bat has Hathor's bovine ears and horns, Bat’s horns grow from her temples rather than from the top of her head, and curve inwards rather than outwards. Sometimes her horns are spiraled. Bat’s twin faces were human, but the ears were bovine, and she wore cow horns tipped with stars. In some instances Bat was pictured as a celestial cow or water buffalo. Her four legs were the four pillars that supported the heavenly canopy, her star-studded belly. Bat was thought to be the very essence of femininity, cast large against the sky.

Bat was depicted on jewelry, amulets, mirrors, and garment knots; her two faces represented on the two sides of the sistrum. It is possible that Bat’s faces also represented the two sides of the bank of the Nile, or the unity of Egypt, both the Upper and Lower. There is evidence that suggests that the faces symbolize Bat’s power to see the past and into the future. She was associated with the Tjes Knot.


 * Quotes from the Book of the Dead and other sources:**

“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.”

Egyptian Deities - B