Bat

Bat (or Bata) was an ancient cow goddess of Upper Egypt. She was originally a deification of the Milky Way (which was compared to a pool of cows milk). Her name is the feminine form of the word "ba", the name of one of the major elements of the soul. She was associated with the ankh (the symbol of life or breath) and with the sistrum (which was also associated with Hathor. Her cult centre was in Shesat (the 7th Nome of Upper Egypt) known as the "Mansion of the Sistrum".

She was also known as "Ba of two faces" and depicted with two faces. This may represent her ability to see both the past and future, but it is also possible that the two faces represent the two banks of the Nile or both Upper and Lower Egypt. A cow goddess who is though to be Bat appears on a pectoral from the twelfth dynasty flanked by Horus and Set (representing upper and lower Egypt) implying that she was a force which unified the two lands.

She is rarely depicted in Egyptian art, but occasionally appears as a celestial cow surrounded by stars. However, her human face with bovine features often adorned jewellery and amulets. It is possible that it is Bat, and not Hathor, who is depicted on the Narmer Palette and the cow palette as the goddess is not specifically named on either artifact. Her worship certainly seems to have begun during the early period or before as she is mentioned in the Pyramid Texts.

It is possible that Hathor and Bat were once one and the same, and that differences emerged because the area was divided into two different Nomes. Hathor was worshipped in the 6th Nome while Bat was worshiped in the 7th Nome. Alternatively, Bat was originally an entirely separate deity who merely shared many characteristics with her more illustrious neighbour. Unfortunately for Bat, her similarity to Hathor was so close that she was almost entirely assimilated into her by the New Kingdom.