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| Silver amuletic statuette of Satis. Third Intermediate Period, 21st-24th Dynasty. Harer Collection. San Bernardino. |
Mythology of Satis
The Upper Egyptian goddess Satis guarded the southern frontiers of ancient Egypt and in historical ties and was also connected with the Nile. Her link with the upper reaches of the Nile perhaps caused her to be associated with the annual inundation and with Elephantine in the area of Aswan which ancient Egyptian mythology sometimes identified as the source of the Nile. Her name is first attested on stone jars found beneath the Step Pyramid at Saqqara (3rd Dynasty), and by the 6th Dynasty she is mentioned in the Pyramid Texts as purifying the deceased king with four jars of water from Elephantine. As 'mistress of Elephantine' Satis became the consort of Khnum and thus mother of Anukis, though a relatively early connection with the Theban god Montu is also known for Satis and the original consort of Khnum appears to have been the goddess Heket. When Khnum was identified with Ra, Satis became an 'Eye of Ra' and the goddess then sometimes assumed some of the characteristics of Hathor, the goddess more usually depicted in this mythological role. Satis was identified with the star Sirius, called Sothis, which heralded the Nile inundation each year. The Greeks identified Satis with Hera, the wife of Zeus.
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| Satis (at right) embraces Tuthmosis III. 18th Dynasty. Carved block, temple of Satis, Elephantine. |
Iconography of Satis
Satis is almost always depicted as a woman wearing the conical White Crown of Upper Egypt to which are attached antelope horns or plumes and a uraeus. Usually she wears a simple sheath dress and may carry an ankh or was scepter as signs of her divinity rather than personal attributes. Early writings of her name use a hieroglyph representing a shoulder knot in a linen garment, but later writings use an animal skin pierced by an arrow. This latter symbol could have been assimilated from Anukis the huntress goddess who came to be seen as her daughter. The symbol is sometimes depicted with the goddess in representational works.
Worship of Satis
The principal cult center of Satis was at Elephantine where her shrine was built on an early predynastic site. Research by Ronald Wells has shown that elements of the temple of Satis were carefully aligned with the position of the star Sothis or Sirius in the night sky, trying the goddess in this manner to the star's rising and the annual inundation of the Nile. It has also been pointed out that the goddess's temple was situated at a point where the waters of the inundation might be heard before they became visible in the lower reaches of the Nile, so that her function of protector of the borders could also be tied to that of guardian of the Nile's flood and its resultant fertility.
