page_title: Bat (goddess)
section_title: Depictions in ancient Egyptian culture
hierarchical_section_title: Bat (goddess) / Depictions in ancient Egyptian culture
caption_attribution_description: Triad statue of pharaoh Menkaura, accompanied by the goddess Hathor (on his right) and the personification of the nome of Diospolis Parva (on his left). Material:Graywacke. Dimensions:Height 93 cm Width 47 cm
context_page_description: Bat is a cow goddess in Egyptian mythology who was depicted as a human face with cow ears and horns or as a woman. Evidence of the worship of Bat exists from the earliest records of the religious practices in ancient Egypt. By the time of the Middle Kingdom, after the unification of Lower Egypt and Upper Egypt, her identity and attributes were subsumed within that of the goddess Hathor, a similar goddess worshiped in another nome. The imagery of Bat persisted throughout the history of ancient Egypt on the sistrum, a sacred instrument that remained associated with religious practices.
context_section_description: Although it was rare for Bat to be clearly depicted in painting or sculpture, some notable artifacts (such as the upper portions of the Narmer Palette) include depictions of the goddess in bovine form. In other instances she was pictured as a celestial bovine creature surrounded by stars, or as a woman. More commonly, Bat was depicted on amulets, with a human face, but with bovine features, such as the ears of a cow and the inward-curving horns of the type of cattle first herded by the Egyptians.  
  Bat became strongly associated with the sistrum and the center of her cult was known as the "Mansion of the Sistrum". The sistrum is an ankh-shaped musical instrument, which was one of the most frequently used sacred instruments in ancient Egyptian temples. Some instruments would include depictions of Bat, with her head and neck as the handle and base and with its rattles placed between her horns. The imagery is repeated on each side of the instrument, having two faces, as mentioned in the Pyramid Texts:.
  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.
caption: Both Bat (right) and Hathor (left) flank Menkaure in this Fourth Dynasty triad statue, c. 2530 B.C. The goddesses provide the authority for him to be king and are identified by their crowns. The emblem on Bat's crown represents the sistrum, although the crown also includes her zoomorphic face and the feather of Ma'at.
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