- Hatmehit
In
Egyptian mythology , Hatmehit, or Hatmehyt (reconstructed to have been pronounced *unicode|Hāwit-Maḥūyat in Egyptian) was afish -goddess , originally a deification of theNile River, by the people in the area around the delta city of Per-banebdjedet,Mendes .Her name translates as "House of Mehit", (Hat Mehit), implying she may have some connection to
Hathor , one of the oldest deities of Egypt who also went by the name "Mehit ", meaning "great flood". This may possibly be due to being seen as a remnant of the primal waters of creation from which all things arose. Other goddesses associated with the primal waters of creation areMut andNaunet .In Ancient Egyptian
art Hatmehit was depicted either as a fish, or a woman with a fish emblem or crown on her head, and was known as the "Foremost of Fish" or "Chief of Fish". She was a goddess of life and protection.When the cult of
Osiris arose, the people of Mendes reacted by identifying Osiris as having achieved his authority by being the husband of Hatmehit. In particular, it was the Ba of Osiris, known as "Banebjed" (literally meaning "Ba of the lord of thedjed ", referring to Osiris), which was said to have married Hatmehit.When
Horus became considered the son of Osiris, a form known as "Harpocrates" ("Har-pa-khered" in Egyptian), Hatmehit was consequently said to be his mother. As wife of Osiris, and mother of Horus, she eventually became identified as a form ofIsis .External links
* [http://www.religionswissenschaft.unizh.ch/idd/prepublications/e_idd_hatmehit.pdf Iconography of Hatmehit (PDF-article)]
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