Satet- Egyptian GodDeity"Mistress of Elephantine"

The Flood and the Star

Each July, the star Sirius disappeared below the horizon and was gone for seventy days. When it reappeared in the predawn sky, the Nile began to rise. The Egyptians celebrated this as a new year and knew Satet was sending the flood. Her cult center stood on Elephantine Island, near the first cataract, the gateway through which the waters entered Egypt. She was "She Who Pours," and from Elephantine the flood moved north, covering the fields in dark silt.

Priests on Elephantine measured the rising water against a Nilometer cut into the island's rock. Too little flood meant famine. Too much meant destruction. The readings passed from temple to capital, and the priests of Satet were among the first in Egypt to know what kind of year lay ahead.

The Temple at the Border

Satet's temple on Elephantine was rebuilt again and again from the earliest dynasties through Roman times, each sanctuary constructed over its predecessor. The earliest phase dates to around 3000 BCE. Elephantine was Egypt's southern frontier, where Egypt met Nubia, and Satet was its guardian. Her title "She Who Shoots" marked her as an archer whose arrows struck down enemies crossing from the south. She wore the white crown of Upper Egypt flanked by antelope horns, a goddess of this border and no other.