Hatmehit

Hatmehit had Mendes first. She is a fish goddess — the nome standard is a fish — and the reference treatment is fairly blunt that she was probably the original deity of the place before the ram arrived and took it over, after which she was reclassified as his wife and given a son. It is the same move Osiris performed on Khenti-Amentiu at Abydos and Hathor on Bat at Hu, and it happened often enough in Egypt that it is worth noticing as a pattern: a town's oldest god becoming a spouse in someone else's household.

Domains

• fish

Relations

• consort of: BanebdjedetDemoted to consort in her own town. The reference treatment is explicit that she was probably the original deity of Mendes and that the ram's cult took over, after which the relationship was described as a marriage.Reference treatment of Hatmehit as the consort of Banebdjedet at Mendes after his cult superseded hers. (secondary)

Sources

• Hatmehit is the Egyptian fish goddess of Mendes, 'Foremost of the Fishes', probably the town's original deity, later called the consort of Banebdjedet and a member of the Mendesian triad with Horus the Child.: Reference treatments of Hatmehit, of Mendes and of the Mendesian triad. (secondary)