Hesat
Egyptian · deity · old kingdom · deity
Hesat is a white cow and the Egyptian word for milk is her name: milk is 'the beer of Hesat', which in a country where beer is the staple drink says exactly how milk was rated. She suckles humanity, she suckles the king — an image that turns up in coronation and temple reliefs, the god-cow feeding the ruler — and she suckles the sacred bulls, which gives the three great bull cults a mother. Like every other Egyptian cow goddess she ends up read as an aspect of Hathor.
Domains
- cattle
Powers
- to give milk — 'the beer of Hesat' — to humanity, to the king and to the sacred bulls
Relations
Sources
- Reference treatments of Hesat, her milk and her relation to Hathor.