Hesat

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

• counterpart of: HathorTreated as a manifestation of Hathor, like Bat before her — Egypt's cow goddesses converge on Hathor sooner or later.Reference treatment naming Hesat as one of Hathor's manifestations. (secondary)
• nurse of: MnevisNamed as the cow who suckles the sacred bulls; the Heliopolitan bull is the one most often given her as a mother.Reference treatment of Hesat, said to suckle the pharaoh and several Egyptian bull gods. (secondary)

Sources

• Hesat is the Egyptian white cow goddess who gives milk — 'the beer of Hesat' — suckling humanity, the pharaoh and the sacred bulls, treated as a manifestation of Hathor.: Reference treatments of Hesat, her milk and her relation to Hathor. (secondary)