Hatmehit, also transliterated Hatmehyt because we have zero idea of how Ancient Egyptians pronounced anything, was a goddess associated with the city of Djedet in the Nile Delta. Her name means something along the lines of “the Foremost of a shoal”, and uses the term mḥyt for “fish”, which in Egyptian is always and only a collective noun.
If you’ve ever seen the Nile, you can appreciate why there’s no such concept as a solitary fish in Egyptian.
Because of the particular way her name is composed, however, Hatmehit can also come to mean “the vanguard of the inundation”, connecting her figure to the copious amount of fish you can imagine came with the annual flooding of the Nile.
She is traditionally depicted either as a fish or a woman with a fish on her head, worn as a crown. Her fish-crown was also the symbol of the area of Djedet, one of the “nomes” in Lower Egypt, and other protective deities of the area often wear her crown. Scholars have been debating what kind of fish she’s wearing on her head, because that’s what scholars do.
Hatmehit was venerated as part of a triad consisting of her, her husband Banebdjedet who had four heads of rams and is the stuff of nightmares, and their child whom the Greeks called Harpocrates, the god of silence, and associated as a manifestation of Horus. Her cult has been uncovered in temples at Behbeit El Hagar, Kom Ombo (which you might remember from day 6 of my recent journey and for making my top ten of stuff I saw in Egypt), and Edfu where the grand Ptolemaic temple of Horus stands, as well as in tombs in Abusir and the Bahariya Oasis. It’s not a good idea to travel to the Oasis, currently, so we’ll have to settle for pictures.
We believe that her shrines were mostly located near harbours, as you might imagine, and her name was part of the complete titles of at least one officer of Djoser.
The temple of Kom Ombo in the twilight kicks some serious asses.
Her figure was involved and incorporated in later myths, such as the death of Osiris and the search of his wife Isis for his remains. Being “Foremost of the shoal”, some narratives show Hatmehit aiding Isis in her search for the different pieces. Some other legends combine the two goddesses, and Isis is called “the Great Hatmehit” as if they were the same characters: these versions might depict Isis turning into a fish herself in her search against time (the Egyptians were very well aware that your body quickly turns to shit if it falls into the Nile).
No Comments