Bat (or Bata) was an old goddess of fertility from Upper Egypt depicted as a cow, woman, or a human face with horns and a cow's ears. Sometimes she was seen with stars like the cow Sopdet. In the Narmer Palette (above) she is seen in the upper corners and her name might be the female form of Ba (the soul).

Pyramid texts say that the deceased king identifies himself with "Bat with her two faces". Her main cult was in Hut-Sekhem, today's Hiw, capital of province six of Upper Egypt whose standard was the sistrum see below), which was Bat's own cultural object. She was also the deification of the Milky Way during the oldest times. In the Middle kingdom she was superseded by Hathor from the neighboring pro- vince (seven) who took over some ofher cow-looks and regalia. Hathor's aspect Heret with frontal projection (right) was looking just like Bat without horns. She was seldom seen in art like sculptures, paintings and reliefs, but appeared in jewellery in amulets for protection. After the advent of the New Kingdom she was gone and had been taken over by Hathor.    Main text.