Satis

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In Egyptian mythology, Satis (also spelt Satjit, Sates, Satet, and Sati) was the deification of the floods of the Nile River, and her cult originated in the ancient city of Swenet, now called Aswan on the southern edge of Egypt. Her name means she who shoots forth referring to the annual flooding of the river. She was an early war, hunting, and fertility deity who was seen as the mother of the Nile River, Anuket, and a protector of southern Egypt.

One of her titles was She Who Runs Like an Arrow, which is thought to refer to the river current, and her symbols became the arrow and the running river. Satis was pictured as a woman wearing the conical crown of Upper Egypt with gazelle or antelope horns, or as an antelope, a fast moving creature living near the banks of the river in the southern portion of Ancient Egypt. She also was depicted with a bow and arrows.

Other interpretations say her primary role was that of the war goddess, a guardian of Egypt's southern (Nubian) frontier and killing the enemies of the Pharaoh with her arrows.

She usually is depicted as holding an ankh also, due to her association with the life giving flooding of the Nile. Consequently, it is true that Satis acted as a fertility goddess, thus granting the wishes of those who sought love. Satis is also described as offering jars of purifying water.

Later she became regarded as one of the consorts of Khnum, the god identified as the guardian of the source of the Nile, with whom she was worshipped at Elephantine (the 1st nome of Egypt), indeed the centre of her cult was nearby, at Sahal, another island of the Nile. Since she was most dominant at the southern end of Egypt, she became regarded as the guard of Egypt's southern border with Nubia.

Satis's child was Anuket, goddess of the Nile River herself, who formed the third part of the Elephantine triad of deities when formed. After Khnum became considered a form of Ra, Satis became known as the Eye of Ra.