Bata from Saka is an Egyptian bull-god of the
New Kingdom, who represents together with his brother
Anubis
Anubis (; ), also known as Inpu, Inpw, Jnpw, or Anpu in Ancient Egyptian (), is the god of funerary rites, protector of graves, and guide to the underworld in ancient Egyptian religion, usually depicted as a canine or a man with a canine hea ...
the 17th Upper Egyptian
Nome.
History
Until the middle of the
Eighteenth Dynasty
The Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XVIII, alternatively 18th Dynasty or Dynasty 18) is classified as the first dynasty of the New Kingdom of Egypt, the era in which ancient Egypt achieved the peak of its power. The Eighteenth Dynasty ...
Bata was represented as a ram and later as a bull. Bata is probably identical with the death god ''Bt'' of the Egyptian
Old Kingdom
In ancient Egyptian history, the Old Kingdom is the period spanning –2200 BC. It is also known as the "Age of the Pyramids" or the "Age of the Pyramid Builders", as it encompasses the reigns of the great pyramid-builders of the Fourth Dynast ...
, known from the
Saqqara
Saqqara ( : saqqāra ), also spelled Sakkara or Saccara in English , is an Egyptian village in the markaz (county) of Badrashin in the Giza Governorate, that contains ancient burial grounds of Egyptian royalty, serving as the necropolis for ...
necropolis, for instance from the
Mastaba of Ti. Bata is not mentioned in the
Pyramid Texts
The Pyramid Texts are the oldest ancient Egyptian funerary texts, dating to the late Old Kingdom. They are the earliest known corpus of ancient Egyptian religious texts. Written in Old Egyptian, the pyramid texts were carved onto the subterranea ...
and
Coffin Texts.
In literature
Bata is the name of the protagonist in the ''
Tale of Two Brothers'', a copy of which survives on the
New Kingdom Papyrus D’Orbiney, where he is the brother of Anubis. He is also mentioned in the
Ptolemaic Papyrus Jumilhac.
See also
*
List of Egyptian deities
*
Cattle in religion and mythology
There are varying beliefs about cattle in societies and religion, religions.
Cattle are considered sacred in the Indian religions of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism, as well as in some Chinese folk religion and in African paganism. Cattle played ...
*
Tale of Two Brothers
Bibliography
* Susan T. Hollis: ''On the Nature of Bata, the Hero of the Papyrus d'Orbiney'', in: ''Chronique d'Égypte'' 59, 1984, 248-257
External links
Tale of Two Brothers
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bata (God)
Death gods
Underworld gods
Egyptian gods
Fertility gods
Animal gods
Cattle deities