Iat Explained
| Type: | Egyptian |
| Iat |
| God Of: | Goddess of milk |
| Cult Center: | Egypt |
Iat (Egyptian (Ancient);: [[wikt:jꜣt#Proper noun|jꜣt]]) is an ancient Egyptian minor goddess of milk and, by association, of nurturing and childbirth.[1]
The goddess is sparsely attested, and what little we know of her is based upon a handful of mentions in the Pyramid Texts.[2] These include the following:
- utterance PT 211/Pyr. 131, where it is said of the deceased king, "My foster-mother is Iat, and it is she who nourishes me, it is indeed she who bore me" (unknown translator) or "The Milk-Goddess is his attendant. She is the one who will make it possible for him to live: she in fact is the one who bore Unis" (James P. Allen’s translation);[3]
- utterance PT 578/Pyr. 1537, where the dead king is told to take on her identity in order to reach the gods in the retinue of the sun: "you should take hold of them, in your identity of the north wind; they will take account of you, in your identity of Anubis; and the gods will not go down against you, in your identity of the Milk-Goddess";
- and utterance MAFS PT 1071, which counsels, "Since you are little, you should give your arm to the Sun and sit with your arm to the Milk-Goddess."
Etymology
The name of the goddess resembles one Egyptian word for "milk", Egyptian (Ancient);: label=none|[[wikt:jꜣtt|jꜣtt]]; the more common work for milk, Egyptian (Ancient);: label=none|[[wikt:jrṯt|jrṯt]], may also have some etymological connection to both.
See also
Notes and References
- Web site: The Papyrus of Ani, The Egyptian Book of the Dead. 31 August 2012. 20 November 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20161120231614/http://oaks.nvg.org/eg6ra7.html. dead.
- Web site: Iat. egyptian-gods.info. 31 August 2012. 9 July 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20120709025010/http://egyptian-gods.info/iat.html. dead.
- Allen, James P. (2005) The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts, Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, pages 30, 184, 196.
