Sati or Satet

Sati or Satet

In the text of Pepi I. Sati is mentioned {line 297 under the form Sethat, possessed a temple at Elephantine. The dweller in Tep, is said to have aided the king, who "has cleansed himself and performed his ceremonies of purification with the vessel of wine, "which hath come from the vine of the god .... Seb stretcheth "of heaven, a god in his beautiful place, a god in his place, and behold Sethat washeth "him with the water which is in her four vases in Abu" {Elephantine. The mention of Tep shows that there was some connection between the goddess of the city of Per-Uatchet and the goddess of Elephantine long period of the VIth Dynasty. In the preface to the cxxvth Chapter of the Book of the Dead the deceased enumerates the various sacred places which he has visited, and says, "I have been in the waters of the stream, and I "have made offerings of incense. I have guided myself to the "Shentet Tree of the {divine children, and I have been in Abu "{Elephantinein the Temple of Satet,. This is the only mention of Sati, or Setet, in the Theban Recension of the book of the Dead, but it is of great importance as showing that the temple of the goddess at Abu was regarded as one of the principal holy places in Egypt. It has already been said that Sati was connected by the Egyptians with the star Spt, wherein dwelt the soul of Isis, and from this point of view Sati was a form of Isis, and become in consequence a female counterpart of Osirsi ; this fact will account for the mention of Sati in the Book of the Dead. The center of the worship of Sati appears to have been the Island of Sahal, which lies about two miles to the south of Elephantine, in the First Cataract.