Waters that give life
Satet is the female counterpart of Khnemu in Budge’s account of the gods worshipped at Elephantine. He also calls her Sati, and identifies Anqet as her sister goddess. His account gives her a part in the life brought by the Nile: she pours out its water and spreads it across the land.
Budge connects her name with a root used for pouring, scattering seed and sprinkling water. On that basis he argues that she was regarded, at least during one period, as a goddess of the inundation and fertility. His description of her action is brief:
“who poured out and spread over the land the life-giving waters of the Nile, and as the goddess of fertility.” — E. A. Wallis Budge, The Gods of the Egyptians, vol. 2, p. 55
The water is life-giving in this account, and fertility belongs to its spread over the land. Budge’s explanation makes the name part of his reasoning about the goddess’s function.
Bow, crown and horns
The same goddess sometimes appears with a bow and arrows. Budge treats those weapons as evidence for a possible earlier role in hunting:
“She sometimes carries in her hands a bow and arrows, a fact which suggests that in her earliest form she was a goddess of the chase” — E. A. Wallis Budge, The Gods of the Egyptians, vol. 2, p. 55
His wording leaves the connection as a suggestion. The weapons are an observed attribute in his account; the earliest hunting role is his interpretation of them. Satet’s crown and horns receive a separate description:
“In many pictures of the goddess we see her wearing the crown of the South and a pair of horns” — E. A. Wallis Budge, The Gods of the Egyptians, vol. 2, p. 55
The water, the weapons and the headdress therefore belong to distinct parts of Budge’s portrait. The bow and arrows can appear beside the attributes of the goddess who pours out the Nile’s waters.
Four vases for the king
Budge also cites a text of Pepi I in which the goddess appears under the form Sethat. Here her action is directed toward the king. She washes him with water held in four vases:
“behold Sethat washeth him with the water which is in her four vases” — E. A. Wallis Budge, The Gods of the Egyptians, vol. 2, p. 56, citing the text of Pepi I
The passage places those vases at Elephantine. It connects the goddess’s water with royal purification, while her temple gives her a definite place in the religious geography Budge describes. Elephantine is both the site where she is worshipped alongside Khnemu and the setting of this service to Pepi.
Budge’s two water passages have different recipients. In one, Satet spreads life-giving water over the land; in the other, Sethat washes a named king. Together they describe the goddess through actions that nourish and purify.