Dhat-Badan (Sabaean: 𐩹𐩩𐩽𐩨𐩲𐩵𐩬), Dhat-hami, or Zat-Badar, ´She of the Wild Goats` and ´She of the Sanctuary',[1] was a Himyarite goddess.
Dhat-Badan was a nature goddess of the oasis, nature, and the wet season worshipped at tree-circled pools[citation needed] throughout the region of ancient Yemen, Somalia, and Ethiopia.
She was said to forbid any invocation to her when there was no seeress or priestess present in her sanctuary.[2] This priestess was called a ḥlmt, literally 'Dreamer'.[3] In the sanctuary, the priestess would lie down and sleep before the sacred tree(s) of the goddess to receive an oracle in the form of a prophetic dream.[citation needed]
She was a popular goddess of the polytheists of Axum. The she-ibex was sacred to her and it was said that an island in the Red Sea inhabited by ibexes was under her protection.[4][unreliable source?]
- ^ Forlong, John G.R., Encyclopedia of Religions, 2008
- ^ Müller, Walter W. Zwei sabäische Votivinschriften an die Sonnengöttin: Nami 74 und Yemen Museum 1965 (Paris: P. Geuthner, 1987), p. 64, as cited in Hoyland, Robert G. "Arabia and the Arabs : from the Bronze Age to the coming of Islam." (London; New York : Routledge, 2001), pg. 159-60.
- ^ Müller 1987, p. 64
- ^ "Arabian Paganism: Mythology and religion of pre-Islamic Arabia: Deities, Spirits, Figures and Locations". 9 November 2011.