Hathor

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Hathor (/hr/ or /hr/;[2] Egyptian: wt-r; in Greek:

Hathor
, meaning "mansion of Horus")[1]
is an Ancient
Goddess of the sky, dance, love, beauty, joy,
Egyptian goddess who personified the principles of joy,
motherhood, foreign lands, mining, music and
feminine love, and motherhood.[3] She was one of the most
fertility.
important and popular deities throughout the history of
Ancient Egypt. Hathor was worshiped by royalty and
common people alike in whose tombs she is depicted as
"Mistress of the West" welcoming the dead into the next
life.[4] In other roles she was a goddess of music, dance,
foreign lands and fertility who helped women in childbirth,[4]
as well as the patron goddess of miners.[5]

The cult of Hathor predates the historic period, and the roots
of devotion to her are therefore difficult to trace, though it
may be a development of predynastic cults which venerated
fertility, and nature in general, represented by cows.[6]

Hathor is commonly depicted as a cow goddess with horns in

which is set a sun disk with Uraeus. Twin feathers are also
sometimes shown in later periods as well as a menat
necklace.[6] Hathor may be the cow goddess who is depicted
from an early date on the Narmer Palette and on a stone urn
dating from the 1st dynasty that suggests a role as sky-
goddess and a relationship to Horus who, as a sun god, is
"housed" in her.[6]

The Ancient Egyptians viewed reality as multi-layered in

which deities who merge for various reasons, while retaining
divergent attributes and myths, were not seen as contradictory
but complementary.[7] In a complicated relationship Hathor is
at times the mother, daughter and wife of Ra and, like Isis, is The goddess Hathor wearing her headdress, a sun
at times described as the mother of Horus, and associated
disk with Uraeus set between the cow-horns
with Bast.[6]
Name in
The cult of Osiris promised eternal life to those deemed hieroglyphs
morally worthy. Originally the justified dead, male or female, Major cult Dendera
became an Osiris but by early Roman times females became
center
identified with Hathor and men with Osiris.[8]
Symbol the cow, lioness, falcon, cobra,
hippopotamus, Sistrum, musical
instruments, drums, pregnant women,
The Ancient Greeks sometimes identified Hathor with the mirrors, cosmetics
goddess Aphrodite, while in Roman mythology she Consort Ra, Horus
corresponds to Venus.[9]
Parents Neith and Khnum or Ra
Siblings Ra, Apep, Thoth, Sobek, Serket
Offspring Ihy, Horus,[1] Imsety, Hapi, Duamutef,
Contents
Qebehsenuef

1 Early depictions

2 Relationships, associations, images, and symbols

3 Temples

4 Hathor as bloodthirsty warrior

5 Nebethetepet

6 Hathor outside the Nile river in Egypt

7 See also

8 Notes

9 External links

Early depictions
Hathor is ambiguously depicted until the 4th dynasty.[10] In the historical era Hathor is shown using the imagery
of a cow deity. Artifacts from pre-dynastic times depict cow deities using the same symbolism as used in later
times for Hathor and Egyptologists speculate that these deities may be one and the same or precursors to
Hathor.[11]

A cow deity appears on the belt of the King on the Narmer Palette dated to the pre-dynastic era, and this may be
Hathor or, in another guise, the goddess Bat with whom she is linked and later supplanted. At times they are
regarded as one and the same goddess, though likely having separate origins, and reflections of the same divine
concept. The evidence pointing to the deity being Hathor in particular is based on a passage from the Pyramid
texts which states that the King's apron comes from Hathor.[12]

A stone urn recovered from Hierakonpolis and dated to the first dynasty has on its rim the face of a cow deity
with stars on its ears and horns that may relate to Hathor's, or Bat's, role as a sky-goddess.[6] Another artifact
from the 1st dynasty shows a cow lying down on an ivory engraving with the inscription "Hathor in the
Marshes" indicating her association with vegetation and the papyrus marsh in particular. From the Old Kingdom
she was also called Lady of the Sycamore in her capacity as a tree deity.[6]
 Relationships, associations, images, and
symbols
Hathor had a complex relationship with
Ra. At times she is the eye of Ra and
considered his daughter, but she is also
considered Ra's mother. She absorbed
this role from another cow goddess
Mehet-Weret ("Great flood") who was
the mother of Ra in a creation myth
and carried him between her horns. As
a mother she gave birth to Ra each
morning on the eastern horizon and as
wife she conceives through union with
Cow deities appear on the Kings him each day.[6]
belt and the top of the Narmer
Palette Hathor, along with the goddess Nut,
was associated with the Milky Way
during the third millennium B.C. when, during the fall and spring
equinoxes, it aligned over and touched the earth where the sun rose and
fell.[13] The four legs of the celestial cow represented Nut or Hathor could,
in one account, be seen as the pillars on which the sky was supported with Hathor as a cow, wearing her
the stars on their bellies constituting the Milky Way on which the solar necklace and showing her sacred
barque of Ra, representing the sun, sailed.[14] eye Papyrus of Ani.

The Milky Way was seen as a waterway in the heavens, sailed upon by
both the sun deity and the moon, leading the ancient Egyptians to
describe it as The Nile in the Sky.[15] Due to this, and the name mehturt,
she was identified as responsible for the yearly inundation of the Nile.
Another consequence of this name is that she was seen as a herald of
The Milky Way seen as it may have
imminent birth, as when the amniotic sac breaks and floods its waters, it
appeared to Ancient Egyptians
is a medical indicator that the child is due to be born extremely soon.

Hathor also was favoured as a protector in desert regions (see Serabit el-Khadim). As Serabit el-Khadim was
where turquoise was mined, Hathor's titles included "Lady of Turquoise", "Mistress of Turquoise", and "Lady of
Turquoise Country".[16]

Hathor's identity as a cow, perhaps depicted as such on the Narmer Palette, meant that she became identified
with another ancient cow-goddess of fertility, Bat. It still remains an unanswered question amongst
Egyptologists as to why Bat survived as an independent goddess for so long. Bat was, in some respects,
connected to the Ba, an aspect of the soul, and so Hathor gained an association with the afterlife. It was said
that, with her motherly character, Hathor greeted the souls of the dead in Duat, and proffered them with
refreshments of food and drink. She also was described sometimes as mistress of the necropolis.
The assimilation of Bat, who was associated with the sistrum, a musical instrument, brought with it an
association with music. In this later form, Hathor's cult became centred in Dendera in Upper Egypt and it was
led by priestesses and priests who also were dancers, singers and other entertainers.

Hathor also became associated with the menat, the

turquoise musical necklace often worn by women. A hymn
to Hathor says:

Thou art the Mistress of Jubilation, the Queen of the

Dance, the Mistress of Music, the Queen of the Harp
Playing, the Lady of the Choral Dance, the Queen of
Wreath Weaving, the Mistress of Inebriety Without
End.

Essentially, Hathor had become a goddess of joy, and so she

was deeply loved by the general population, and truly
revered by women, who aspired to embody her multifaceted
role as wife, mother, and lover. In this capacity, she gained Sculpture of Hathor as a cow, with all of her
the titles of Lady of the House of Jubilation, and The One symbols, the sun disk, the cobra, as well as her
Who Fills the Sanctuary with Joy. The worship of Hathor necklace and crown.
was so popular that more festivals were dedicated to her
honor than any other Egyptian deity, and more children
were named after this goddess than any other deity. Even Hathor's priesthood was unusual, in that both women
and men became her priests.

Temples
As Hathor's cult developed from prehistoric cow cults it is not possible
to say conclusively where devotion to her first took place. Dendera in
Upper Egypt was a significant early site where she was worshiped as
"Mistress of Dendera". From the Old Kingdom era she had cult sites in
Meir and Kusae with the Giza-Saqqara area perhaps being the centre of
devotion. At the start of the first Intermediate period Dendera appears to
have become the main cult site where she was considered to be the
mother as well as the consort of "Horus of Edfu". Deir el-Bahri, on the
west bank of Thebes, was also an important site of Hathor that
developed from a pre-existing cow cult.[6]

Temples (and chapels) dedicated to Hathor:

The Temple of Hathor and Ma'at at Deir el-Medina, West Bank,

Luxor.
The Temple of Hathor at Philae Island, Aswan.
The Hathor Chapel at the Mortuary Temple of Queen Hatshepsut.
West Bank, Luxor.
The temple of Hathor at Timna valley, Israel
Dendera Temple, showing Hathor on
the capitals of a column.
Hathor as bloodthirsty warrior
The Book of the Heavenly Cow states that while Ra was ruling the earth,
humans began plotting against him. Ra sent Hathor, in the form of the
warlike goddess Sekhmet, to destroy them. Hathor (as Sekhmet) became
bloodthirsty and the slaughter was great because she could not be
stopped. As the slaughter continued, Ra saw the chaos down below and
decided to stop the blood-thirsty goddess. So he poured huge quantities
of blood-coloured beer on the ground to trick Sekhmet. She drank so
much of itthinking it to be bloodthat she became drunk and
returned to her former gentle self as Hathor.

Nebethetepet Hathor among the deities greeting the

newly dead pharaoh, Thutmose IV,
In Egyptian mythology, Nebethetepet was the manifestation of Hathor from his tomb in the Valley of the
at Heliopolis. She was associated with the sun-god Atum. Her name Kings, Luxor, Egypt.

means mistress of the offering.[17]

Hathor outside the Nile river in Egypt

Hathor was worshipped in Canaan in the eleventh century BC, which at
that time was ruled by Egypt, at her holy city of Hazor, or Tel Hazor
which the Old Testament claims was destroyed by Joshua (Joshua 11:13,
21).

A major temple to Hathor was constructed by Seti II at the copper mines

at Timna in Edomite Seir. Serabit el-Khadim (Arabic: , also
transliterated Serabit el-Khadem) is a locality in the south-west Sinai
Peninsula where turquoise was mined extensively in antiquity, mainly
by the ancient Egyptians. Archaeological excavation, initially by Sir
Flinders Petrie, revealed the ancient mining camps and a long-lived
temple of Hathor. The Greeks, who became rulers of Egypt for three
hundred years before the Roman domination in 31 BC, equated Hathor
with their own goddess of love and beauty, Aphrodite.
Hathor, Brooklyn Museum

Nebethetepet in hieroglyphs

nb.t htp.t
mistress of the offering

Temple of Hathor, Temple of Hathor,

Dendera Dendera
Temple of Hathor, Temple of Hathor,
Dendera Dendera

Temple to Hathor at Timna.

Temple of Hathor, Temple of Hathor,

Dendera Dendera

Temple of Hathor, Bes at the Temple of

Dendera Hathor, Dendera

See also
Cattle in religion
Nandi (bull)
Auumbla
Lamassu
Apis
Ninsun
Kamadhenu, cow from Hindu mythology
Notes
1. Hathor and Thoth: two key figures of the ancient Egyptian religion, Claas Jouco Bleeker, pp. 22102, BRILL, 1973,
ISBN 978-90-04-03734-2
2. "Hathor" at Dictionary.com (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hathor?r=66)
3. The ancient Egyptian pyramid texts, Peter Der Manuelian, translated by James P. Allen, p. 432, BRILL, 2005, ISBN 90-
04-13777-7 (also commonly translated as "House of Horus")
4. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt, Lorna Oakes, Southwater, pp. 157159, ISBN 1-84476-279-3
5. "Spotlights on the Exploitation and Use of Minerals and Rocks through the Egyptian Civilization". Egypt State
Information Service. 2005. Archived from the original on November 20, 2008. Retrieved 2010-04-20.
6. Oxford Guide to Egyptian Mythology, Donald B. Redford (Editor), pp. 157161, Berkley Reference, 2003, ISBN 0-425-
19096-X
7. Oxford Guide to Egyptian Mythology, Donald B. Redford (Editor), p. 106, Berkley Reference, 2003, ISBN 0-425-19096-
X
8. Oxford Guide to Egyptian Mythology, Donald B. Redford (Editor), p. 172, Berkley Reference, 2003, ISBN 0-425-19096-
X
9. "Isis in the Ancient World", Reginald Eldred Witt, p. 125, JHU Press, 1997 ISBN 0-8018-5642-6
10. Early Dynastic Egypt: Strategies, Society and Security, Toby A. H. Wilkinson, p. 312, Routledge, 2001, ISBN 0-415-
26011-6
11. Religion in ancient Egypt: gods, myths, and personal practice, Byron Esely Shafer, John Baines, Leonard H. Lesko,
David P. Silverman, p. 24 Fordham University, Taylor & Francis, 1991, ISBN 0-415-07030-9
12. Early Dynastic Egypt: Strategies, Society and Security, Toby A. H. Wilkinson, p. 283, Routledge, 2001, ISBN 0-415-
26011-6
13. Searching for ancient Egypt: art, architecture, and artifacts from the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology
and Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania. Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, David P. Silverman, Edward
Brovarski, p. 41, Cornell University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8014-3482-3
14. The tree of life: an archaeological study, E. O. James, p. 66, BRILL, 1967, ISBN 90-04-01612-0
15. Changing position of the Milky Way (http://cathygary.com/Astronomy/MilkyWay_Luxor3.html) in Luxor (Thebes),
Egypt: 6,500 BCE to 19,300 CE Regular Years and the Precessional Cycle
16. Bulletin of the Egyptian Museum 2007, By The Supreme Council of Antiquities p.24
17. George Hart, The Routledge dictionary of Egyptian gods and goddesses, Psychology Press, 2005, via Google Books
(https://books.google.com/books?id=yTNxvArA5YIC&lpg=PA12&dq=am-
heh%20god%20underworld&pg=PA12#v=onepage&q=am-heh%20god%20underworld&f=false)

External links
Hathor Article by Caroline Seawright
Wikimedia Commons has
media related to Hathor.

(http://www.thekeep.org/~kunoichi/kunoichi/themestream/hathor.html)
Het-Hert site, another name for Hathor (http://www.hethert.org)

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hathor&oldid=709663875"

Categories: Egyptian goddesses Fertility goddesses Sky and weather goddesses Stellar goddesses
Arts goddesses Animal goddesses Horned deities

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