Hathor, Ancient Egyptian Goddess

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Anubis (jnpw)

Bastet (b3stt)

Hathor (ht-hrw)

Horus (hrw)

Khnum (khnwm)

Sekhmet (skhmt)

Set (sth)

Sobek (sbk)

Thoth (djhwty)

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hwt-hrwOther Egyptian Gods

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Hathor, daughter of Nut and Re, was goddess of the sky and of love, mirth, and beauty. As the goddess of fertility as well, she personified the creative power of nature. She was also Re's consort, mother of Shu and Tefnut. In art, Hathor was usually depicted as a woman with a headdress of cow horns holding a sun disk, or as a cow, or as a woman with cow's ears. Very rarely Hathor is shown as a woman with the head of a cow.

Since Isis can also be shown as a woman wearing a headdress of cow horns holding a sun disk, identification can become confusing if a picture of Hathor or of Isis is taken out of context. The only way to be certain which goddess you may be looking at is to find their name in the surrounding hieroglyphs. Hathor's hieroglyph is the enclosure (hwt) symbol with a falcon (hr) inside it. Here's a picture of Hathor from a column at Medinet Habu. Mouseover the picture to see her name highlighted. Because of the hieroglyphic label, we know Rameses III is offering lotuses to Hathor in this image, and not to Isis.

Isis's name in hieroglyphs is a throne (js) and a bread loaf (t), or with an optional egg-shaped symbol that is a determinative for the female goddess . (How does jst spell "Isis"? See Isis, Aset, Iset, Ast, Eset, Auset -- Which is it Anyway?.)

Here's a picture of Isis from a wall at Abydos. Mouseover the picture to see her name highlighted.

The overlap of roles and identity between Isis and Hathor goes deeper than just similar headwear. In earlier stories, Hathor was the mother of Horus. Her name het-heru means "House of Horus" or "Castle of Horus". Later Isis became the mother of Horus and Hathor continued as his protector. One of the stories of a Seth/Horus battle also shows the overlap of Isis and Hathor as Isis assumes Hathor's bovine iconography:

Horus gained the victory over Seth, but when Isis saw that Seth was being overpowered her heart was touched on his account, and she cried out and ordered the weapons which her son was wielding against her brother to fall down, and they did so, and Seth was released. When Horus saw that his mother had taken his adversary's part he raged at her like a panther of the south, and she fled before his wrath; a fierce struggle between Isis and Horus then took place, and Horus cut off his mother's head. Thoth, by means of his words of power, transformed her head into that of a cow which he attached to her body straightaway.

Hathor was also the Lady of the West, a goddess of the dead, in which persona she wears a headdress of the hieroglyph for west. The picture on the right shows Hathor as the Lady of the West in a wall painting from the tomb of Nefertari, accompanied by Anubis. Notice the hieroglyphic name label in front of each god: Hathor's hawk-enclosure sign and Anubis' jnpw . A picture of a cow walking out of a red hillside also represents the Lady of the West -- Hathor in a funerary context.

Hathor could also take on a destructive aspect as the "Eye of Re", when she would become Sekhmet. Actually, Hathor wears even more hats, or heads. Like Isis and Mut, Hathor was a manifestation of the "Great Mother" archetype; a sort of cosmic Yin. Hymns to Hathor address her as Lady of Music, Lady of Dancing, Lady of Drunkenness, Mistress of Fear, Mistress of Heaven, Mistress of Power ... Great One of Many Names. Hathor held the attributes of most of the other goddesses at one time or another. She had so very many manifestations that she was represented as the "Seven Hathors", reflecting her multiple names and powers.

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Bibliography of Egyptology references used in these Stuffe & Nonsense Lore Pages.

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Hathor Figurines and Artefacts from Stuffe & Nonsense

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