[130], The most frequent temple rite for any deity was the daily offering ritual, in which the cult image, or statue, of a deity would be clothed and given food. Thus, Hathor, as Imentet, often appears on tombs, welcoming the deceased person as her child into a blissful afterlife. [81] She helped the spirits of deceased humans enter the Duat and was closely linked with tomb sites, where that transition began. [86], Tomb art from the Eighteenth Dynasty often shows people drinking, dancing, and playing music, as well as holding menat necklaces and sistra—all imagery that alluded to Hathor. [92] Some burial goods that portray deceased women as goddesses may depict these women as followers of Hathor, although whether the imagery refers to Hathor or Isis is not known. Life and order were thought to be dependent on Ra's activity, and the story implies that Hathor averted the disastrous consequences of his idleness. [100] Mirrors were another of her symbols, because in Egypt they were often made of gold or bronze and therefore symbolized the sun disk, and because they were connected with beauty and femininity. HATOR Hathor è una divinità antichissima della mitologia egizia, multiforme e collegata all'archetipo delle Grandi Madri protostoriche, il cui nome significa "casa di Horus". At sunset the god entered the body of the goddess, impregnating her and fathering the deities born from her womb at sunrise: himself and the Eye goddess, who would later give birth to him. [113] She used names and titles that linked her to a variety of goddesses, including Hathor, so as to legitimize her rule in what was normally a male position. On the way she would stop off at towns and villages and her sacred barque, containing her statue, would have rested within a local barque station over night. Hathor è anche una divinità del cielo e in questa versione si diceva che proteggesse il dio aquila Horus nel suo ventre. Because of Hathor’s closeness to Isis, it is perhaps not a surprise that she married Horus. You don’t usually see this bit – I normally just show the finished reconstruction. Sex therefore enabled the rebirth of the deceased, and goddesses like Isis and Hathor served to rouse the deceased to new life. Over time they increasingly associated the deceased with both male and female divine powers. Hathor is the Egyptian goddess of love, fertility, women, motherhood, music, and dance. Xa que o faraón é identificado con Horus, Hathor é considerada como a nai divina de cada monarca reinante (entre os títulos reais figura o de Fillo de Hathor). [45], Hathor was praised for her beautiful hair. I usually start with a rough sketch of the basic idea, and then build all the different elements from that sketch. Horus, Egyptian Hor, Har, Her, or Heru, in ancient Egyptian religion, a god in the form of a falcon whose right eye was the sun or morning star, representing power and quintessence, and whose left eye was the moon or evening star, representing healing. [73] One of Hathor's epithets, "Lady of Mefkat", may have referred specifically to turquoise or to all blue-green minerals. Some mirror handles were made in the shape of Hathor's face. [80], Just as she crossed the boundary between Egypt and foreign lands, Hathor passed through the boundary between the living and the Duat, the realm of the dead. These images may represent private feasts that were celebrated in front of tombs to commemorate the people buried there, or they may show gatherings at temple festivals such as the Beautiful Festival of the Valley. The "house" referred to may be the sky in which Horus lives, or the goddess's womb from which he, as a sun god, is born each day. Always look forward to your posts and artwork. Thomas Schneider interprets the text as implying that between his two encounters with the goddess the herdsman has done something to pacify her. Hathor (Ancient Egyptian: ḥwt-ḥr "House of Horus", Greek: Ἁθώρ Hathōr) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion who played a wide variety of roles. He has a very cute smile. [79] One of these was Imentet, the goddess of the west, who personified the necropolises, or clusters of tombs, on the west bank of the Nile, and the realm of the afterlife itself. [11] Egyptian texts often speak of the manifestations of the goddess as "Seven Hathors"[10] or, less commonly, of many more Hathors—as many as 362. The Egyptians connected her with foreign lands such as Nubia and Canaan and their valuable goods, such as incense and semiprecious stones, and some of the peoples in those lands adopted her worship. Hathor è una divinità antichissima della mitologia egizia, multiforme e collegata all'archetipo delle Grandi Madri protostoriche, il cui nome significa "casa di Horus". [165] Prayers to some deities, such as Amun, show that they were thought to punish wrongdoers and heal people who repented for their misbehavior. [69], Hathor's solar character may have played a role in linking her with trade: she was believed to protect ships on the Nile and in the seas beyond Egypt, as she protected the barque of Ra in the sky. [108] Mentuhotep II, who became the first pharaoh of the Middle Kingdom despite having no relation to the Old Kingdom rulers, sought to legitimize his rule by portraying himself as Hathor's son. Now I have made a barque station before so rather than re-invent the wheel, I’ll adapt one of my old models – that should speed things up a bit. Hathor (dall'originale egizio: ḥwt-ḥr; che significa Casa di Horus, ellenizzato Ἅθωρ, Hathor) è una divinità egizia appartenente alla religione dell'antico Egitto, dea della gioia, dell' amore, della maternità e … [37] Atum, a creator god who contained all things within himself, was said to have produced his children Shu and Tefnut, and thus begun the process of creation, by masturbating. She was also called "Lady of Faience", a blue-green ceramic that Egyptians likened to turquoise. Egyptian women squatted on bricks while giving birth, and the only known surviving birth brick from ancient Egypt is decorated with an image of a woman holding her child flanked by images of Hathor. After some time, Hathor exposes her genitals to Ra, making him laugh and get up again to perform his duties as ruler of the gods. As a sky deity, she was the mother or consort of the sky god Horus and the sun god Ra, both of whom were connected with kingship, and thus she was the symbolic mother of their earthly representatives, the pharaohs. [59], Like Meskhenet, another goddess who presided over birth, Hathor was connected with shai, the Egyptian concept of fate, particularly when she took the form of the Seven Hathors. [18] In the version of this episode in "The Contendings of Horus and Set", Hathor finds Horus with his eyes torn out and heals the wounds with gazelle's milk. Hathor part four Thus, images in which Hathor nurses the pharaoh represent his right to rule. [163], Hathor was one of a handful of deities, including Amun, Ptah, and Thoth, who were commonly prayed to for help with personal problems. The Gerzeh Palette, a stone palette from the Naqada II period of prehistory (c. 3500–3200 BC), shows the silhouette of a cow's head with inward-curving horns surrounded by stars. Hathor (Egyptian: ḥwt-ḥr; in Greek: Ἅθωρ, meaning "mansion of Horus") is an Ancient Egyptian goddess who personified the principles of joy, feminine love, and motherhood. Reliefs in Old Kingdom tombs show men and women performing a ritual called "shaking the papyrus". [23], She was one of many goddesses to take the role of the Eye of Ra, a feminine personification of the disk of the sun and an extension of Ra's own power. For example, apart from … She was one of the most important and popular deities throughout the history of Ancient Egypt. Birth was hazardous for both mother and child in ancient Egypt, yet children were much desired. An image of the sed festival of Amenhotep III, meant to celebrate and renew his rule, shows the king together with Hathor and his queen Tiye, which could mean that the king symbolically married the goddess in the course of the festival. The Eye goddess drinks the beer, mistaking it for blood, and in her inebriated state reverts to being the benign and beautiful Hathor. Do you guys belong to a club ‘cos as soon as he can get his distance badges the better- tell him WELL DONE ! [15], Isis and Osiris were considered Horus's parents in the Osiris myth as far back as the late Old Kingdom, but the relationship between Horus and Hathor may be older still. [154] It was occupied from the middle of the Middle Kingdom to near the end of the New. Hathor and Mehet-Weret were both thought of as the cow who birthed the sun god and placed him between her horns. Look really good can’t wait to see [58] The version from Hathor's temple at Dendera emphasizes that she, as a female solar deity, was the first being to emerge from the primordial waters that preceded creation, and her life-giving light and milk nourished all living things. After the Egyptians abandoned the site in the Twentieth Dynasty, however, the Midianites converted the shrine to a tent shrine devoted to their own deities. [29] The two aspects of the Eye goddess—violent and dangerous versus beautiful and joyful—reflected the Egyptian belief that women, as the Egyptologist Carolyn Graves-Brown puts it, "encompassed both extreme passions of fury and love". In Egypt, Hathor was the goddess of love, beauty, dancing, music, and fertility. [165] Many Egyptians left offerings at temples or small shrines dedicated to the gods they prayed to. Being a toxophilite myself I am stunned! Thus, non-royal women disappeared from the high ranks of Hathor's priesthood,[129] although women continued to serve as musicians and singers in temple cults across Egypt. [119], More temples were dedicated to Hathor than to any other Egyptian goddess. [78], Hathor was one of several goddesses believed to assist deceased souls in the afterlife. Her principal animal form was that of a cow, and she was strongly associated with motherhood. The Egyptologist Henry George Fischer suggested this deity may be Bat, a goddess who was later depicted with a woman's face and inward-curling horns, seemingly reflecting the curve of the cow horns. [91] As early as the late Old Kingdom, women were sometimes said to join the worshippers of Hathor in the afterlife, just as men joined the following of Osiris. Hathor, Luxor Museum @Nefermaat CC BY-SA 2.5 Hathor was a sky goddess, known as “Lady of Stars” and “Sovereign of Stars” and linked to Sirius (and so the goddesses Sopdet and Isis). I enjoy translating hieroglyphs. Its presence in the tomb suggests the Mycenaeans may have known that the Egyptians connected Hathor with the afterlife. In her form as Hesat she is shown as a pure white cow carrying a tray of food on her head as her udders flow with milk. In some versions of the Distant Goddess myth, the wandering Eye's wildness abated when she was appeased with products of civilization like music, dance, and wine. [21] At Ra's cult center of Heliopolis, Hathor-Nebethetepet was worshipped as his consort,[22] and the Egyptologist Rudolf Anthes argued that Hathor's name referred to a mythical "house of Horus" at Heliopolis that was connected with the ideology of kingship. The designs of Hathoric columns have a complex relationship with those of sistra. Hathor in Pop-Culture & influence in the modern era. During the New Kingdom, when most of Nubia was under Egyptian control, pharaohs dedicated several temples in Nubia to Hathor, such as those at Faras and Mirgissa. Thus, texts from tombs often expressed a wish that the deceased would be able to participate in festivals, primarily those dedicated to Osiris. Hathor took many forms and appeared in a wide variety of roles. More temples were dedicated to her than to any other goddess; her most prominent temple was Dendera in Upper Egypt. On the first day of the new year, the first day of the month of Thoth, the Hathor image was carried up to the roof to be bathed in genuine sunlight. The Dendera Temple Complex covers an area of 40,000 square meters ( sq. Thus, the poet Callimachus alluded to the myth of Hathor's lost lock of hair in the Aetia when praising Berenice II for sacrificing her own hair to Aphrodite,[46] and iconographic traits that Isis and Hathor shared, such as the bovine horns and vulture headdress, appeared on images portraying Ptolemaic queens as Aphrodite. [155] The Timna Valley, on the fringes of the Egyptian empire on the east side of the peninsula, was the site of seasonal mining expeditions during the New Kingdom. [96] In contrast, the domestic cat, which was sometimes connected with Hathor, often represented the Eye goddess's pacified form. [132] In Late and Ptolemaic times, they were also offered a pair of mirrors, representing the sun and the moon. Because the sky goddess—either Nut or Hathor—assisted Ra in his daily rebirth, she had an important part in ancient Egyptian afterlife beliefs, according to which deceased humans were reborn like the sun god. A willow and a sycamore tree stood near the sanctuary and may have been worshipped as manifestations of the goddess. [102], Hathor was sometimes represented as a human face with bovine ears, seen from the front rather than in the profile-based perspective that was typical of Egyptian art. [66] Some Canaanite artworks depict a nude goddess with a curling wig taken from Hathor's iconography. [94], Some animals other than cattle could represent Hathor. Many of Hathor's epithets link her to celebration; she is called the mistress of music, dance, garlands, myrrh, and drunkenness. Hathor Correspondences. What a rich an vibrant scene it must have been. Beginning with Arsinoe II, wife of Ptolemy II, the Ptolemies closely linked their queens with Isis and with several Greek goddesses, particularly their own goddess of love and sexuality, Aphrodite. [116] In the Ptolemaic period (305–30 BC), when Greeks governed Egypt and their religion developed a complex relationship with that of Egypt, the Ptolemaic dynasty adopted and modified the Egyptian ideology of kingship. Festivities in her honor took place throughout the month, although they are not recorded in the texts from Dendera. [27], Egyptian religion celebrated the sensory pleasures of life, believed to be among the gods' gifts to humanity. [151] A myth about Isis's presence in Byblos, related by the Greek author Plutarch in his work On Isis and Osiris in the 2nd century AD, suggests that by his time Isis had entirely supplanted Hathor in the city. [123] The nearby village of Deir el-Medina, home to the tomb workers of the necropolis during the New Kingdom, also contained temples of Hathor. The significance of this rite is not known, but inscriptions sometimes say it was performed "for Hathor", and shaking papyrus stalks produces a rustling sound that may have been likened to the rattling of a sistrum. [136], In a local Theban festival known as the Beautiful Festival of the Valley, which began to be celebrated in the Middle Kingdom, the cult image of Amun from the Temple of Karnak visited the temples in the Theban Necropolis while members of the community went to the tombs of their deceased relatives to drink, eat, and celebrate. The largest was a complex dedicated primarily to Hathor as patroness of mining at Serabit el-Khadim, on the west side of the peninsula. [95] When Hathor was depicted as a uraeus, it represented the ferocious and protective aspects of her character. [159] At Jebel Barkal, a site sacred to Amun, the Kushite king Taharqa built a pair of temples, one dedicated to Hathor and one to Mut as consorts of Amun, replacing New Kingdom Egyptian temples that may have been dedicated to these same goddesses. How delightful it is to see how the many temples and other edifices appeared to the ancient Egyptians instead of the ruins we see today. Both styles of sistrum can bear the Hathor mask on the handle, and Hathoric columns often incorporate the naos sistrum shape above the goddess's head. Well presented and informative. [135] The dancing, eating and drinking that took place during the Festival of Drunkenness represented the opposite of the sorrow, hunger, and thirst that the Egyptians associated with death. And she came of her own free will to see me. The palette suggests that this cow was also linked with the sky, as were several goddesses from later times who were represented in this form: Hathor, Mehet-Weret, and Nut. Máis tarde se … Hathor ascended with Ra and became his mythological wife, and thus divine mother of the pharaoh. This mask-like face was placed on the capitals of columns beginning in the late Old Kingdom. [63] At some point, perhaps as early as the Old Kingdom, the Egyptians began to refer to the patron goddess of Byblos, Baalat Gebal, as a local form of Hathor. [139], Several temples in Ptolemaic times, including that of Dendera, observed the Egyptian new year with a series of ceremonies in which images of the temple deity were supposed to be revitalized by contact with the sun god. When she appears in this form, the tresses on either side of her face often curl into loops. [114] She built several temples to Hathor and placed her own mortuary temple, which incorporated a chapel dedicated to the goddess, at Deir el-Bahari, which had been a cult site of Hathor since the Middle Kingdom. [89], The afterlife also had a sexual aspect. Each day the flotilla would divert along some local canal to a town anchorage where a small chapel would stand. [53] At Kom Ombo, Hathor's local form, Tasenetnofret, was mother to Horus's son Panebtawy. [132] Wine and beer were common offerings in all temples, but especially in rituals in Hathor's honor,[133] and she and the goddesses related to her often received sistra and menat necklaces. During the New Kingdom (c. 1550–1070 BC), goddesses such as Mut and Isis encroached on Hathor's position in royal ideology, but she remained one of the most widely worshipped deities. Status message You are currently viewing our site as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions, videos and photo galleries. After the end of the New Kingdom, Hathor was increasingly overshadowed by Isis, but she continued to be venerated until the extinction of ancient Egyptian religion in the early centuries AD. Hathor is an ancient Egyptian goddess associated, later, with Isis and, earlier, with Sekhmet but eventually was considered the primeval goddess from whom all others were derived. [11] Hathor's diversity reflects the range of traits that the Egyptians associated with goddesses. So I’ll get back to you in about a week so you can see how far I’ve got. [140], The best-documented festival focused on Hathor is another Ptolemaic celebration, the Festival of the Beautiful Reunion. With the patronage of Old Kingdom rulers she became one of Egypt's most important deities. Hathor nella mitologia egizia antica . In her form as Hesat she is shown as a pure white cow carrying a tray of food on her head as her udders flow with milk. In some cases, women were called "Osiris-Hathor", indicating that they benefited from the revivifying power of both deities. [135] An example is the Festival of Drunkenness, commemorating the return of the Eye of Ra, which was celebrated on the twentieth day of the month of Thout at temples to Hathor and to other Eye goddesses. The festival of Divine Union of the goddess Hathor and Horus is something I’ve written about in the past and would like to illustrate. In some creation myths she helped produce the world itself. [120] At that site she was described as the daughter of the city's main deity, Ptah. I eagerly await your finished artwork. Hathor is one of the main goddesses. Hathor (ḥwt-ḥr, Egyptian for Horus's enclosure), is an Ancient Egyptian goddess who personified the principles of love, beauty, music, motherhood and joy. Therefore, Hathor, Isis, Mut, and Nut were all seen as the mythological mother of each Kushite king and equated with his female relatives, such as the kandake, the Kushite queen or queen mother, who had prominent roles in Kushite religion. [62] The text of the first century AD Insinger Papyrus likens a faithful wife, the mistress of a household, to Mut, while comparing Hathor to a strange woman who tempts a married man. [63] The later dynasty's founder, Sneferu, may have built a temple to her, and a daughter of Djedefra was her first recorded priestess. [113], The preeminence of Amun during the New Kingdom gave greater visibility to his consort Mut, and in the course of the period, Isis began appearing in roles that traditionally belonged to Hathor alone, such as that of the goddess in the solar barque. [99] She also commonly carried a sistrum or a menat necklace. The last version of the temple was built in the Ptolemaic and Roman Periods and is today one of the best-preserved Egyptian temples from that time. At Dendera, the mature Horus of Edfu was the father and Hathor the mother, while their child was Ihy, a god whose name meant "sistrum-player" and who personified the jubilation associated with the instrument. More than any other deity, she exemplifies the Egyptian perception of femininity. [125] After the end of the Old Kingdom it surpassed her Memphite temples in importance. [60], Hathor's maternal aspects can be compared with those of Isis and Mut, yet there are many contrasts between them. [27] Related to this story is the myth of the Distant Goddess, from the Late and Ptolemaic periods. [134], Many of Hathor's annual festivals were celebrated with drinking and dancing that served a ritual purpose. She also appeared as a lioness, and this form had a similar meaning. Egyptian texts often speak of the manifestations of the goddess as "Seven Hathors" or, less commonly, of many more Hathors—as many as 362. "[47], Hathor was considered the mother of various child deities. [106] Late Old Kingdom rulers especially promoted the cult of Hathor in the provinces, as a way of binding those regions to the royal court. [14], Hathor's Egyptian name was ḥwt-ḥrw[15] or ḥwt-ḥr. [112], Hatshepsut, a woman who ruled as a pharaoh in the early New Kingdom, emphasized her relationship to Hathor in a different way. Description: Hathor is a very ancient goddess, dating to predynastic times. The Eye goddess, sometimes in the form of Hathor, rebels against Ra's control and rampages freely in a foreign land: Libya west of Egypt or Nubia to the south. Columns of this style were used in many temples to Hathor and other goddesses. Hathor means "House of Horus ". She is usually depicted as a woman with the head of a cow, ears of a cow, or simply in cow form. Over night the sacred barque would be taken from the boat to rest in this building. Horus. But I’ll have to make the houses, dock side, the people, the boat, landscape, water, plants and trees and pretty much everything else. [148], Egyptian kings as early as the Old Kingdom donated goods to the temple of Baalat Gebal in Byblos, using the syncretism of Baalat with Hathor to cement their close trading relationship with Byblos. Egyptians ate, drank, danced, and played music at their religious festivals. Essa è il suo luogo di residenza e di dominio, ovvero la “casa di Horus”. Hathor part three [44] In "The Contendings of Horus and Set", a New Kingdom short story about the dispute between those two gods, Ra is upset after being insulted by another god, Babi, and lies on his back alone. [88] Images of Nut were often painted or incised inside coffins, indicating the coffin was her womb, from which the occupant would be reborn in the afterlife. Voyage to the Divine Union Feast for MAC and Windows FREE, Karnak Great Court for MAC and Windows FREE, https://discoveringegypt.com/tag/festival-barque/, Who else might be in Pharaoh Tutankhamun’s Tomb, Women of Power and Influence in Ancient Egypt, Voyage to the Divine Union Feast for MAC and Windows FREE App. Hathor, in ancient Egyptian religion, goddess of the sky, of women, and of fertility and love. A lively and trusted destination for fashion, dining and entertainment, Hawthorn Mall is a super-regional shopping center. [141][142] Hathor's cult image from Dendera was carried by boat to several temple sites to visit the gods of those temples. [40] In the late periods of Egyptian history, the form of Hathor from Dendera and the form of Horus from Edfu were considered husband and wife[41] and in different versions of the myth of the Distant Goddess, Hathor-Raettawy was the consort of Montu[42] and Hathor-Tefnut the consort of Shu.