Hathor facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Hathor |
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Composite image of Hathor's most common iconography, based partly on images from the tomb of Nefertari
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| Offspring | Ihy, Neferhotep of Hu, Ra (Cycle Of Rebirth) |
| Parents | Ra |
Hathor was a very important goddess in ancient Egyptian religion. She had many different jobs and roles. She was often seen as a sky goddess. She was the mother or partner of the sky god Horus and the sun god Ra. Both Horus and Ra were linked to the kings of Egypt, called pharaohs. So, Hathor was like a symbolic mother to the pharaohs.
Hathor was also one of the goddesses known as the Eye of Ra. This was a powerful, protective side of Ra. In this form, she could be fierce and protect Ra from his enemies. But Hathor also had a kind side. She represented music, dancing, happiness, love, and caring for children. She was also the partner of several male gods and the mother of their sons. Hathor helped people's souls move from this world to the afterlife.
Hathor was often shown as a cow. This symbolized her motherly and sky-related roles. But her most common look was a woman wearing a headdress. This headdress had cow horns with a sun disk between them. She could also appear as a lioness, a cobra, or a sycamore tree.
Goddesses like Hathor, who looked like cows, appeared in Egyptian art thousands of years ago. Hathor herself became very important during the Old Kingdom (around 2686–2181 BC). Many temples were built for her, more than for any other goddess. Her most famous temple was at Dendera in Upper Egypt. People also worshipped her in the temples of her male partners.
Egyptians believed Hathor was connected to foreign lands like Nubia and Canaan. She was also linked to valuable goods from these lands, such as incense and gemstones. Some people in those lands started to worship her too. In Egypt, people often prayed to Hathor, especially women who wanted children.
During the New Kingdom (around 1550–1070 BC), other goddesses like Mut and Isis became more important for the pharaohs. But Hathor was still one of the most widely worshipped goddesses. After the New Kingdom, Isis became even more popular than Hathor. However, Hathor continued to be worshipped until the end of ancient Egyptian religion, in the early centuries AD.
Contents
Hathor's Beginnings
Images of cattle are often seen in ancient Egyptian art from before 3100 BC. There are also pictures of women with raised, curved arms. These arms look like cow horns. Both types of images might show goddesses linked to cattle. Cows are respected in many cultures. They are symbols of motherhood and food because they care for their calves and give milk to humans.
The Gerzeh Palette is a stone palette from ancient times (around 3500–3200 BC). It shows a cow's head with horns that curve inward, surrounded by stars. This suggests that this cow was also linked to the sky. Later goddesses like Hathor, Mehet-Weret, and Nut were also shown as cows connected to the sky.
Hathor is clearly mentioned or shown starting in the Fourth Dynasty (around 2613–2494 BC) of the Old Kingdom. However, some older items that mention her might be from the Early Dynastic Period (around 3100–2686 BC). When Hathor clearly appears, her horns curve outward, not inward like in the older art.
A cow goddess with inward-curving horns appears on the Narmer Palette. This palette is from the very beginning of Egyptian history. This goddess is shown at the top of the palette and on the belt of King Narmer. Some experts think this goddess might be Bat. Bat was a goddess later shown with a woman's face and inward-curling horns. However, other experts believe the goddess on the Narmer Palette is Hathor. This is because a text from the Old Kingdom connects Hathor with the king's "apron," which is similar to the goddess on Narmer's clothes.
In the Fourth Dynasty, Hathor quickly became very important. She took over from an early crocodile god who was worshipped at Dendera in Upper Egypt. She became Dendera's main patron deity. She also slowly took over the worship of Bat in the nearby area of Hu. By the Middle Kingdom (around 2055–1650 BC), the two goddesses had joined into one.
During the Old Kingdom, the ideas about the pharaoh focused a lot on the sun god Ra. Ra was seen as the king of the gods and the father of the earthly king. Hathor became important with Ra. She became his mythical wife and, because of this, the divine mother of the pharaoh.
Hathor's Many Roles
Hathor had many different forms and played a wide variety of roles. Some experts believe that these different forms came about because the royal goddess, supported by the Old Kingdom kings, took on the roles of many local goddesses. These local goddesses were then seen as different ways Hathor appeared. Egyptian texts often talk about "Seven Hathors" or even more, sometimes as many as 362. Because of this, Hathor is sometimes seen as a "type of deity" rather than just one single goddess. Hathor's many roles show all the different qualities Egyptians linked with goddesses. More than any other god, she shows how Egyptians saw femininity.
Goddess of the Sky
Hathor was called "mistress of the sky" and "mistress of the stars." People said she lived in the sky with Ra and other sun gods. Egyptians thought of the sky as a body of water where the sun god sailed. They also linked it to the waters from which the sun appeared at the beginning of time, according to their creation myths. This cosmic mother goddess was often shown as a cow. Hathor and Mehet-Weret were both seen as the cow who gave birth to the sun god. They placed him between her horns. Like Nut, Hathor was said to give birth to the sun god every morning.
Hathor's Egyptian name was ḥwt-ḥrw or ḥwt-ḥr. It is usually translated as "house of Horus." But it can also mean "my house is the sky." The falcon god Horus represented the sun and sky, among other things. The "house" could be the sky where Horus lives, or the goddess's womb from which he, as a sun god, is born each day.
Goddess of the Sun
Hathor was a solar deity, a female partner to sun gods like Horus and Ra. She was part of the group of gods who traveled with Ra as he sailed through the sky in his boat. She was often called the "Golden One." This referred to the bright light of the sun, which was said to "light up the whole earth."
The Eye of Ra protected the sun god from his enemies. It was often shown as a uraeus, which is a rearing cobra, or as a lioness. One form of the Eye of Ra was called "Hathor of the Four Faces." This was shown as four cobras. They were said to face in each of the main directions to watch for dangers to the sun god.
Motherhood and Queenship
Hathor was seen as the mother of various child gods. As her name suggests, she was often thought of as both Horus's mother and his partner. As both the king's wife and the mother of his heir, Hathor was the divine version of human queens.
The milky sap of the sycamore tree was one of her symbols. Egyptians saw this tree as a symbol of life. The milk was compared to the water of the Nile flood. This meant it was linked to fertility and new life.
Afterlife Guide
Even though the Pyramid Texts, which are very old Egyptian funerary texts, rarely mention her, Hathor was important in private tomb writings from the same time. In the Middle Kingdom Coffin Texts and later writings, she is often linked to the afterlife.
Goddesses like Nut, Hathor, and Imentet could, in different texts, lead the dead into a place where they would get food and drink for eternal life. So, Hathor, often as Imentet, appeared on tombs. She welcomed the dead person as her child into a happy afterlife. In New Kingdom funeral texts and art, the afterlife was often shown as a pleasant, fertile garden. Hathor sometimes ruled over this garden. The goddess welcoming the dead was often shown as a tree goddess, giving water to the dead. Nut most commonly played this role, but sometimes the tree goddess was called Hathor instead.
Hathor's Appearance
Hathor was often shown as a cow with the sun disk between her horns. This was especially true when she was shown nursing the king. She could also appear as a woman with the head of a cow. However, her most common form was a woman wearing a headdress of horns and a sun disk. She often wore a red or turquoise dress, or a dress with both colors. Sometimes the horns were on top of a low modius (a type of crown) or the vulture headdress that Egyptian queens often wore in the New Kingdom. Because Isis started wearing the same headdress during the New Kingdom, the two goddesses can only be told apart if their names are written down.
Like other goddesses, Hathor might carry a stalk of papyrus as a staff. But she could also hold a was staff. This was a symbol of power usually only used by male gods. The only goddesses who used the was staff were those, like Hathor, who were linked to the Eye of Ra. Mirrors were another of her symbols. In Egypt, mirrors were often made of gold or bronze, so they symbolized the sun disk. They were also linked to beauty and women.
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Statue of Hathor, fourteenth century BC
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Amulet of Hathor as a uraeus wearing a naos headdress, early to mid-first millennium BC
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Naos sistrum with Hathor's face, 305–282 BC
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Mirror with a face of Hathor on the handle, fifteenth century BC
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Head of Hathor with cats on her headdress, from a clapper, late second to early first millennium BC
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The Malqata Menat necklace, fourteenth century BC
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Hathoric capital from the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut, fifteenth century BC
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Hathor and Royalty
During the Early Dynastic Period, Neith was the most important goddess at the royal court. But in the Fourth Dynasty, Hathor became the goddess most closely linked to the king.
Many royal women, though not ruling queens, held positions in Hathor's worship during the Old Kingdom. Mentuhotep II became the first pharaoh of the Middle Kingdom. He was not related to the Old Kingdom rulers. To make his rule seem right, he showed himself as Hathor's son. The first pictures of the Hathor-cow nursing the king are from his time. Several priestesses of Hathor were shown as if they were his wives, even if he didn't actually marry them. During the Middle Kingdom, queens were increasingly seen as directly representing the goddess, just as the king represented Ra.
After the New Kingdom, Isis became more important than Hathor and other goddesses. She took on many of their qualities.
Hathor's Temples in Egypt
More temples were built for Hathor than for any other Egyptian goddess. During the Old Kingdom, her most important worship center was in the area of Memphis. In the New Kingdom, the temple of Hathor of the Southern Sycamore was her main temple in Memphis.
As the rulers of the Old Kingdom built towns in Upper and Middle Egypt, several places for Hathor's worship were started. These were in areas like Cusae, Akhmim, and Naga ed-Der.
In the Old Kingdom, most of Hathor's priests, even the highest ones, were women. Many of these women were part of the royal family. During the Middle Kingdom, women were less often in the highest priestly jobs. At the same time, queens became more closely linked to Hathor's worship. So, non-royal women no longer held high positions in Hathor's priesthood. However, women continued to be musicians and singers in temple worship all over Egypt.
The most common temple ritual for any god was the daily offering. In this ritual, the statue of the god would be dressed and given food. The daily ritual was mostly the same in every Egyptian temple. But the offerings could change depending on which god received them. Wine and beer were common offerings in all temples. But they were especially common in rituals honoring Hathor. She and goddesses related to her often received sistra (musical rattles) and menat necklaces. In later times, they were also offered a pair of mirrors, which represented the sun and the moon.
Hathor's Festivals
Several temples in later times, including the one at Dendera, celebrated the Egyptian new year. They had a series of ceremonies where statues of the temple god were supposed to get new energy from the sun god. In the days leading up to the new year, Hathor's statue from Dendera was taken to the wabet. This was a special room in the temple. It was placed under a ceiling decorated with pictures of the sky and sun. On the first day of the new year, the first day of the month of Thoth, the Hathor statue was carried up to the roof. There, it was bathed in real sunlight.
The third month of the Egyptian calendar, Hathor or Athyr, was named after the goddess. Celebrations in her honor took place throughout the month.
Worshipping Hathor
Besides formal public rituals at temples, Egyptians also worshipped gods privately. This included worshipping at their homes for personal reasons. Giving birth was dangerous for both mother and child in ancient Egypt. Yet, children were very much wanted. So, fertility and safe childbirth were very important in popular religion. Gods of fertility like Hathor and Taweret were often worshipped in home shrines.
Hathor was one of a few gods, including Amun, Ptah, and Thoth, who people commonly prayed to for help with personal problems. Many Egyptians left offerings at temples or small shrines dedicated to the gods they prayed to. Most offerings to Hathor were used for their meaning, not for their actual value. Cloths painted with images of Hathor were common. So were plaques and small statues showing her animal forms. Different types of offerings might have meant different goals for the person giving them. But their exact meaning is usually not known today.
Some Egyptians also left written prayers to Hathor. These were carved on stelae (stone slabs) or written as graffiti. Prayers to some gods, like Amun, showed that they were thought to punish bad people and heal those who were sorry for their mistakes. In contrast, prayers to Hathor only mentioned the good things she could give. These included plenty of food during life and a good burial after death.
Hathor and Funerals
As a goddess of the afterlife, Hathor appeared often in funeral texts and art. For example, in the early New Kingdom, she was one of the three gods most commonly found in royal tomb decorations. The others were Osiris and Anubis. In that time, she often appeared as the goddess welcoming the dead into the afterlife.
Images for kids
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Banquet scene from the tomb chapel of Nebamun, 14th century BC. Its imagery of music and dancing alludes to Hathor.
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Remains of the Hathor shrine in the Timna Valley
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See also
In Spanish: Hathor para niños
