Hathor

Cow goddess of love, joy, music; an Eye of Ra.

Parentage

• parent: Ra

Children

• Ihy

Domains

• love beauty
• music joy
• motherhood

Powers

• Becoming the destroying Eye of Ra against rebels
• Receiving the dead as Mistress of the West
• Suckle and nourish the king as the divine cow
• Be pacified through music, dance and drunkenness

Epithets

• nbt jmnt egyptian · nebet imenet · cultLady of the West; Hathor who receives the dead into the necropolisTheban necropolis texts; Book of the Dead (primary)
• nbt jwnt egyptian · nebet Iunet · cultLady of Dendera; Hathor of her great cult-templeDendera temple texts (primary)
• nbt nht egyptian · nebet nehet · cultLady of the sycomore; Hathor as the tree-goddess who nourishes the deadMemphite cult texts; tomb vignettes of the sycomore-goddess (primary)
• nbt jhy egyptian · nebet ihy · hymnicLady of joy / mistress of music and jubilationDendera hymns; cf. the Greek identification with Aphrodite (Hdt. 2.41) (secondary)

Relations

• sibling: BastetFull sibling — shares the same attested parentage (Ra) per the figures' cited genealogy.
• sibling: MaatFull sibling — shares the same attested parentage (Ra) per the figures' cited genealogy.
• sibling: SekhmetFull sibling — shares the same attested parentage (Ra) per the figures' cited genealogy.
• interpretatio: AphroditeReciprocal of greek_hesiod_aphrodite.interpretatio — Greeks in Egypt read Hathor of Dendera as Aphrodite. Preserves love, music, and female joy; breaks on Hathor's cow-form, sky-mothering, and her furious Eye-of-Ra aspect, which has no Aphrodisian analogue.Strabo, Geography 17.1.44 (temple of Aphrodite at Tentyra/Dendera) (primary)

Sources

• existence: Pyramid Texts, Utterance 303 (primary)