Hathor - Egyptian Goddess - who is she?

Question

hey, i'm looking for info on Hathor, or a good website you know. Anything is useful, thanks!

Answer 1

Origin of name
Originally recorded in Egyptian records as hwt hr.w "The House of Horus", her name is reconstructed to have been once pronounced *Hawit-Hāru (hah-wiht-haa-ruh), surviving directly into Coptic as Hathōr. It was adopted into Greek in the form of Aθύρ Athūr.

In Egyptian mythology, Hathor (Egyptian for house of Horus) was originally a personification of the Milky Way, which was seen as the milk that flowed from the udders of a heavenly cow. Hathor was an ancient goddess, worshipped as a cow-deity from at least 2700 BC, during the 2nd dynasty, and possibly even by the Scorpion King. The name Hathor refers to the encirclement by her, in the form of the Milky Way, of the night sky and consequently of the god of the sky, Horus. She was originally seen as the daughter of Ra, the creator whose own cosmic birth was formalised as the Ogdoad cosmogeny.

An alternate name for her, which persisted for 3,000 years, was Mehturt (also spelt Mehurt, Mehet-Weret, and Mehet-uret), meaning great flood, a direct reference to her being the milky way. The Milky Way was seen as a waterway in the heavens, sailed upon by both the sun god and the king, leading the Egyptians to describe it as The Nile in the Sky. 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 imminent birth, as when the amniotic sac breaks and floods its waters, it is a medical indicator that the child is due to be born extremely soon.

Hathor was also favoured as a protector in desert regions.

Some egyptologists associate Hathor with artificial light as evidenced by what has been purported to be a representation of an electric lamp in a temple dedicated to her worship . Though other scholars believe the representation to be that of a lotus flower, spawning a snake within.

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Answer 2

To denote Ares and Aphrodite (Hor and Athor), they delineate TWO HAWKS; 1 of

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which they assimilate the male to Ares (Hor), and the female to Aphrodite (Hathor), for this reason, quod ex cæteris animantibus fœmina mari non ad omnem congressum obtemperat, ut in accipitrum genere, in quo etsi tricies in die fœmina a mare comprimatur, ab eo digressa, si inclamata fuerit paret iterum. Wherefore the Egyptians call every female that is obedient to her husband Aphrodite (Hathor), but one that is not obedient they do not so denominate. For this reason they have consecrated the hawk to the sun: for, like the sun, it completes the number thirty in its conjunctions with the female.

When they would denote Ares and Aphrodite (Hor and Athor) otherwise, they

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depict TWO CROWS [ravens?] as a man and woman; because this bird lays two eggs, from which a male and female ought to be produced, and, ([except?] when it produces two males or two females, which, however, rarely happens,) the males mate with the females, and hold no intercourse with any other crow, neither does the female with any other crow, till death; but those that are widowed pass their lives in solitude. And hence, when men meet with a single crow, they look upon it as an omen, as having met with a widowed creature; and 1 on account of the remarkable concord of these birds, the Greeks to this day in their marriages exclaim, EKKOKI KORI KORONE, though unacquainted with its import.


Go to this web site and type in Hathor in the search you will get plenty of information.

Answer 3

Try this
http://www.touregypt.net/godsofegypt/hathor.htm