Hathor: A Reintroduction to an Ancient Egyptian Goddess PDF
Preview Hathor: A Reintroduction to an Ancient Egyptian Goddess
Hathor was once the most loved and pre-eminent goddess of Egypt. An ancient goddess, “Hathor…who descends from the primeval age” soon held all Egyptians in her loving embrace.[2] She was one of the most accessible of the deities so it was unsurprising that she was a favourite. Her cult, and encounters with her, were full of music, love and laughter. No stern, demanding deity she rejoiced in her followers’ happiness and many could say “she placed joy in my heart”.[3]
People who are aware of Hathor today usually think of her as the cow goddess but that is only one of her many faces. She is a sky and solar goddess as well as a tree goddess. Some are uncomfortable with the concept of a solar goddess, having grown up with Celtic and Greco-Roman influences. Let Hathor “the Golden One” persuade you otherwise.[4] She was present at birth and nurtured and protected everyone, at all levels of society, during life and then midwifed them into the afterlife. A truly universal goddess, she took merchants and travellers under her protection as well as all of the foreigners who inhabited the lesser world outside of Egypt.
Her demise brought the eclipse of a Golden Goddess. Over the millennia we have lost contact with this dynamic, independent and woman-loving Goddess. The aim of this book is to reintroduce you to “the sovereign, the powerful goddess, whose ba is powerful, beautiful of face, sweet of loveliness, splendid of appearance among the gods”.[5]
Sekhmet, the lioness goddess and daughter of the sun god, is covered in this book both as an aspect of Hathor and as a goddess in her own right. The cat goddess Bastet is often considered an alter-ego and benign aspect of Sekhmet or Hathor. I have chosen not to cover Bastet in detail for two reasons. Whilst she can be aligned with Hathor, I do not feel that she has the same connection as Sekhmet does. The second consideration is that a book has to have defined boundaries and the Egyptian goddesses are very fluid, flowing cobra-like from one form to the next. My focus has to remain on Hathor.
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