SG
: 1872
SCOTT :
1521A
5
POUNDS : HATHOR ( CARVED HEAD CAPITAL
)
BLOCK OF 4 WITH
GUTTER
Hathor
Hathor
(/ˈhæθɔr/
or /ˈhæθər/;
Egyptian: ḥwt-ḥr,
"mansion of Horus") is
an Ancient Egyptian
goddess who personified the principles of joy,
feminine love, and motherhood. She was one
of the most important and popular deities throughout the history of
Ancient Egypt. Hathor was worshiped by Royalty and common people
alike in whose tombs she is depicted as "Mistress of the West"
welcoming the dead into the next life. In other
roles she was a goddess of music, dance, foreign lands and
fertility who helped women in childbirth,
as well as the patron goddess of
miners.
The cult of
Hathor predates the historic period, and the roots of devotion to
her are therefore difficult to trace, though it may be a
development of predynastic
cults which venerated fertility, and
nature in general, represented by
cows.
Hathor is
commonly depicted as a cow goddess with head horns in which is set
a sun disk with Uraeus. Twin
feathers are also sometimes shown in later periods as well as
a menat necklace. Hathor may
be the cow goddess who is depicted from an early date on
the Narmer Palette
and on a stone urn dating from the 1st
dynasty that suggests a role as sky-goddess and a relationship to
Horus who, as a sun god, is "housed" in
her.
The Ancient
Egyptians viewed reality as multi-layered in which deities who
merge for various reasons, while retaining divergent attributes and
myths, were not seen as contradictory but
complementary.In a
complicated relationship Hathor is at times the mother, daughter
and wife of Ra and,
like Isis, is at
times described as the mother of Horus, and associated
with Bast.
The cult
of Osiris promised
eternal life to those deemed morally worthy. Originally the
justified dead, male or female, became an Osiris but by early Roman
times females became identified with Hathor and men with
Osiris.
The Ancient
Greeks identified Hathor with the goddess Aphrodite and the
Romans as Venus.