Originally a personification of the Milky Way, representing the milk flowing from the udders of a heavenly cow. She is an ancient Goddess, worshiped since at least the 2nd Dynasty. An alternate identity of her is Mehet-Weret (the great flood), a reference to the Milky Way. She was a fertility Goddess and a Goddess of Moisture, as such associated with the annual flood of the Nile. She was the Goddess of Joy, Motherhood and Love. She is said to be the daughter of Ra and Nut and the wife of Horus.
Hathor is usually shown as a woman with the horns of a cow and a sun disk between the horns, or as a woman with a cows head with a sun disk between the horns. She usually carries an Ankh in one hand, the symbol of eternal life.
Hathor - The Heavenly Cow, Goddess of Fertility, Goddess of Motherhood
Relief of Hathor in the Karnak Temple in Luxor. (596k) Relief of Hathor, touching the Ankh to the mouth of the Pharaoh, in the Temple of Horus in Edfu. (708k) Relief of Hathor in the Temple of Horus in Edfu. Here Hathor is wearing the Pshent, or Double Crown of Upper and Lower Egypt. (867k) Close-up of Hathor in the Temple of Horus in Edfu, again wearing the Pshent, or Double Crown of Upper and Lower Egypt. (786k) Hathor's symbol, a bird in a square. This can be used to determine whether a picture of a Goddess with the horns and solar disk is Hathor or Isis. Most times either Hathor's or Isis' symbol accompanies their pictures. Look for Hathor's symbol in the following pictures. (609k) Relief of Hathor in the Temple of Horus in Edfu. (861k) Relief of Hathor (center right, holding a Papyrus), with Horus, her husband (center left, holding the Was scaepter) and a Pharaoh (left) in the Temple of Horus in Edfu. (527k) Relief of Hathor (center), with Khonsu, the Moon God (left, holding the Was scepter), and Sobek, the Crocodile God, (right, holding the Was scepter) in the Temple of Kom Ombo. This is a different incarnation of Hathor. (791k) Relief of Hathor (right, with a Papyrus) with her husband Horus (left, with the Was scepter) in the Temple of Kom Ombo. (745k) Relief of Sobek (right) and Hathor (left, with the Papyrus) in the Temple of Kom Ombo. (1006k) Relief of two incarnations of Hathor in the Temple of Kom Ombo. (964k) Close-up of the relief of the second version of Hathor in the Temple of Kom Ombo. (957k) Relief of Hathor in the Temple of Kom Ombo. (1058k) Relief of Hathor in the Philae Temple of Isis. (953k) Relief of Hathor in the Philae Temple of Isis. (845k) Painting inside the main temple of Abu Simbel of the Goddess Hathor in the form of the Sacred Cow on a sacred barge. (946k) Beautiful painting inside the Queens Temple of Abu Simbel of the Goddesses Hathor (left) and Isis (right) blessing the Queen. (714k) Superb paintings in the Tomb of Horemheb, showing the Goddess Hathor (left) and her husband Horus (center right), each holding the Ankh, the symbol of eternal life. (665k)
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