Hathor

The name ḥwt-ḥr literally means 'House of Horus'. In Egyptian texts Hathor is presented relationally as mother or consort to principal solar and royal gods (Horus, Ra) and thereby as a symbolic mother of the pharaoh. She appears early in Egyptian history (precedents in Predynastic art), is clearly attested by the Old Kingdom, and remains an important deity through the New Kingdom into the Roman era. She also fused with or absorbed local bovine goddesses (for example Bat) in some periods and locales, producing many localized Hathor manifestations (the texts speak of 'Seven Hathors' and numerous other forms).

Hathor is frequently depicted as a cow and most commonly as a woman wearing a headdress of cow horns enclosing a sun disk. Other attested forms include a lioness, a cobra, and a sycomore tree. She appears in temple reliefs and royal iconography, often in funerary and cult scenes (for example standing behind major statues or participating in offerings), and is associated with ritual implements such as the sistrum.

Egyptian texts present Hathor both as a beneficent goddess—embodying beauty, music, dance, joy, love, sexuality, fertility, and maternal care—and as one of several goddesses who function as the Eye of Ra. In the Eye-of-Ra role she can act protectively on behalf of Ra and the cosmic order and can also take a vengeful, combative form. Her attributes and behaviors vary by period and locality; she also assists the deceased in transition to the afterlife and is integrated into royal ideology as the divine mother/consort within the household of gods.