Hathor: Cow, Lioness

Hathor: Cow, Lioness
3 records
Hathor: daughter of the sun god, goddess of motherhood, love and sexuality (Cow, Lioness)

Hathor was one of ancient Egypt’s most powerful goddesses. Most of our evidence for her comes from later periods, but her origins can probably be traced to the Pre-Dynastic Period. She is a goddess of great importance with numerous divine aspects, but only a few will be mentioned here.

In ancient Egyptian, her name means house of Horus, referring to her role as the mother of the falcon-headed god, Horus. This was one of her most important associations and the primary role in which she was worshiped. As a mother goddess, Hathor was protective and nurturing. Another one of her aspects was as a sky goddess. This association relates to her association with Horus, a sky god, making Hathor his female counterpart in the sky. She was also known as one of the daughters of the sun god Re and the goddess of women, motherhood, love, sexuality, music, and happiness.

Most often Hathor was represented as a woman wearing one of a series of headdresses that identified her. She could also be depicted in the form of a cow, as a woman with a cow’s head, or in another composite form as a woman’s face with cow’s ears. Sometimes she was even represented in plant form as a sycamore tree or a papyrus plant.