Hathor

Hathor (meaning, "The House of Horus") was known to the Ancient Egyptians as the goddess of the sky, the sun, music, dance and the arts. She was often symbolized as a cow bearing the sun disk between her horn and a woman in queenly raiment wearing the sun disk and horns on her head. Dating back to the predynastic time, Hathor is one of the, if not the, oldest goddess for the Egyptians. She was originally associated with the pharaoh as his queen. Hathor became the incarnation of dance and one of Inspiration. Worship of Hathor had her male and female priests dancing in rituals and people flocking to have their dreams explained.

Hathor was originally a personification of the Milky Way, which was considered to be the milk that flowed from the udders of a heavenly cow. It was throughout the ages that Hathor took on her other characteristics, some that overshadowded others, and other identities and forms. She is almost a confusing goddess. As an ancient goddess the Egyptians attempted to keep her throughout the periods but added or took away from her. Thus her marriages, children, names, and characteristics vary according to period. Here we'll just discuss the few the prevailed most often.

Hathor is also Mehturt (for about 3,000 years), meaning great flood. This aspect of Hathor had the Egyptians identifying her as responsible for the yearly inundation of the Nile. Being recognized as responsible for the flooding of the Nile also had Hathor seen as a herald of imminent birth (when the amniotic sac breaks it is an indicator that the child is due to be born). This eventually expanded to Hathor being a goddess of fertility.

For a short time Hathor was associated with Sekhmet (a war goddess) as Sekhmet-Hathor. Due to their similar physical associations they were combined to create the lioness goddess. One version claims this story: as the Eye of Ra - defender of the sun god - Hathor was sent out to punish the people (in the form of Sekhmet). She slaughtered people by the hundreds and Ra relented seeing the utter destruction and commanded her to stop. Sekhment refused as she was blood thirsty. To stop the slaughter, bear was colored red (to resemble blood) and poured over the killing fields. When Sekhmet drank the beer, she became drunk and drowsy, and slept for three days. When she awoke she had no taste for human flesh and mankind was saved. From then on she was renamed her Hathor. As a result, soldiers also prayed to Hathor/Sekhmet to give them her strength and focus in battle.

Hathor was the mother of Horus and wife of Ra. Although as Egyptian mythology continued she was said to be married to Thoth, as Ra and Atum were the same deity, making it complicated for her to be wife to her son whom she created. As wife of Ra, Hathor held the title Mistress of Heaven and the Eye of Ra. She is also later said to be Hathor's wife. In reality, she was probably meant to have just been combined with the original wives of the gods creating a stronger deity, not replacing the wives of old.

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3 Pyramids At Giza

Traditional Egyptian Barge

The Great Sphinx At Giza

A Cartouche

The Jackal-Headed god Anubis

The Infamous Bust of Nefertiti

A Benu Bird

An Egyptian Woman

The Jackal-Headed god Anubis

The Goddess Hathor In Snake Form

A Pharaoh

A Mummy

A Pharaoh

A Pharaoh

An Egyptian Man

The Ankh

Seen everywhere the Egyptians painted, the ankh is a symbol representing everlasting life but was always coupled with death as well. The ankh has a myriad of meanings including representing zest, joy of life, and energy. With symbolizing life, the ankh also becomes associated with fertility and is portrayed with all the gods and pharaohs. While an exact definition is impossible to pin down for the ankh, a general sense of the use of the ankh is much easier to discern.

The origins of the ankh are still unknown and widely debated. But its meaning is general and its uses wide. Due to such a lose set of terms used for the ankh being able reason is a big way of figuring out the usage of the ankh in a certain situation when deciphering Egyptian texts and paintings.

To the Egyptians the ankh stood for the word Ê¿ná, meaning life. It is also called crux ansata, Latin for cross-with-a-handle. The ankh was typically carried by Egyptians as an amulet, often alone or in connection with two other hieroglyphs the Djed and Was that mean "strength" and "health." The gods would be seen carrying the ankh by its loop or bearing one in each hand with arms crossed over their chest.

The ankh, on some temple walls in Upper Egypt, could also symbolize water in rituals of purification. Here, the king would stand between two gods, one of whom was usually Thoth, as they poured over him a stream of libations represented by ankhs.

Most noticeably used with the ankh is Hathor, the mother goddess of life and of death. With the ankh Hathor can give life and she is seen doing such countless times within Egyptian texts and paintings. However, other ancient gods of Egypt are depicted carrying an ankh. Anqet, Ptah, Satet, Sobek, Tefnut, Osiris, Ra, Isis, and Anibus are among the many other gods often holding the ankh along with a scepter. In various tomb and temple reliefs the ankh is placed in front of the pharaoh to symbolize the breath of eternal life. Used to show divine rights, the ankh during the Amarna period was depicted as being offered to Akhenaten and Nefertiti by the hands at the end of the rays descending from the sun disk, Aten. This also showed that the ankh not only represented the life here on earth, but that of the netherworld by such an offering from the gods. With the gods offering the ankh for any man or woman, pharoah or not was a big deal.

As a hieroglyph the ankh is known as the key of the Nile and was associated with Imkotep (~3000 B.C.) who was physician for the Pharaoh's family. After Imkotep's death he was eventually made the god of medicine and of healing throughout Egypt. This is why the Ankh is also used is a pharmaceutical manner in Egyptian records.