Mistress, see the dancing, Wife of Horus, see the skipping!
He offers it to you, This jug; Mistress, see the dancing,
Wife of Horus, see the skipping! His heart is straight, his inmost open,
No darkness is in his breast; Mistress, see the dancing,
Wife of Horus, see the skipping!
She was a goddess of many things, among them she was a matron of what were considered the pleasures of life 5,000 years ago- and which for many, remain so even today: joy, love, romance, richness, dance, music, alcohol and perfume. A deity of women, she ruled anything having to do with the female gender.
The horned cow-goddess of love, she was also the deity of happiness, dance and music, and a protector of women. She is depicted as a cow, as a woman with the head of a cow, or as a woman who wears the stylized cow-horns which hold in them the solar disk.
Her name is – Hathor…
The ancient Egyptians saw Hathor as beauteously dancing ahead of the sun, and with the rattling and shaking of the sistrum and necklace, she provided a seductive means of attracting the sun to follow her…It was said that when a child was born, Seven Hathors came to his bedside to announce his fate. The Seven Hathors were believed to know the future and the moment of death for every Egyptian.
Hathor is a nice and joyful one of Ancient Egyptian gods. But as with many other Gods in Ancient Egypt, she also had a "dark side" in her personality. One of the appearances of Hathor – Sekhmet - the lioness-headed goddess of war and destruction. She was created by the fire of Ra’s eye. Ra created her as a weapon of vengence to destroy men for their wicked ways and disobedience to him:
...So at the terrible glance from the Eye of Ra his daughter Sekhmet came into being, the fiercest of all goddesses. Like a lion she rushed upon her prey, and her chief delight was in slaughter, and her pleasure was in blood…
When Ra finally realised what he has done, he tried to call Sekhmet off. But sure enough, once she’s tasted the blood, blood became – the only thing what she wanted. And even Ra couldn’t stop her. So he devised a cunning way. He took a beer and coloured it with the red ochre from Aswan’s quarries, and the beer looked like a blood. Then he poured it out over the fields in the place where Sekhmet was planning her next slaughter. So when the Lioness got there, she mistaken the coloured beer for a blood and start to lick it…
Then she laughed with joy, and her laughter was like the roar of a lioness hungry for the kill. Thinking that it was indeed blood, she stooped and drank. Again and yet again she drank, laughing with delight; and the strength of the beer mounted to her brain, so that she could no longer slay...At last she came reeling back to where Ra was waiting; that day she had not killed even a single man...Then Ra said: "You come in peace, sweet one." And her name was changed to Hathor, and her nature was changed also to the sweetness of love and the strength of desire. And henceforth Hathor laid low men and women only with the great power of love…
Her cult was centered in Dendarra…And that’s exactly the reason why we went to Dendarra that is situated in about 60 km from Luxor. The temple is absolutely wonderful and preserved in very good condition. The ceiling of the hall, which retains much of its original colour, is decorated as symbolic chart, divided into several bands, of the heavens, including signs of the zodiac. There is also a room on the roof, which contains a plaster copy of the famous "Dendarra Zodiac", the original, thanks to Napoleon, is now in the Louver in Paris.
The temple has at least 3 levels. For a small "favour" fee to the guard, we had an opportunity to explore a little bit the underground level – labyrinth of narrow shafts and passages. There are lots of quite impressive wall carvings there, mostly dedicated to the gods and scenes of offerings to them. It is thought, that they were storage rooms for the gifts to gods collected by the priests.
On the ground level there is, like in any temple, the hypostyle hall and behind it – an inner chapel and lots of small shrines around it, dedicated to the various gods and kings. On both sides of the hall there are staircases for the priest’s processions during the festivals, leading to the roof. Interesting that on one side the wall carvings on the staircase all looked in descending direction, and on the other – all in – ascending, following the direction of the procession. (or rather – all way around – the procession would strictly follow the directions drawn on the walls)
On the roof level there are few rooms dedicated mostly to Osiris and Horus and again – lots of astrological pictures on the walls and ceilings. Also there is a "Kiosk" with twelve Hathor-headed columns on the roof, where the statue of the goddess used to stay overnight during the festivals…
To get to the Dendarra temple we needed to use a convoy again (and same convoy took us the same day to another temple – in Abydos) so unfortunately our time in the temple of Hathor has been pretty limited. Which left a deep wish to return to this place, if I ever make it again to Egypt. This is one of those places, where you wish, you’d have all day to wonder around. To sit on the roof, watching over the sun setting down…it was an unexplainable feeling of someone’s presence in the temple......When I walked inside, I couldn’t help but feel as if some eyes were following me everywhere…the great goddess Hathor? Her(?!) presence was so tangible in this place. The Temple offered a refuge from the outside heat and once you’ve got inside, you just want stay there forever…
Hathor images are very different from "standard" images of any other Egyptian goddess. Her face is somewhat broad and placid, sometimes she is depicted with the ears or horns of a cow. Hathor's hair is dressed in very special fashion. This style is utterly distinctive and looks surprisingly modern. It is simplicity in the extreme: a simple flip, often parted down the middle. Later this hairstyle most commonly seen in the depiction of deities, especially beautiful love goddesses, perhaps demonstrating their self-confidence.
The beauty of your face Glitters when you rise
Oh come in peace. One is drunk At your beautiful face,
O Gold, Hathor
If I were to say which ancient goddess appeal to me the most, it would definitely be Hathor. For first of all, she doesn’t feel like an abstract religious concept, but rather – very "human" one, a component of everyday life. To compare Hathor with the other great Goddess – Isis, I would say they differ quite a lot. There is tragedy in the myth of Isis, she is the bereaved widow, the self-less, devoted single mother. The example of ideal Wife and Mother. For all Isis' fame as the Mistress of Magic, she cannot avoid pain, grief and desolation. In her legend there are plenty of both the noblest and the most hopeless aspects of human nature. Hathor, on the other hand, is the representation of success. She lacks the ambivalence that Isis sometimes possesses. Instead Hathor has an absolute focus. She also has that "bad" part of her as well as good part and that’s just feels like she is – closer to the human beings…like one of us…isn’t she?