CHAPTER FOUR

CHARACTER AND SIGNIFICANCE OF HATH OR

Hathor was a goddess who fired the religious imagination of the

Egyptians from the very earliest times. She was a mighty goddess, a
versatile personality. Hathor appears in so many guises that she leaves
an almost chameleon-like impression. On the one hand she was a
fetishistic, local goddess, on the other a cosmic power. Alternately she
is a cow-goddess, a tree-goddess, a patroness of love, of song and dance
and a bestower of all abundance, a protectress of the dead, a sky-goddess,
a sun-eye, a royal goddess and, moreover, she is concerned with
foreign lands.
She is truly an imposing figure. No one could wonder at her being
the subject of an impressive cult, at glorious festivals being held in her
honour, as is witnessed by the texts and representations in the temples
of Dendera, Edfu, Esna and Philae. She could pride herself on her
great popularity and her ability to win the love of her adherents,
especially the women. The beautiful hymns dedicated to her are
convincing proof of this. These songs also reveal that Hathor could
evoke sincere piety.
There can be no doubt that such a mighty goddess had a homo-
geneously composed character, even though, at first sight, this seems
to be a paradoxical idea. How, then, can an explanation be found for
her seemingly disparate guises and.for the very essence of her being.
When seeking to find the answer to the former, H. FRANKFORT 1
pointed the way with his thesis that the Egyptians followed the
principle of 'the multiplicity of approaches' to assess, describe and
comprehend the essence of their gods. This principle implies that, in
ancient Egypt, pronouncements could be made about a god which
outwardly are contradictory and incompatible. In reality they are
various approaches to the mysterious being of the divinity. Each of
such figurations contains a part of the truth, and together they convey
the many-sided character of the god in question.
Hathor's nature was so complex that the Egyptians were able to
discover different facets in it. In her being there are inner contra-

1 H. FRANKFORT, Ancient Egyptian Religion, 1948 p. 4, 18, 19. 91, 121.

 CHARACTER AND SIGNIFICANCE OF HATHOR 103

dictions, antithetic tendencies which nevertheless preserve a mutual

equilibrium. It is precisely these polar tensions that made Hathor such
a warm-blooded divine personality.
As cow-goddess she is the personification of the primeval, creative
and divine power. She is the motherly being who promotes fertility, the
goddess of abundance who brings about all good things, 1 the mistress
of the viands and of food 2 who creates the bread and the beer, 3 the
bestower of the blessing of children, the donor of health, 4 the mistress
of longevity. As tree-goddess she has the same function, for the tree
is the manifestation of self-renewing life. Little wonder that she was
loved by both the living and the dead. The deceased hoped to be of
service to her so that they might attain to a blessed destiny in the life
hereafter. The living allowed themselves be swept along in her whirl-
wind traces, for Hathor is the goddess of enthusiasm. She loves music,
song and dance and revels in happy feasts. At times her cult assumed
an ecstatic character. The festival of inebriety is a testimonial of this:
the wine both entranced and soothed the goddess - her adherents
sought inner liberation in exuberant and enthusiastic merry-making.
In addition to the elan so characteristic of her, Hathor remains
faithful to the cosmic order. This is not a flagrant contradiction, for
to the Egyptian mind the cosmic order is not a causality ordained by
nature, but is propelled by the wisdom and the dispositions of creative
divine life. It is in this light that Hathor should be seen as sky-goddess,
sun-eye and royal goddess. The sky, across which the sun-god follows
his regular course, represents an unshakable order. In its majesty the
nocturnal sky with which Hathor is allied bespeaks profound wisdom.
As sun-eye she chastises the evil-doers and the rebellious. As royal
goddess she protects the king, whose duty it is to maintain order in
society. In these qualities Hathor is closely akin to Ma-a-t, indeed to
such a degree that the two goddesses often accompany, or are identified
with each other in the temple of Dendera. 5 The seven Hathors also
fit into this context. Together they represent destiny, which according
to the Egyptian conception was the consequence of world order.
Hathor's attributes tell us of her ina special way, her headdress and

1 A.N.E.T. p. 970.
2 MARIETTE, DencUrah, I 60e..
3 Op. cit. 55e..
4 Le8 pelerinage8, p. 56.
5 MARIETTE, Dendirah II, 41e., 46b, 52b.