Hathor Facts & Worksheets

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One of Egypt’s most well-liked deities, Hathor, was highly revered throughout the kingdom. She was revered as the goddess of music, dancing, and beauty, as well as of mothers, women, and the health of women’s bodies and minds. She embodied happiness, kindness, festivity, and love. She was also related to Venus, the sky, the motion of the planets, birth, rebirth after death, and the periodic renewal of the universe.

See the fact file below for more information on Hathor, or you can download our 32-page Hathor worksheet pack to utilize within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

ORIGIN OF HATHOR

• Although Egyptians didn’t appear to mind contradiction, two different legends about Hathor’s beginnings were given. The two narratives are as follows:
  • According to one legend found in the ancient book The Book of the Heavenly Cow, the goddess Sekhmet, known as Hathor, was sent by the deity Ra, or Re, to exact revenge on people for their ungratefulness. 
• Re resolved to sate her blood desire by having Tenenet, the goddess of beer, cook up a blood-red concoction to get Sekhmet intoxicated because it was obvious that Sekhmet carried out the punishment too successfully. Sekhmet was changed into the kind Hathor, who gave presents to people when she awoke.
  • In a different tale, the goddess Isis took the form of Hathor during the celestial conflict between Horus and Set. The story claims that Set and Horus battled it out for Osiris’ reign. 
• Isis became Hathor after she was given a cow’s head as a replacement head after losing her own during the battle. 
• As the Mother Goddess throughout Egyptian history, Hathor was linked to several gods, such as the Seven Hathors, who helped women give birth.

ROLE OF HATHOR

• Hathor appeared in a broad range of jobs and assumed many different shapes. 
• According to Egyptologist Robyn Gillam, various local goddesses worshipped by the ordinary public were absorbed by the royal goddess favored by the Old Kingdom court and viewed as manifestations of Hathor, which led to the emergence of these many forms. 
• Egyptian literature sometimes refers to the goddess’ incarnations as “Seven Hathors” or, less frequently, as many as 362. She is described by Gillam as “a type of deity rather than a single entity” as a result of these things. 
• The variety of qualities that the Egyptians connected with goddesses is reflected in Hathor. She best represents the Egyptian conception of womanhood more than any other divinity.

SKY GODDESS

• The titles “mistress of the sky” and “mistress of the stars” were given to Hathor, who was supposed to live in the sky alongside Ra and other sun gods. 
• According to their creation stories, the Egyptians equated the sky with the rivers from whence the sun first appeared in the cosmos and saw it as a body of water on which the sun god floated. 
• This mother deity of the cosmos was frequently depicted as a cow. 
• It was believed that Mehet-Weret and Hathor were the cows that gave birth to the sun deity and put him between their horns. 
• Every dawn, Hathor was thought to give birth to the sun deity, just like Nut.
• The Egyptian name for Hathor was ḥwt-ḥrw or ḥwt-ḥr. Although “house of Horus” is the usual translation, it might also mean “my house is the sky.” 
• Horus, the falcon-headed deity, stood for the sun and sky among other things. 
• The “house” in question may be the sky, where Horus resides, or the goddess’ womb, where he is born every day as a sun god.

SOLAR GODDESS

• As the feminine counterpart of sun gods like Horus and Ra, Hathor was a solar deity. She was also a part of Ra’s retinue as he rode his barque through the skies. She occasionally merged with Nebethetepet, a goddess whose name might mean “Lady of the Offering,” “Lady of Contentment,” “Lady of the Offering.” or “Lady of the Vulva.”
• She was commonly known as the “Golden One,” alluding to the brightness of the sun, and texts from her temple at Dendera state that “her rays illuminate the whole earth.” 
• Rudolf Anthes, an Egyptologist, asserted that Hathor’s name related to a mythological “house of Horus” in Heliopolis that was associated with the concept of monarchy. Hathor-Nebethetepet was worshipped as Ra’s wife there.
• She was one of several goddesses who assumed the position of the Eye of Ra, a feminine representation of the sun’s disk and a sphere of power that extended from Ra. 
• Ra was occasionally shown inside the disk, according to Troy, who takes this to suggest that the eye goddess was viewed as the womb from whence the sun god was born.
• The daily cycle of the sun was echoed in Hathor’s roles as mother, Ra’s wife, and the daughter of Ra. In a cycle of perpetual renewal, Ra created the eye goddess, his daughter, who in turn created him, her son.
• The Eye of Ra, which frequently took the form of a lioness or uraeus—a cobra rearing—protected the sun god from his foes. The “Hathor of the Four Faces” version of the Eye of Ra, symbolized by a group of four cobras, was thought to look out in each cardinal direction for dangers to the sun god. A collection of tales that date back to the New Kingdom (c. 1550–1070 BCE) explain what happens when the Eye goddess goes on an unchecked rampage.
• Ra punishes people for attempting to overthrow his authority by sending Hathor, the Eye of Ra, according to the funerary literature known as the Book of the Heavenly Cow. 
• Ra resolves to stop her from annihilating all of mankind when she transforms into the lioness goddess Sekhmet and slaughters the disobedient humans. 
• He gives the order to distribute red-colored beer throughout the country. The Eye goddess consumes the beer, thinking it to be blood, and in her drunken state transforms back into the amiable and attractive Hathor. 
• The myth of the Distant Goddess, which dates back to the Late and Ptolemaic eras, is connected to this tale. 
• The Eye goddess, who occasionally takes the shape of Hathor, rebels against Ra’s rule and goes on the rampage in a distant country, either Nubia in the south or Libya to the west of Egypt. Ra, who is now weaker because of the loss of his Eye, asks another deity, such as Thoth, to bring her to him. 
• After being appeased, the goddess departs and returns to marry the sun god or the god who summons her. According to Egyptologist Carolyn Graves-Brown, the two facets of the Eye goddess—violent and deadly vs. lovely and joyful—reflected the Egyptian view that women “encompassed both extreme passions of fury and love.”

FATE

• Hathor was associated with shai, the Egyptian idea of fate, just as Meskhenet, another goddess who oversaw birth, especially when she assumed the shape of the Seven Hathors. 
• The Hathors appear at the births of important characters and predict how they will die in two works of literature from the New Kingdom, “The Tale of Two Brothers” and “Tale of the Doomed Prince.” The Egyptians had a propensity to view fate as inevitable. 
• However, the protagonist of “The Tale of the Doomed Prince” is able to avoid one of the violent deaths that the Seven Hathors had predicted for him. Although the story’s conclusion is missing, the remaining passages suggest that the prince can avoid his fate with the aid of the gods.

AFTERLIFE

• Although Hathor is very sometimes mentioned in the Pyramid Texts, the earliest Egyptian funeral writings, she is regularly associated with the afterlife in Middle Kingdom Coffin Texts and subsequent sources. She was also called in private tomb inscriptions from the same era.
• Hathor crossed the line separating Egypt from other countries at the same time as she did the line separating the living world from the Duat, the world of the dead. 
• She was intimately connected to tomb sites, where that shift started, and assisted the spirits of departed humans as they entered the Duat.
• The goddess of the west, known as Imentet, who was occasionally thought to be a manifestation of Hathor, was personified as the necropolises, or groups of graves, on the west bank of the Nile. 
• For instance, the Theban Necropolis was sometimes shown as a stylized mountain with the cow of Hathor protruding from it.
• She also played a part in the afterlife in her function as a sky goddess. 
• The sky goddess—either Nut or Hathor—helped Ra in his daily rebirth; therefore, she had a significant role in the afterlife beliefs of ancient Egypt, which held that the dead reincarnated like the sun god. 
• The underworld, including coffins and tombs, was thought to be this goddess’ womb, where the souls of the dead would be reborn.
• In various accounts, Nut, Hathor, and Imentet could all guide the dead to a location where they would receive food and drink for everlasting nourishment. 
• As a result, Hathor, as Imentet, frequently makes an appearance on tombs, welcoming the departed as her child into a happy afterlife. 
• The afterlife was frequently represented in New Kingdom funerary writings and artwork as a lovely, productive garden over which Hathor occasionally ruled. 
• The goddess of the afterlife, who greeted the dead and gave them water, was frequently depicted in the form of a tree. 
• The most frequent performer of this function was Nut; however, the tree goddess was occasionally named Hathor.
• There was a sexual component to the afterlife. According to the Osiris myth, the dead deity Osiris was raised to life when he mated with Isis and gave birth to Horus. 
• According to solar philosophy, Ra’s marriage to the sky goddess enabled his own rebirth. Therefore, sexual activity made it possible for the dead to come back to life, and goddesses like Isis and Hathor helped them do so. 
• But rather than taking the stage, they just encouraged the male deities’ regenerative abilities.
• To associate the names of the departed with Osiris’s resurrection, ancient Egyptians prefixed their names with his name. Henutmehyt, for instance, would be referred to be “Osiris-Henutmehyt”. 
• They began to connect the departed with both male and female heavenly forces throughout time. 
• Women were rumored to have joined the worshipers of Hathor in the afterlife as early as the late Old Kingdom, just as males had done with Osiris. 
• Around 1070–664 BCE, during the Third Intermediate Period, Egyptians started replacing Osiris’ name with that of Hathor when referring to departed women. Ladies who benefitted from both gods’ revivifying abilities were often referred to as “Osiris-Hathor” ladies. 
• In these latter ages, Hathor was said to have the same authority over the afterlife as Osiris.

WORSHIP: TEMPLES OF EGYPT

• Compared to other Egyptian goddesses, Hathor had the most temples built in her honor. 
• Her most significant place of devotion during the Old Kingdom was in the Memphis area, where “Hathor of the Sycamore” was revered at several locations around the Memphite Necropolis.
• Her primary Memphis temple during the New Kingdom era was the Temple of Hathor of the Southern Sycamore. She was identified as the daughter of Ptah, the principal deity of the city at that location. 
• A temple dedicated to Hathor-Nebethetepet that was most likely constructed during the Middle Kingdom was part of the worship of Ra and Atum in Heliopolis, northeast of Memphis. 
• Close to the shrine, two trees that were possibly venerated as representations of the goddess included a willow and a sycamore.
• The Fourth Dynasty is when Dendera, Hathor’s earliest temple in Upper Egypt, was built. It gained more significance after the fall of the Old Kingdom than her Memphite temples. 
• Throughout Egyptian history, the temple complex was expanded by several monarchs. 
• The final version of the temple is among the most well-preserved Egyptian temples from that time period, which was constructed during the Ptolemaic and Roman periods.
• In all Egyptian temples, the daily ritual was generally the same; however, the offerings made may differ depending on which deity received them. In addition to sistra and menat necklaces, wine and beer were frequently offered to Hathor and the deities associated with her during ceremonies in her honor. 
• They were presented with a pair of mirrors that represented the sun and moon throughout the Late and Ptolemaic eras.
• The Kushite monarch Taharqa replaced New Kingdom Egyptian temples that would have been devoted to these same goddesses at Jebel Barkal, a place consecrated to Amun, with a pair of temples, one to Mut and one to Hathor as Amun’s consorts. 
• But Isis was the most well-known Egyptian deity to be venerated in Nubia, and her standing there grew through time.

POPULAR WORSHIP

• Egyptians privately worshipped deities for individual reasons, including at their homes, in addition to performing formal and public ceremonies at temples. 
• Children were highly wanted in ancient Egypt, despite the fact that birth was dangerous for both mother and child. 
• Since healthy childbirth and reproduction are among the most important issues in popular religion, fertility goddesses like Taweret and Hathor were frequently worshipped in home shrines. 
• The sole known birth brick from ancient Egypt is adorned with an image of a lady cradling her child and is surrounded by representations of Hathor.
• Egyptian women gave birth while squatting on bricks. 
• Although the significance of these statues is unknown, it is commonly believed that they show Hathor or Isis and Aphrodite combining to make a gesture that symbolizes fertility or protection from evil.
• Several gods, including Amun, Ptah, and Thoth, were frequently prayed to for assistance with personal issues. Hathor was one of them. 
• At temples or modest shrines devoted to the gods they worshipped, many Egyptians offered offerings. Most sacrifices made to Hathor were made for their symbolic meaning rather than for their actual worth. 
• Offerings of various kinds may have represented various donor aims, but their significance is mostly unclear. Images of Hathor, like those of the mother cow in the marsh, referred to her mythological functions.
• Sistra sacrifices may have been intended to calm the goddess’ negative qualities and bring forth her favorable ones, while phalli offerings may have been intended to invoke fertility, as evidenced by an inscription on one specimen.
• Some Egyptians also left written prayers for Hathor, either as graffiti or inscriptions on stelae.
• Some deities, like Amun, were prayed to because it was believed that they would punish wrongdoers and cure those who repented of their wrongdoing. 
• Prayers to Hathor, on the other hand, exclusively speak of the advantages she may provide, such as plenty of food while living and a lavish funeral after death.

Hathor Worksheets

This fantastic bundle includes everything you need to know about the Egyptian Goddess Hathor across 32 in-depth pages. These ready-to-use worksheets are perfect for teaching kids about Hathor. One of Egypt’s most well-liked deities, Hathor, was highly revered throughout the kingdom. She was revered as the goddess of music, dancing, and beauty, as well as of mothers, women, and the health of women’s bodies and minds.

Complete List of Included Worksheets

Below is a list of all the worksheets included in this document.

1. Hathor Facts
2. Goddess Profile
3. Fact or Bluff
4. Giving Respect
5. Tales of Beginning
6. Your Story to Tell
7. A Symbol to Remember
8. New Version
9. Temple of Faith
10. Mask of Goddess
11. Rewrite Your Fate

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Hathor?

Hathor is an ancient Egyptian goddess associated with beauty, love, music, dance, and fertility. She was often depicted as a cow or as a woman with a cow’s head. Hathor was highly revered and worshipped in ancient Egypt.

What was the role of Hathor in ancient Egyptian mythology?

Hathor played multiple roles in ancient Egyptian mythology. She was known as the “Mistress of Heaven” and was associated with the sun, sky, and stars. She was also considered a protective goddess and was believed to welcome the deceased into the afterlife.

What symbols or attributes are associated with Hathor?

Hathor was often depicted with symbols such as the sun disk with cow horns and a headdress of stars. She was also associated with the sistrum, a musical instrument, which symbolized her connection to music, joy, and dance.

How was Hathor worshipped in ancient Egypt?

Worship of Hathor took various forms in ancient Egypt. Temples were dedicated to her throughout the land, with the most famous one being the Temple of Hathor at Dendera. Devotees would offer prayers, music, and dance to honor her, seeking her blessings for fertility, protection, and joy.

Is Hathor still worshipped today?

While the ancient worship of Hathor has diminished, she continues to be revered and studied by modern followers of Egyptian mythology and those interested in ancient Egyptian culture. Some individuals incorporate Hathor’s attributes and symbolism into their spiritual practices, but it is not a widely practiced religion in the present day.

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Link will appear as Hathor Facts & Worksheets: https://kidskonnect.com - KidsKonnect, June 21, 2023