5 sections of this entry are open to everyone: the summary, the people, the symbols, the lineage and the sources. The other 9 (Name and epithets, In the ancient sources, The myths, Worship and archaeology, How the god was depicted, What scholars debate, After antiquity, Did you know?, Codex relic) are part of the full Codex: PRO opens the whole study of all 500 deities, and without a subscription you can read one full entry a day, just like in the app.
The Egyptian gods were worshipped for over three millennia along the banks of the Nile, with monumental temples at Karnak, Luxor, and Heliopolis. The pharaohs were held to be divine, and life revolved around cosmic order (Maat) and preparation for the afterlife. The cult endured until the rise of Christianity in Roman Egypt.
At the Opet festival, Amun's sacred barque sailed from Karnak to Luxor amid celebrating crowds. In the temples, priests woke, dressed, and fed the god's statue every day, and the Beautiful Festival of the Valley carried the deities to visit the shore of the dead.
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At a glance
Hathor (Ḥwt-Ḥr) is the radiant, motherly cosmic goddess of sublime love, feminine beauty, sacred sensuality, ecstatic music, ritual dance, festive joy, the fertility of mothers, and sovereign lady of the afterlife in Ancient Egypt. Venerated since the archaic age, with the peak of her cult centred on the monumental Temple of Dendera in Upper Egypt, her own theological name (‘The House of Horus’) expresses her identity as the celestial womb where the falcon sun god is begotten, nourished and received each day in his cosmic flight. She is depicted as an aristocratic woman crowned with cow horns between which shines the solid gold solar disc; as the celestial cow Mehet-Weret, whose four legs support the starry vault of heaven; or in the form of the Hathoric pillar with a feminine face and soft bovine ears. Hathor welcomed the souls of the dead at the western mountain of Thebes with baskets of figs and fresh sycamore water, presiding over the Seven Hathors of human destiny and embodying the power of sacred love that dispels all the sorrows of the world. She is the welcoming smile of the universe, who nourishes gods and humans with the milk of eternal life, spreading music, sweetness and joy to every corner of the earth. Her almond-shaped eyes and her crown of horns and gold are the safe refuge where all mothers and travellers find comfort, peace and perpetual joy. The goddess of love and joy nourishes the hearts of mortals with sweetness and affection, blessing families with lasting peace, sacred music and everlasting cosmic harmony. Her radiant beauty and maternal tenderness welcome every human generation with love, compassion and eternal abundance. Her loving presence lights up existence with peace, beauty and perpetual joy in every home.
14 min read · Reviewed on September 28, 2026 · How we research
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Sacred symbols
Cow, sistrum, the solar disk between horns, the mirror and turquoise
Genealogy according to Textos das Pirâmides; Livro dos Mortos; Inscrições do Templo de Dendera; Papiro Westcar; Papiro de Turim
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Sources and further reading
Primary sources
Sylvie Cauville, Dendara: The Temple of Hathor. translation: IFAO, 1995.
Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Vol. III. translation: University of California Press, 1980.
Studies
Carolyn Graves-Brown, Dancing for Hathor: Women in Ancient Egypt. Continuum, 2010.
Christiane Desroches Noblecourt, La Femme au Temps des Pharaons. Stock, 1986.
E. A. Wallis Budge, The Gods of the Egyptians, vol. I, pp. 433–434. 1904. open
Name and epithets
The archaic Egyptian theonym Ḥwt-Ḥr (Hathor, Hat-hor or Athyr in Greek) is written in hieroglyphs with the ideogram of a sacred enclosure or palace (ḥwt) containing the sacred falcon (Ḥr, Horus).
In the ancient sources
Inscriptions of the Temple of Hathor at Dendera., 2nd century BCE to 1st century CE (Greco-Roman Period).. The greatest theological repository of the Hathoric cult, describing the New Year festivals and the Festival of…
The myths
The Pacification of the Solar Fury and the Dance of the Golden Mirror.. In the ancient narratives preserved on the sacred walls of Dendera and in the cycle of the “Distant Goddess”, it is told how the fierce lioness Sek…
Worship and archaeology
The cult of Hathor was one of the most universal, joyful, passionate and architecturally spectacular of the whole pharaonic civilisation.
How the god was depicted
The iconographic representation of Hathor, in limestone sculpture, rock-cut chapels and jewels of gold, turquoise and carnelian, is the supreme personification of aristocratic grace, refined sensuality and the maternal…
What scholars debate
The Dialectic between Sacred Eroticism and Cosmic Maternity in Hathoric Theology.. Egyptologists, gender historians and cultural anthropologists such as Christiane Desroches Noblecourt, Carolyn Graves-Brown and Geraldin…
After antiquity
In contemporary times and in the global imagination, Hathor is universally admired as one of the most luminous, affectionate and inspiring presences in the whole history of world religions.
Did you know?
The famous Zodiac of Dendera, carved on the ceiling of the Osiris chapel in the Temple of Hathor, was removed in 1821 by Sebastien Saulnier with the permission of the governor of Egypt, and is today one of the most visi…
Codex relic
Sacred Sistrum. A ritual rattle whose sound wards off evil and fills hearts with music, dance, and love.
The rest of this scroll is sealed
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