SG : 1957-59
SCOTT :
1591-93
Hathor
Hathor
(/ˈhæθɔr/
or /ˈhæθər/;
Egyptian: ḥwt-ḥr,
"mansion of Horus") is
an Ancient Egyptian
goddess who personified the principles of joy,
feminine love, and motherhood. She was one
of the most important and popular deities throughout the history of
Ancient Egypt. Hathor was worshiped by Royalty and common people
alike in whose tombs she is depicted as "Mistress of the West"
welcoming the dead into the next life. In other
roles she was a goddess of music, dance, foreign lands and
fertility who helped women in childbirth,
as well as the patron goddess of
miners.
The cult of
Hathor predates the historic period, and the roots of devotion to
her are therefore difficult to trace, though it may be a
development of predynastic
cults which venerated fertility, and
nature in general, represented by
cows.
Hathor is
commonly depicted as a cow goddess with head horns in which is set
a sun disk with Uraeus. Twin
feathers are also sometimes shown in later periods as well as
a menat necklace. Hathor may
be the cow goddess who is depicted from an early date on
the Narmer Palette
and on a stone urn dating from the 1st
dynasty that suggests a role as sky-goddess and a relationship to
Horus who, as a sun god, is "housed" in
her.
The Ancient
Egyptians viewed reality as multi-layered in which deities who
merge for various reasons, while retaining divergent attributes and
myths, were not seen as contradictory but
complementary.In a
complicated relationship Hathor is at times the mother, daughter
and wife of Ra and,
like Isis, is at
times described as the mother of Horus, and associated
with Bast.
The cult
of Osiris promised
eternal life to those deemed morally worthy. Originally the
justified dead, male or female, became an Osiris but by early Roman
times females became identified with Hathor and men with
Osiris.
The Ancient
Greeks identified Hathor with the goddess Aphrodite and the
Romans as Venus.
GOD
ATUM
Atum
(/ɑ-tum/), sometimes rendered as Atem or Tem, is
an important deity in Egyptian
mythology.
HOREMHEB
Horemheb with Amun at the Museo Egizio
Horemheb
(sometimes spelled Horemhab or Haremhab and meaning Horus is in
Jubilation) was the
last Pharaoh of
the 18th
Dynasty from either 1319 BC to late 1292
BC, or 1306 to late 1292 BC (if he ruled for
14 years) although he was not related to the preceding royal family
and is believed to have been of common
birth.
Before he
became pharaoh, Horemheb was the commander in chief of the army
under the reigns of Tutankamun
and Ay. After his
accession to the throne, he reformed the state and it was under his
reign that official action against the preceding
Amarna rulers
began.
Horemheb
demolished monuments of Akhenaten, reusing
their remains in his own building projects, and usurped monuments
of Tutankhamun and Ay. Horemheb presumably remained childless since
he appointed his vizier Paramesse as his successor, who would
assume the throne as Ramesses I.
GOD
AMON
Amun
(also Amon,
Amen, Greek Ἄμμων
Ámmōn, Ἅμμων
Hámmōn) was a local deity of
Thebes. He was
attested since the Old Kingdom
together with his spouse
Amaunet. With
the 11th
dynasty (c. 21st century BC), he rose to the
position of patron deity of Thebes by replacing
Monthu.
After the
rebellion of Thebes against the Hyksos and with the
rule of Ahmose I, Amun
acquired national
importance, expressed
in his fusion with the Sun
god, Ra, as
Amun-Ra.
Amun-Ra
retained chief importance in the Egyptian pantheon
throughout the New Kingdom
(with the exception of the
"Atenist
heresy" under Akhenaten). Amun-Ra
in this period (16th to 11th centuries BC) held the position
of transcendental,
self-created creator deity
"par excellence", he was the champion of
the poor or troubled and central to personal piety.
His position as King of Gods developed
to the point of virtual monotheism
where other gods became manifestations
of him. With Osiris, Amun-Ra is
the most widely recorded of the Egyptian gods.
As the chief deity of the
Egyptian
Empire, Amun-Ra also came to be worshipped
outside of Egypt, in Ancient Libya
and Nubia, and
as Zeus
Ammon came to
be identified with
Zeus in Ancient
Greece.
