Hathor

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Egyptian goddess of love, music and joy, crowned with a sun disc between cow horns

Hathor, in Egyptian Het-Heru, "House of Horus," is the ancient Egyptian goddess of love, beauty, music, dance and joy. Devotees honour her as a sky goddess and mother of the sun, and as a goddess of motherhood and childbirth. She is also Mistress of Turquoise, patron of miners and of foreign lands, and she welcomes the dead in the West.

Her cult is very old and was firmly established by the Old Kingdom. Dendera was her chief centre, with major worship at Memphis and Deir el-Bahari. Kings and ordinary families honoured her with music, dance and feasting, and the rustle of the sistrum was thought to please her. The Greeks identified her with Aphrodite. Today Kemetic practitioners, including Kemetic Orthodoxy, founded in 1988, keep her worship alive.

See the gallery

Head of a cow goddess, ca. 1300–1080 BCE. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 1919 (CC0)

How to recognise Hathor

Horns and sun discA woman wearing cow horns that hold a sun disc, often red and sometimes with a uraeus cobra, is her most common form and her key mark; Isis later borrowed this crown but is usually shown with a throne-shaped headdress.
SistrumShe holds the sistrum (sesheshet), a ceremonial rattle with a handle and a frame, often carrying her face, whose rustling sound imitated papyrus reeds and was believed to soothe her.
Cow ears and gentle faceShe may appear with a cow's ears set into or beside her wig, and a serene, gently smiling face, as seen on sistra and temple columns.
Hathor wigA dark tripartite wig, sometimes with curled ends and a fillet, gave its name to the 'Hathor wig'.
Broad collarA wide beaded collar (usekh) lies across her chest, and a related beaded menat, which could be shaken like a rattle, is linked to her and her priestesses.
Sheath dressShe usually wears a close-fitting dress in red or turquoise; red is often used for her, while turquoise is described as her sacred colour.
Cow formAs a gentle cow she wears the sun disc between her horns, often with a uraeus and plumes, sometimes nursing the king, as on a New Kingdom plaque from her shrine at Deir el-Bahari in the Met.

Names and titles

Lady of MusicOne of her titles, alongside 'Lady of the Chorus Dance', for her care of music and dance
Mistress of TurquoiseHer title as patron of the turquoise and copper mines of Sinai, linked to her sacred colour
House of HorusThe literal meaning of her name, ḥwt-ḥr
The Great One of Many NamesA title for a goddess whose roles and names were so many that she mattered in every area of life
Mother of MothersHer title as goddess of women, children and childbirth

Feast days

Tekh1 October 2027 (date to be confirmed)

Tekh, the "Festival of Drunkenness", marked the return of the Eye of Ra. Devotees understood this as a fierce goddess pacified and made gentle as Hathor. It was kept at temples of Hathor and other Eye goddesses.
How it's celebrated. Ancient accounts describe music, dancing, feasting and drinking in temples and in homes and shrines. Celebrants slept and were woken by drums, then honoured Hathor. Modern Kemetic groups such as Kemetic Orthodoxy keep ancient festivals in modern ways, and say not every ancient rite is known. I found no detailed account of a modern Tekh rite, and practice varies.
Sources: Brookston Beer Bulletin: Hathor, Egyptian Goddess of Drunkenness · Ancient Origins: The Ancient Egyptian Festival of Drunkenness · Kemetic Orthodoxy: Festivals