Cult of Gods

Hathor

Egyptian tradition. See the whole pantheon.

Domains
love, music, joy, motherhood, the sky
Symbols and attributes
Cow; sistrum; sun disk between horns
Parents (per the sources used)
Ra
Papyrus of Ani, British Museum (New Kingdom), a Book of the Dead.
Papyrus of Ani, British Museum (New Kingdom), a Book of the Dead.

Key myth

Daughter of Ra and a patron of women, music and the dead of the Theban necropolis. Texts also call her the Eye of Ra, who in rage became the lion Sekhmet.

Where sources differ or caution applies. Her relation to Isis, Horus and others varies from period to period.

Primary sources

  • Book of the Heavenly Cow
  • Dendera temple inscriptions

All sources for the Egyptian pantheon

Lineage in the sources used: Ra.

Place in the family graph

Choose a deity to see where it comes from. Dashed lines are links the sources describe that are not parent and child.

NunAtumRaAmunShuTefnutMaatHathorSekhmetPtahGebNutAnubisThothSobekOsirisIsisSethNephthysHorus

More traditions

Odin rides to Hel, W. G. Collingwood, after the Poetic Edda.NorseA chaos monster and a sun god, drawn by L. Gruner for A. H. Layard's Monuments of Nineveh.MesopotamianVishvarupa Vishnu, Kashmir or Himachal, in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art collection.HinduFolio 309r of the Book of Kells (Trinity College Dublin), c. 800.Celtic (Irish)

Elsewhere in the world

Deities in other traditions who share a theme with Hathor: love, desire and fertility, sky, storm and thunder. This is overlap in one area only.

Norse

Thor

thunder, protection of gods and people, strength

Norse

Freyr

peace, fertility, sunshine

Norse

Freyja

love, desire, magic (seiðr)

Mesopotamian

Enlil

wind, command, the fates of cities

Hindu

Indra

thunder, rain, kingship of the Vedic gods

Compare across cultures