She was a sky goddess, associated with Horus, an earth goddess – as attested by one of her epithets “Lady of the Sycamore” – a solar goddess (through her association with Ra), and also presided over affairs of the heart, sexuality, natural beauty, dance and music, diplomacy with foreign nations, fertility – of the land, people, and animals – and motherhood.
Early depictions of the goddess show a queenly woman with the sun disk and horns on her head later she came to be seen as a woman with the head of a cow or, simply, as a cow, symbolizing her life-giving energy and bounty toward humanity. Hathor was a multifaceted goddess, appealed to for a wide variety of needs, who provided many of the best aspects of life to humanity. This practice seems to have existed in oral tradition and is poorly attested but is in keeping not only with the worship of the goddess Hathor but the value of harmony in Egyptian culture and the importance of maintaining a light heart of gratitude for all the good gifts of the gods. One of the people’s personal observances, notably among the poor peasant farmers, is said to have been the ritual of the Five Gifts of Hathor which encouraged gratitude on a daily basis by reminding one of all there was to be thankful for, no matter what losses one may have endured.
Through prayer, festivals, and personal religious observances, one could maintain a light heart, enjoy a full life and, after bodily death, be assured that one would not be judged harshly by Osiris and lose one’s hope of paradise. Ingratitude was the “gateway sin” which opened the soul up to all the negative energies of doubt, distrust, envy, bitterness, and self-centered absorption. A vital aspect of maintaining this balance was gratitude which would elevate a person’s journey through life and, after death, allow one to offer one’s heart – lighter than a feather – to the god Osiris in the Hall of Truth before passing on the paradise of the Field of Reeds. Keeping balance in one’s life encouraged the same in one’s family and, by extension outward, one’s neighborhood, community, city, and the entire nation. The central cultural value of ancient Egypt was ma’at – harmony and balance – which maintained the order of the universe and the lives of the people. The statuette currently belongs to the Egyptian Museum in Turin, Italy. The statuette was made in Egypt during the Ramesside period (1292-1076 BCE).
This statuette portrays a worshipper holding an image of the head of Hathor, an Egyptian goddess of fertility and motherhood.
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