46. Hathor

Hathor: Egyptian Goddess of Love, Beauty, Motherhood, and Nourishment

100 Gods/Goddesses Challenge

Hathor! One of my favourite Egyptian Goddesses. X3
She was lots of fun to colour. c:

What is interesting about Hathor to me?
First of all she (and her alter ego Sekhmet) has a strong parallel in Hindu Mythology (not just because she's a cow) with Durga/Kali; more specifically 'Goddess of the Breast vs. Goddess of the Tooth'. There are lots of interesting conclusions about what femininity and the roles and potentials of women, but I'll save that for later when I talk about Sekhmet or Kali.

Secondly, although the Greeks identified her with Aphrodite and the Romans with Venus, Hathor seems to have a much stronger connection to motherhood and nourishment. I think all three cultures would agree that love is a necessity (physical or emotional), but there is definitely a very strong and apparent connection between love and motherhood in the Egyptian mythology. Passion, Sexuality, and Beauty, although definitely important to the Egyptians, seem to come in second to this attribute... to me, anyway.

Hathor has a really messy family tree- there was one version of a myth that is a lot like a modern Wiccan belief in relation to the seasons in which the Goddess gives birth to, falls in love with, and copulates with her male counterpart. (The male counterpart dies and is reborn again, as such a cycle of the seasons.) However since there is really only one major season in Egypt (HOT.) it was more closely connected with the cycles of Day and Night- Hathor was paired in this way with Ra, the sun god. She's also sometimes associated with the inundations of the Nile. Sometimes she's merged with Isis, who is one of the ideal mother figures in mythology.
Oh, and she's also thought to welcome the dead to the afterlife and give them nice food and stuff. If you were a nice person, that is.

It was common in certain periods of Egyptian history to colour men with red skin and women with yellow. This is because women typically have lighter skin than men to absorb more nutrients (think babies) and also because it was an ideal of beauty to have light skin (staying indoors = aristocrat). Hathor is described as having golden skin. :3

I drew her with milk (she's often depicted giving milk since she's a cow hurrdurr) and cookies! Because cookies are awesome! ;w; That's my 1950s-obsessed side poking through, I guess. If you think about the connection between Hathor and Sekhmet, you can either think of Hathor as the embodiment of everything positive about being female... or you can think of her as a 1950s housewife pumped up on valium. XDD