Editing Hathor (section)

==Origins==

[[File:Narmer Palette recto.svg|thumb|right|alt=Drawing of a slate carved with reliefs|Drawing of the [[Narmer Palette]], {{circa}}31st century BC. The face of a woman with the horns and ears of a cow, representing Hathor or [[Bat (goddess)|Bat]], appears twice at the top of the palette and in a row below the belt of the king.]]

Images of [[Ancient Egyptian cattle|cattle]] appear frequently in the [[art of ancient Egypt|artwork]] of [[Predynastic Egypt]] (before {{circa|3100 BC}}), as do images of women with upraised, curved arms, reminiscent of the shape of bovine horns. Both types of imagery may represent [[ancient Egyptian deities|goddesses]] connected with [[Cattle in religion|cattle]].{{sfn|Hassan|1992|p=15}} Cows are [[cattle in religion and mythology|venerated in many cultures]], including ancient Egypt, as symbols of motherhood and nourishment, because they care for their calves and provide humans with milk. The [[list of ancient Egyptian palettes#Gerzeh Palette|Gerzeh Palette]], a [[cosmetic palette|stone palette]] from the [[Naqada&nbsp;II]] period of prehistory ({{circa|3500–3200 BC}}), shows the silhouette of a cow's head with inward-curving horns surrounded by stars. The palette suggests that this cow was also linked with the sky, as were several goddesses from later times who were represented in this form: Hathor, [[Mehet-Weret]], and [[Nut (goddess)|Nut]].{{sfn|Lesko|1999|pp=15–17}}

Despite these earlier precedents, Hathor is not unambiguously mentioned or depicted until the [[Fourth Dynasty of Egypt|Fourth Dynasty]] ({{circa|2613–2494 BC}}) of the [[Old Kingdom of Egypt|Old Kingdom]],{{sfn|Wilkinson|1999|pp=244–245}} although several artifacts that refer to her may date to the [[Early Dynastic Period (Egypt)|Early Dynastic Period]] ({{circa|3100–2686 BC}}).{{sfn|Gillam|1995|p=214}} When Hathor does clearly appear, her horns curve outward, rather than inward like those in Predynastic art.{{sfn|Fischer|1962|pp=11–13}}

A bovine deity with inward-curving horns appears on the [[Narmer Palette]] from near the start of Egyptian history, both atop the palette and on the belt or apron of the king, [[Narmer]]. The Egyptologist Henry George Fischer suggested this deity may be [[Bat (goddess)|Bat]], a goddess who was later depicted with a woman's face and inward-curling horns, seemingly reflecting the curve of the cow horns.{{sfn|Fischer|1962|pp=11–13}} The Egyptologist Lana Troy, however, identifies a passage in the [[Pyramid Texts]] from the late Old Kingdom that connects Hathor with the "apron" of the king, reminiscent of the goddess on Narmer's garments, and suggests the goddess on the Narmer Palette is Hathor rather than Bat.{{sfn|Wilkinson|1999|pp=244–245}}{{sfn|Troy|1986|p=54}}

In the Fourth Dynasty, Hathor rose rapidly to prominence.{{sfn|Lesko|1999|pp=81–83}} She supplanted an early crocodile god who was worshipped at [[Dendera]] in [[Upper Egypt]] to become Dendera's [[patron deity]], and she increasingly absorbed the cult of Bat in the neighboring region of [[Hu, Egypt|Hu]], so that in the [[Middle Kingdom of Egypt|Middle Kingdom]] ({{circa|2055–1650 BC}}) the two deities fused into one.{{sfn|Fischer|1962|pp=7, 14–15}} The theology surrounding the [[pharaoh]] in the Old Kingdom, unlike that of earlier times, focused heavily on the sun god [[Ra]] as [[king of the gods]] and father and patron of the earthly king. Hathor ascended with Ra and became his mythological wife, and thus divine mother of the pharaoh.{{sfn|Lesko|1999|pp=81–83}}