Editing Hathor (section)

===Motherhood and queenship===
[[File:Hatshepsut temple5.JPG|thumb|alt=Relief of a cow with a disk between her horns. A human wearing a crown drinks from her udders.|Hathor as a cow suckling [[Hatshepsut]], a female pharaoh, at Hatshepsut's [[temple of Hatshepsut|temple at Deir el-Bahari]] ([[15th century BC]]).]]
Hathor was considered the mother of various child deities. As suggested by her name, she was often thought of as both Horus's mother and consort.{{sfn|Lesko|1999|pp=82–83}} As both the king's wife and his heir's mother, Hathor was the divine counterpart of human queens.{{sfn|Graves-Brown|2010|p=130}}

Isis and Osiris were considered Horus's parents in the [[Osiris myth]] as far back as the late Old Kingdom, but the relationship between Horus and Hathor may be older still. If so, Horus only came to be linked with Isis and Osiris as the Osiris myth emerged during the Old Kingdom.{{sfn|Hart|2005|p=62}} Even after Isis was firmly established as Horus's mother, Hathor continued to appear in this role, especially when nursing the pharaoh. Images of the Hathor-cow with a child in a papyrus thicket represented his mythological upbringing in a secluded marsh. Goddesses' milk was a sign of divinity and royal status. Thus, images in which Hathor nurses the pharaoh represent his right to rule.{{sfn|Pinch|1993|pp=175–176}} Hathor's relationship with Horus gave a healing aspect to her character, as she was said to have restored Horus's missing eye or eyes after Set attacked him.{{sfn|Wilkinson|2003|p=140}} In the version of this episode in "The Contendings of Horus and Set", Hathor finds Horus with his eyes torn out and heals the wounds with gazelle's milk.{{sfn|Pinch|2002|pp=131–132}}

Beginning in the [[Late Period of Egypt|Late Period]] (664–323 BC), temples focused on the worship of a divine family: an adult male deity, his wife, and their immature son. Satellite buildings, known as [[mammisis]], were built in celebration of the birth of the local child deity. The child god represented the cyclical renewal of the cosmos and an archetypal heir to the kingship.{{sfn|Meeks|Favard-Meeks|1996|pp=183–184}} Hathor was the mother in many of these local [[divine triad]]s. At Dendera, the mature Horus of Edfu was the father and Hathor the mother, while their child was [[Ihy]], a god whose name meant "sistrum-player" and who personified the jubilation associated with the instrument.{{sfn|Wilkinson|2003|pp=132–133}} At [[Kom Ombo]], Hathor's local form, Tasenetnofret, was mother to Horus's son Panebtawy.{{sfn|Wilkinson|2003|pp=123, 168}} Other children of Hathor included a minor deity from the town of [[Hu, Egypt|Hu]], named Neferhotep,{{sfn|Wilkinson|2003|pp=132–133}} and several child forms of Horus.{{sfn|Hart|2005|p=71}}

The milky sap of the [[ficus sycomorus|sycamore tree]], which the Egyptians regarded as a symbol of life, became one of her symbols.{{sfn|Roberts|2000|pp=26–27}} The milk was equated with water of the Nile inundation and thus fertility.{{sfn|Richter|2016|pp=179–182}} In the late Ptolemaic and [[Egypt (Roman province)|Roman Periods]], many temples contained a creation myth that adapted long-standing ideas about creation.{{sfn|McClain|2011|pp=3–6}} The version from Hathor's temple at Dendera emphasizes that she, as a female solar deity, was the first being to emerge from the primordial waters that preceded creation, and her life-giving light and milk nourished all living things.{{sfn|Richter|2016|pp=169–172, 185}}

Hathor's maternal aspects can be compared with those of Isis and Mut, yet there are many contrasts between them. Isis's devotion to her husband and care for their child represented a more socially acceptable form of love than Hathor's uninhibited sexuality,{{sfn|Griffiths|2001|p=189}} and Mut's character was more authoritative than sexual.{{sfn|te Velde|2001|p=455}} The text of the [[1st century AD|1st century CE]] [[Insinger Papyrus]] likens a faithful wife, the mistress of a household, to Mut, while comparing Hathor to a strange woman who tempts a married man.{{sfn|te Velde|2001|p=455}}