Hathor
Hathor West AsiaCow goddesses were worshipped in several parts of Egypt, but they were early identified with Hathor of Denderah. She was represented as either a cow with the solar disc or a woman with cow's horns between which was the solar disc. Occasionally she even appeared as a hippopotamus, though her epithet was always ‘the golden’. A fertility goddess, Hathor attended at childbirth and was regarded as the tutelary deity of beauty, love, and marriage. Sometimes she was identified with Isis, the wife of Osiris.
According to one legend, the doting sun god Re used Hathor to slaughter mankind. Nervous and uncertain of his power, he was so convinced that men were plotting against him that he sent the Eye of Re, in the form of the goddess Hathor, to destroy the impious. But, unwilling to witness universal destruction, he flooded the fields with beer, dyed with red ochre to resemble blood. Entranced by the sight as well as her own reflection,...
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