LIST OF EGYPTIAN GODS AND GODDESSES

GODS WITH ANIMAL FEATURES

Taweret

Thoeris (Taurt, Taweret), the hippopotamus-goddess, was a beneficent deity and the patron of woman in child-birth. Sekhmet (Sakhmet), a lion-headed goddess worshipped in Memphis area, was the wife of Ptah and harbinger of destruction to the enemies of Re. Wepwawet (Upuaut), the jackal-god of Asyut in Middle Egypt, was a god of the necropolis and an avenger of Osiris. [Source: Minnesota State University, Mankato, ethanholman.com +]

Several gods and goddesses had association with snakes, particularly cobras. Edjo (Wadjet, Buto) was the cobra-goddess of Buto in the Delta and tutelary deity of Lower Egypt. She appeared on the royal diadem, protecting the king. Neheb-kau , the serpent deity of the underworld, was sometimes represented by a with holding the eye of Horus. Renenutet (Ernutet, Thermuthis), the goddess of harvest and fertility, was represented as a snake or a snake-headed woman. +\

Many gods and goddesses were associated with birds, particularly falcons. Nekhbet, the : vulture-goddess of Nekheb (modern El-Kab), was tutelary deity of Upper Egypt. She sometimes appeared on the royal diadem beside the cobra (Edjo). Re-harakhty , a god who took the form of a falcon, embodied characteristics of Re and Horus. His name meant ''Horus of the Horizon'’. Sokaris (Sokar, Seker), a falcon-headed god, had his necropolis and cult-center in Memphis.

Hat-mehit , the fish-goddess of Mendes in the Delta; was sometimes represented as a woman with a fish on her head. Heqet was the frog-goddess of Antinoopolis where she was associated with Khnum. She helped women during child-birth. Arsaphes (Herishef) was a ram-headed god from, Heracleopolis.

Books: "The Routledge Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses" by George Hart, an Egyptologist at the British Museum; "Gods and Men in Egypt: 3000 B.C. to 395 CE" by Françoise Dunand, professor emeritus of history at the University of Strasbourg in France, and Christiane Zivie-Coche, director emeritus of studies at École Pratique des Hautes Etudes, also in France (Cornell University Press, 2004).

Websites on Ancient Egypt: UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, escholarship.org ; Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Egypt sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Discovering Egypt discoveringegypt.com; BBC History: Egyptians bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/egyptians ; Ancient History Encyclopedia on Egypt ancient.eu/egypt; Digital Egypt for Universities. Scholarly treatment with broad coverage and cross references (internal and external). Artifacts used extensively to illustrate topics. ucl.ac.uk/museums-static/digitalegypt ; British Museum: Ancient Egypt ancientegypt.co.uk; Egypt’s Golden Empire pbs.org/empires/egypt; Metropolitan Museum of Art www.metmuseum.org ; Oriental Institute Ancient Egypt (Egypt and Sudan) Projects ; Egyptian Antiquities at the Louvre in Paris louvre.fr/en/departments/egyptian-antiquities; KMT: A Modern Journal of Ancient Egypt kmtjournal.com; Egypt Exploration Society ees.ac.uk ; Amarna Project amarnaproject.com; Abzu: Guide to Resources for the Study of the Ancient Near East etana.org; Egyptology Resources fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk

Local Deities, Deified Humans and Gods of Foreign Origin

Imhotep

Montu (Munt) was originally the local deity of Hermonthis, just south of Thebes. During the 11th dynasty, he became the falcon-headed war-god of the Egyptian king and a state god. He was associated with king Montuhotep I (“Montu is satisfied”), who reunited Upper and Lower Egypt after the chaos of the First Intermediate Period. During the Twelfth Dynasty Montu fell out of favor and was displaced by of Amun, who took many qualities of Montu when warrior kings such as Thutmose III and Rameses II identified themselves with him.[Source: Mark Millmore, discoveringegypt.com discoveringegypt.com, Minnesota State University, Mankato, ethanholman.com +]

Imhotep (Imouthes) was the deified chief minister of Djoser and architect of the Step Pyramid. In the Late Period (712–332 B.C.) he was venerated as the god of learning and medicine and represented as a seated man holding an open papyrus. He was equated by the Greeks with Asklepios. +\

Several Egyptian goddesses were of Syrian origin. Anat , with a warlike character, was represented as a woman holding a shield and an axe. Astarte (As-start-a) was introduced into Egypt during the 18th Dynasty. She was also known as The Queen of Heaven and her cult often also worshiped Isis. Qadesh was usually represented as a woman standing on a lion's back. Reshef (Reshpu), the god of war and thunder, was of Syrian origin. +\

Sarapis , a god introduced into Egypt in the Ptolemaic Period, had characteristics of Osiris and Greek god Zeus. He was represented as a bearded man wearing a modius head-dress, His Egyptian written name (Osiris-Apis) may be an attempt to hide this god’s true origins. +\

Onuris (Anhur), the God of This in Upper Egypt, was the divine huntsman and was represented as a man. Sopdu , the ancient falcon-god of Saft el-Henna in the Delta, was a a warrior-god and protector of the eastern frontier often represented as an Asiatic warrior. Sokaris (Sokar, Seker), a falcon-headed god, had his necropolis and cult-center in Memphis. Nefertum , the god of the lotus, and hence of unguents; was worshiped at Memphis as the son of Ptah and Sakhmet. He was represented as a man with a lotus-flower head-dress. +\

Ra, Shu, Nut and Geb

Nut and Geb Ra (Re) was the ancient Egyptian sun god. According to ancient Egyptian creation myth, before the world emerged from the waters of chaos Ra appeared. He was so powerful that all he had to do was say the name of something and it came into being. "I am Khepera at the dawn, and Ra at noon and Tum in the evening," he declared and the first day was created. When he cried "Nut" the goddess of the sky took her place between the horizons. And when he the shouted "Hapi" the sacred river Nile began flowing through Egypt. After filling the world with beautiful things Ra said the words "man" and "women" and thus people were created. Ra then transformed himself into man, thus becoming the first pharaoh. [Source: Roger Lancelyn Green, Tales of Ancient Egypt]

The ancient Egyptians believed the sun was a god (Ra) who visited the underworld, a watery realm of the demons of the dead, where he battled with the serpent of chaos, and victoriously returned to the day each morning. They believed the Sun-god Ra rode across the sky from east to west in a “day boat” and changed to a “night boat” for the return trip through the underworld. He rose in the jaws of a lion in the East and set in the jaws of a lion in the West and was guided at night through the waters of chaos. The myths about Ra, it has been argued, made sense to the ancient Egyptians because they did not contradict what they saw with the naked eye.

Shu was the god of air. Shu separated space into Geb (earth) and Nut (sky). Osiris, Isis, Seth and Nephyhys were all offspring of Geb and Nut. Geb was the Earth god. He is sometimes depicted with an erect penis and was sometimes represented by a crocodile.

Nut was the sky-goddess. She was the great mother who held up the canopy of the sky. From her breast poured the Milky Way. In one tomb painting she is shown with her legs spread and her lover Geb, with an erect penis, reaching for her. Pharaohs often claimed to be the offspring of Nut and Geb, or as Pepi II put it from "between the thighs of Nut."

Osiris, Seth and Isis

Seth Osiris is the God of the Dead and the Afterlife. He was Judge of the Divine Court and presided over the judgement of the dead. He was the first mummy and one of the most revered and powerful deities. He is often depicted with a tall conehead-like headdress and a crook in one hand and a flail in the other. These object are often pictured on images of pharaohs to represent their divine power. Isis was Osiris’s wife. Seth was his evil brother. Osiris was a human who died and was resurrected as a god. He acted sort of like an Egyptian Jesus, giving humans the hope of an afterlife. Many Christian rituals — crucifixes, rosaries, communion and holy water — can be traced back to the Egyptian Osiris cult.

Isis is the Goddess of Maternity and Magic. The wife and sister of Osiris, she is often topless and dressed in a red dress. She was originally a local god in northern Egypt. According to legend Osiris was originally a local fertility god in southern Egypt. He was slain by his evil brother Seth and had his body parts scattered all over the world. Isis collected the pieces and wrapped them in a magical cloth woven from her hair by the embalming god Anubis, allowing Osiris to be reborn as the god of the dead. In one version of the story his body was torn into 14 pieces and all of them were found except one piece — Osiris’s penis. Mummification is viewed as reenactment of the events of Osiris’s death.

Seth (also known as Set, Setekh, Suty and Sutekh) was the son of Geb and Nut, and the evil brother of Osiris. The god of storms, darkness, chaos, confusion and violence, he murdered Osiris and was identified with many animals, including the pig, donkey, desert oryx, okapi, and hippopotamus, and sometimes represented as an animal of unidentified type. He murdered his brother of Osiris and was the enemy and rival of Horus. [Source: Minnesota State University, Mankato, ethanholman.com]

Hathor, Horus, Min and Thoth

20120214-262px-Horus_standing.svg.png
Horus Hathor was Queen of the Skies and the Goddess of Love, Joy, Music, Beauty Healing, Fertility and Motherhood. She is the wife of Horus and is often depicted with the head or ears of a cow (sometimes called "star studded cow"). She is sometimes linked to drunkenness and is often associated with the Thebean Necropolis. She looks very similar to Isis. See Apophis, Sekmet, Hathor and Good and Evil. See Below

Dendara (near Cairo) is the home of the Temple of Hathor, dedicated to the cow-headed goddess of healing. One of the best preserved temples in Egypt, it was built in the first century B.C. by the Ptolemaic Greeks and is famous for a ceiling painting, with astronomical symbols, and its great Hypostyle Hall. It even has a roof. The temple incorporates both Greek and Egyptian architectural styles. The 24 massive papyrus pillars in the main hall are capped with images of Hathor and decorated with hieroglyphics and Egyptian symbols. The stone ceiling features an Egyptian version of the star-lit sky, with goddess Nut, who, Egyptians believed, spanned the sky with her body and swallowed the sun each night and gave birth to it each morning. One of one of the walls is a famous picture of Cleopatra and Caesarian, her son from Julius Caesar.

Horus was the falcon-headed sky god. He is the son of Osiris and Isis. Isis gave birth to Horus after Osiris was murdered and hid him from his wicked uncle Seth by concealing him under her magic hair. Horus was king of the living. He is often identified with protection and associated with pharaohs.

Thoth is the ibis-headed god of wisdom, knowledge, learning, writing, measurement, historical records, science, magic and scribes. He had a good memory and was involved in the after-life ceremony of the dead in which the heart was weighed against the feather of truth. Thoth is the lord of the moon and is sometimes represented as a baboon. Temples devoted to Thoth were often filled with caged ibises and other birds that were mummified after death.

Min , the god of sexual fertility, appeared in both human form and as an erect phallus. It was no surprise that he was worshiped by a fetish cult similar to the one that honored Dionysus (Bacchus) in Greece.

Anubis and Other Gods Associated with the Dead

20120214-800px-Anubis_jackal.svg.png
Anubis Anubis was the jackal-headed god of the dead, and mummification. Even though jackals were dreaded because they dug up the graves of the dead, Anubis was watchful-guardian deity who watched over the dead. After death it was Anubis who guided the deceased to the hall of judgment. See Funerals, Judgement.

Anubis (also known as Anpu) was depicted as a jackal-headed man, or as a jackal. His father was Seth and his mother Nephythys, making him the son of an incestuous union. His cult center was Cynopolis, now known as El Kes. Anubiswas the patron of embalmers, healers, and surgeons and was invoked in both healing and mummification ceremonies, preparing the dead for the Underworld and healing the living. Anubis is considered to be the great necropolis-god. [Source: Minnesota State University, Mankato, ethanholman.com, [Source: Mark Millmore, discoveringegypt.com discoveringegypt.com]]

Barbara Waterson wrote: “Anubis was embodied in the jackal, or wild dog, that the Egyptians often saw scavenging in cemeteries: hence he was associated with the dead. He was depicted as a black jackal-like creature, or as a man with a jackal's head. Early on in Egyptian history, before Osiris rose to prominence, Anubis was the great funerary god, lord and guardian of the necropolis. Prayers for the dead were addressed to him. He carried out the first mummification of the body of Osiris, and therefore became patron-god of embalmers. It was Anubis who guided the dead on the paths of the Underworld. [Source: Barbara Waterson, BBC, March 29, 2011]

Isis, Nephthys, Neith and Selket were the four female benefactors of the dead identified by the Greeks with Athena. who guarded coffins and Canopic jars. They acted as mourner for Osiris and hence for other dead people. The four sons of Horus — Imsety, Hapy, Qebhsenuef and Duamutef — guarded the shrines of internal organs among other duties.

Selket was a goddess who guarded the shrines of internal organs, was so powerful she could cure the sting of the scorpion. She is often depicted with a scorpion on her head. The artisan-god Khnum is credited with creating human beings on his potter's wheel. Kheperi was the God of the Rising Sun and Resurrection. Montu was the God of War.

20120214-227px-Amun_post_Amarna.svg.png
Amun Neith (Net), Goddess of Sais, was represented as a woman wearing the red crown, her emblem, and a shield with crossed arrows. Selkis (Selkit, Selkhet, Serqet) was the scorpion-goddess, identified with the scorching heat of the sun. She was sometimes depicted as a woman with a scorpion on her head. She was so powerful she could cure the sting of the scorpion.

Nephthys (Nebet-het) was the sister of Isis, the daughter of Geb and Nut, wife of Seth and mother of Anubis, Mark Millmore wrote in discoveringegypt.com: “Nephythys is depicted as a woman with the hieroglyphs for a palace and ‘Neb’ (a basket) on her head. She is thus known as “Lady of the Mansions” or “Palace.” Nephythys was disgusted by Seth’s murder of Osiris and helped her sister, Isis, against her husband, Seth. Together with Isis she was a protector of the dead, and they are often shown together on coffin cases, with winged arms. She seems to have had no temple or cult center of her own.” [Source: Mark Millmore, discoveringegypt.com discoveringegypt.com]

Atum, Mut, Amun and the Thebean Triad

As Thebes became powerful in the Middle Kingdom the influence of its local gods grew. Its primary god Amun became a dominant god in all of Egypt, with connections to the sun god Ra and the pharaoh. The word "amen" is said to have originated in ancient Egypt as a tribute to Amun. When the Egyptians prayed they said "By Amun!," a custom that was picked up by the Hebrews and later passed on to the Christians.

Amun was originally a local god of fertility and growth. Amun-Re (a combination of Amun and the sun god Re) became the state god during the New Kingdom. Mut was the wife of Amun. Mut (which means "vulture") is symbolically portrayed in the form of a vulture. Khonsu was the son of Amun and Mut. Amun, Mut and Khonsu are referred to as the Thebean triad.

Atum (Atem) was a supreme god with connections to the creator god and "the god of the visible disc of the sun." He had his own city within which a temple was dedicated to him. Atum had some similarities with Amun. A descendent of the sun-god Ra, Atum emerged from a chaotic ocean known as Nun and immaculately conceived and gave birth to Shu (air) and Tefenet (moisture).

The “Pyramid Texts” provide three possibilities for how this was achieved. In one passage Atum's hand is referred to as a goddess (some say this implies masturbation). In another passage in another text he describes himself as hermaphrodite ("I am he who engendered Shu: I am he-she”). And in yet in another passage he vomits as the two gods.

Bastet, the Cat God, and Bes, the Lion-Faced Dwarf

Bastet was depicted as a woman with a cat’s head or simply as a cat. Originally an avenging lioness deity, she evolved into a goddess of pleasure. Her cult-center was at Bubastis in the eastern Nile Delta. Regarded as a beneficent deity in the Late Period (712–332 B.C.), she was the patron and protector of cats and women. Many cats lived at her temple. A huge cemetery of mummified cats was discovered nearby.[Sources: Minnesota State University, Mankato, ethanholman.com, +\ Mark Millmore, discoveringegypt.com discoveringegypt.com ^^^]

Barbara Waterson of the BBC wrote: Bastet “was probably worshipped originally as a wild cat (Felis vercata maniculata), but her later manifestations were as the domestic cat that was introduced into Egypt around 2100 B.C. She was depicted as a woman with a cat's head, or in the form that is familiar to us from the numerous Late-Period statues of her, that of a lissom and majestic queen cat. Although a virgin goddess she was nevertheless the mother of a son, Mihos. In the Late Period her popularity was so great that worshippers flocked to her temple for the annual festival held in her honour. The Greeks identified her with Artemis, the divine huntress.” |[Source: Barbara Waterson, BBC, March 29, 2011]

Bes was a grotesque dwarf-deity with leonine features. Regarded as a domestic deity and the god of fun, he was associated with good times and entertainment and was believed to protect worshipers against snakes and other dangerous creatures. He also chased away demons of the night. Unlike the other gods, Bes is represented full face rather than in profile, often with bandy legs and his tongue sticking out. +\ ^^^

Images of Bes are often found in Egypt. The deity is often depicted playing music and is credited with protecting women during childbirth. In the early 2020s, a gold ring with an engraving of Bes was unearthed at a burial in the northern part of the ancient city of Akhetaten (modern-day Amarna), about 300 kilometers (186 miles) south of Cairo. [Source Owen Jarus, Live Science, December 17, 2022]

Ma’at

Ma’at (Maat, Maate) was the winged Goddess of Justice. She was often represented with her wings spread on lintels over doorways in the tombs of pharaohs and their wives in the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens. Seshat, the goddess of writing and the divine keeper of royal annals, was represented as a woman.

The Goddess of Truth, Justice and Orderly Conduct, Maate was typically represented as a woman with an ostrich-feather on her head. During the judgement of the dead she was the one who held the scales which weighed the human heart. [Source: Minnesota State University, Mankato, ethanholman.com]

Maat

Mark Millmore wrote in discoveringegypt.com: “Embodying the essential harmony of the universe., she was depicted as a seated woman wearing an ostrich feather, or sometimes just as the feather itself. Her power regulated the seasons and the movement of the stars. Ma’at was the patron of justice and the symbol of ancient Egyptian ethics, so the Vizier who was in charge of the Law Courts went by the title Priest of Maat. Ma’at was the ultimate judge in the afterlife, and the heart of the newly deceased was weighed against her feather in the Hall of Two Truths. Ammut, devourer of the dead, ate those who failed her test.” [Source: Mark Millmore, discoveringegypt.com discoveringegypt.com]

Nikolaos Lazaridis of Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands wrote: “In contrast to the multitude of debatable terms used in modern ethics, the only Egyptian term evidently employed in association with a body of moral values and their application was maat. Maat was the name of the goddess of “justice” and “cosmic order,” but also an abstract term for “justice,” “truth,” and “balance,” embodying the gist of a proper code of conduct—the very nucleus of Egyptians ethics—and hence opposed by the terms jsft (“sin, wrong”) and grg (“lie”). The goddess Maat was the daughter, and an essential aspect (Teilmacht), of the sun god; she was featured in a wide range of religious and mythological works and had a cult and a number of cultic sites dedicated to her. As an abstract notion, maat personified the divine and cosmic order and was included in the epithets of several gods—for example, Ptah (as Creator), Horus (as a sky god), and Thoth were often granted the epithet “Lord of Maat”.” [Source: Nikolaos Lazaridis, Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands, UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology 2008, escholarship.org ]

Sobek, the Crocodile God, and Other Nile Gods

Amenhotep III and Sobek

Sobek (Sebek, Suchos), the crocodile-god, was worshiped throughout Egypt, but especially in Faiyum, and at Gebelein and Kom Ombo in Upper Egypt. He was usually depicted as a crocodile on an altar or as a man with a crocodile head wearing a headdress with a sun disk with upright feathers and horns. Sobek’s main cult centers were at Medinet el Faiyum and at the temple of Kom Ombo, which he shared with Horus and can be visited today. At this temple there was a pool where sacred crocodiles were kept. Original mummified crocodiles ate still kept at the temple. [Source: Mark Millmore, discoveringegypt.com discoveringegypt.com, ^^^Minnesota State University, Mankato, ethanholman.com +]

Hapi (Hap) was the god of the Nile in inundation. He was represented as a pot-bellied man with full, heavy breasts, a clump of papyrus on his head, carrying heavy offering-tables. Hapi was not the god of the river Nile but of its inundation. He was thought to live in the caves of the first cataract, and his cult center was at Aswan. ^^^ +\

Khnum , the ram-headed god of Elephantine, was the god of the Cataract-regio and is thought to have molded man on a potter's wheel. A potter and protector of the source of the Nile, he was based on Elephantine Island near Aswan but his best-preserved temple is at Esna. The “Famine Stele” contains appeals to Khnum during a famine caused by a low inundation of the Nile. ^^^ +\

Anukis (Anqet) was the goddess of the cataract-region at Aswan. The wife of Khnum, she was represented as a woman with a high feather head-dress. Satis (Satet), the goddess of the Island of Siheil in the Cataract-region, was represented as a woman wearing a white crown with antelope horns. She was the daughter of Khnum and Anukis. +\

Hathor, the Cow-Headed Goddess of Love and Destroyer of Mankind

Hathor was Queen of the Skies and the Goddess of Love, Women, Pleasure, Intoxication, Joy, Music, Beauty Healing, Fertility and Motherhood. The daughter of Ra and the wife of Horus, she is depicted in three forms: 1) as a cow (sometimes called the "star studded cow"), 2) as a woman with the ears of a cow, and 3) as a woman wearing the headdress of a cow’s horns. In the last manifestation, she is often depicted holding the solar disc between her horns. Hathor was closely associated with Horus, as his wife and the mother of his son, Hor-sma-tawy. Her name means “House of Horus.” She looks very similar to Isis. See Apophis, Sekmet, Hathor and Good and Evil

Hathor

Hathor had many functions and attributes, including the suckler of the king, and the patron deity of unmarried women and the mining-region of Sinai. With the help of the dwarf-like god Bes, she protected women in childbirth. She is sometimes linked to drunkenness and is often associated with the Thebean Necropolis. As Hathor-of-the-West she was a goddess of the dead. Identified by the Greeks with Aphrodite, their goddess of love, fertility, women, and also their protector, she was sent by the sun god Ra to cleanse the land of disbelievers. After slaying all who opposed Ra, she asked to rest, and became the equivalent to the Greek form of Aphrodite. There are many other myths with Hathor as the central character. [Sources: Minnesota State University, Mankato, ethanholman.com, Barbara Waterson, BBC, March 29, 2011]

Known as the 'Golden One', Hathor had many temples honoring her, including ones in the cult-centers at Memphis, Cusae and Gebelein. The most famous was in her cult center of Dendara (near Cairo). One of the best preserved temples in Egypt, it was built in the first century B.C. by the Ptolemaic Greeks and is famous for a ceiling painting, with astronomical symbols, and its great Hypostyle Hall. It even has a roof. The temple incorporates both Greek and Egyptian architectural styles. The 24 massive papyrus pillars in the main hall are capped with images of Hathor and decorated with hieroglyphics and Egyptian symbols. The stone ceiling features an Egyptian version of the star-lit sky, with goddess Nut, who, Egyptians believed, spanned the sky with her body and swallowed the sun each night and gave birth to it each morning. One of one of the walls is a famous picture of Cleopatra and Caesarian, her son from Julius Caesar.

Mark Millmore wrote in discoveringegypt.com: “There was a dark side to Hathor. It was believed that Ra sent her to punish the human race for its wickedness, but Hathor wreaked such bloody havoc on earth that Ra was horrified and determined to bring her back. He tricked her by preparing vast quantities of beer mixed with mandrake and the blood of the slain. Murdering mankind was thirsty work, and when Hathor drank the beer she became so intoxicated that she could not continue her slaughter.” [Source: Mark Millmore, discoveringegypt.com discoveringegypt.com]

Hathor Temple at Dendara

Dendara (near Qena, 40 kilometers north of Luxor) is the home of the Temple of Hathor, dedicated to the cow-headed goddess of healing. One of the best preserved temples in Egypt, it was built in the first century B.C. by the Ptolemaic Greeks and is famous for a ceiling painting, with astronomical symbols. Its great Hypostyle Hall even has a roof.

The temple incorporates both Greek and Egyptian architectural styles. The 24 massive papyrus pillars in the main hall are capped with images of Hathor and decorated with hieroglyphics and Egyptian symbols. The stone ceiling features an Egyptian version of the star-lit sky, with the goddess Nut, who, Egyptians believed, spanned the sky with her body and swallowed the sun each night and gave birth to it each morning. One of one of the walls is a famous picture of Cleopatra and Caesarian, her son from Julius Caesar.

Dedicated to Hathor in 380 B.C., the Temple of Dendara was known as the “Castle of the Sistrum” or “Pr Hathor”— House of Hathor. Mark Millmore wrote in discoveringegypt.com: “With the exception of its supporting pillars, which had capitals sculpted in the image of Hathor and were defaced by the Christians, the walls, rooms, and roof are complete and extraordinarily well preserved. The stone steps of the spiral staircase are time worn but may still be used to ascend to the roof, where there is a small chapel decorated with Hathor-headed columns. [Source: Mark Millmore, discoveringegypt.com discoveringegypt.com]

In ancient times, Dendara was associated with healing. Patients who traveled there for cures were housed in special buildings where they could rest, sleep, and commune with the gods in their dreams. There have been temples on this site ever since the Old Kingdom, but the present temple was begun in the reign of Ptolemy VIII. The building we see today was constructed and added to from about 116 B.C. to 34 AD. The temple bears the name of Cleopatra and her son. It is not known if she visited the temple but she may have climbed the same stairs that visitors use today. Hundreds of birds roost in small cracks and hollows in the walls near likenesses of themselves in the hieroglyphic reliefs.

family relations between the gods

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, escholarship.org ; Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Egypt sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Tour Egypt, Minnesota State University, Mankato, ethanholman.com; Mark Millmore, discoveringegypt.com discoveringegypt.com; Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Discover magazine, Times of London, Natural History magazine, Archaeology magazine, The New Yorker, BBC, Encyclopædia Britannica, Time, Newsweek, Wikipedia, Reuters, Associated Press, The Guardian, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, “World Religions” edited by Geoffrey Parrinder (Facts on File Publications, New York); “History of Warfare” by John Keegan (Vintage Books); “History of Art” by H.W. Janson Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.), Compton’s Encyclopedia and various books and other publications.

Last updated July 2024