The goddess Hathor. Detail
Detail. The king, who wears the Khat on his head, is welcomed into the otherworldly world by the goddess Hathor and Anubis, the jackal-headed embalming god. The goddess, wearing a white bandage on her head as a sign of mourning, offers life to the king by bringing the ankh close to his face. Hathor was a very ancient deity whose name Ht-Hr means 'the abode of Horo'. She was considered the goddess of music, dance, joy and love as well as being the protector of the monarchy, but she also had a funerary character and was worshipped on the western shore of Thebes, the area of royal and private necropolises. A goddess of many epithets, associated with other important Egyptian and later near-eastern female deities, she was worshipped throughout Egypt.
