Stone head representing the goddess Hathor in cow-like form, dating to the reign of Amenhotep III, of the XVIIIth dynasty (1390-1352 B.C.), in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Hathor was probably an ancient mother goddess of Egyptian earliest religion and her cult center was at Dendera, in Upper Egypt. The goddess had a primary importance particularly during the New Kingdom, when she was frequently depicted in the shape of a cow suckling the young pharaoh. Hathor personified female sensuality, dance, music and drink; as “bringer of fertility” she was regarded as a nurturing goddess, who protected women in childbirth. But she had also a m ore darker aspect, which manifests itself in certain mythological narrations, in which she is sent by the solar god Ra to accomplish the destruction of humanity. In some texts of medical and magical content and in temples, mention is made of the “Seven Hathors” (the goddess in her various manifestations), which were present ath the birth of a baby and predicted the fate of the new born (Lesko 2005d, Remler 2010).


[Image: http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/search-the-collections/544481]