Hapi (Nile god) 128

Mythology
The annual flooding of the Nile occasionally was said to be the Arrival of
Hapi.[1] Since this flooding provided fertile soil in an area that was otherwise
desert, Hapi, as its patron, symbolised fertility. Due to his fertile nature he was
sometimes considered the "father of the gods",[1] and was considered to be a
caring father who helped to maintain the balance of the cosmos, the world or
universe regarded as an orderly, harmonious system.[1] He was thought to live
within a cavern at the supposed source of the Nile near Aswan.[3] The cult of
Hapi was mainly located at the First Cataract named Elephantine. His priests
were involved in rituals to ensure the steady levels of flow required from the
annual flood. At Elephantine the official nilometer, a measuring device, was
carefully monitored to predict the level of the flood, and his priests must have
been intimately concerned with its monitoring.

It may be the case that originally, Hapi (or a variation on it), was an earlier name
used for the Nile itself, since it was said (inaccurately) that the Nile began
between Mu-Hapi and Kher-Hapi, at the southern edge of Egypt where the two
tributaries entered the region.[citation needed] Nevertheless Hapi was not regarded
as the god of the Nile itself but of the inundation event.[1] He was also considered Another depiction of Hapi, bearing
a "friend of Geb" the Egyptian god of the earth,[4] and the "lord of Neper", the offerings

god of grain.[5]

Iconography
Although male and wearing the false beard, Hapi was pictured with pendulous breasts and a large belly, as
representations of the fertility of the Nile. He also was usually given blue [2] or green skin, representing water. Other
attributes varied, depending upon the region of Egypt in which the depictions exist. In Lower Egypt, he was adorned
with papyrus plants and attended by frogs, present in the region, and symbols of it. Whereas in Upper Egypt, it was
the lotus and crocodiles which were more present in the Nile, thus these were the symbols of the region, and those
associated with Hapi there. Hapi often was pictured carrying offerings of food or pouring water from an amphora,
but also, very rarely, was depicted as a hippopotamus. During the Nineteenth dynasty Hapi is often depicted as a pair
of figures, each holding and tying together the long stem of two plants representing Upper and Lower Egypt,
symbolically binding the two halves of the country around a hieroglyph meaning "union".[2] This symbolic
representation was often carved at the base of seated statues of the pharaoh.[2]

Hymn
The Hymn to the Flood says:
Lightmaker who comes from the dark
Fattener of herds
Might that fashions all
None can live without him
People are clothed with the flax of his fields
Thou makest all the land to drink unceasingly, as thou descendest on thy way from the heavens.
Hapi (Nile god) 129

References
[1] Wilkinson, p.106
[2] Wilkinson, p.107
[3] Wilkinson, p.108
[4] Wilkinson, p.105
[5] Wilkinson, p.117

• Wilkinson, Richard H. (2003). The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson.
ISBN 0-500-05120-8.

External links
• Hapi, God of the Nile, Fertility, the North and South (http://www.thekeep.org/~kunoichi/kunoichi/
themestream/hapi.html)
• Egyptian God - Hapi: Father of the gods (http://www.egyptartsite.com/hapi.html)
• Ancient Egypt: The Mythology - Hapi (http://www.egyptianmyths.net/hapi.htm)

Hapi (Son of Horus)

This article is about the funerary deity. Hapi can also refer to Hapi, a Nile god, or Hapi-ankh, bull deity of
Memphis.

Hapi
in hieroglyphs

Hapi, sometimes transliterated as Hapy, is one of the Four sons of Horus in ancient Egyptian religion, depicted in
funerary literature as protecting the throne of Osiris in the Underworld. He is not to be confused with another god of
the same name. He is commonly depicted with the head of a hamadryas baboon, and is tasked with protecting the
lungs of the deceased, hence the common depiction of a hamadryas baboon head sculpted as the lid of the canopic jar
that held the lungs. Hapi is in turn protected by the goddess Nephthys.[1] When his image appears on the side of a
coffin, he is usually aligned with the side intended to face north.[2] When embalming practices changed during the
Third Intermediate Period and the mummified organs were placed back inside the body, an amulet of Hapi would be
included in the body cavity.[2]
The spelling of his name includes a hieroglyph which is thought to be connected with steering a boat, although its
exact nature is not known. For this reason he was sometimes connected with navigation, although early references
call him the great runner, as below from Spell 521 of the Coffin Texts.

“ You are the great runner; come, that you may join up my father N and not be far in this your name of Hapi, for you are the greatest of my
children - so says Horus"
[3]
”
In Spell 151 of the Book of the Dead he is given the following words to say:

“ I have come that I may be your protection, O N; I have knit together your head and your members, I have smitten your enemies beneath you,
and I have given you your head forever.
[4]
”
As one of the four pillars of Shu and one of the four rudders of heaven he was associated with the North, and is
specifically referenced as such in Spell 148 in the Book of the Dead.
Hapi (Son of Horus) 130

Hapi-(lung) Canopic jar of "Lady God Hapi is spelled: Hapi in the Übersee-Museum
Senebtisi" "h-(Rudder)-
God Hapi is spelled in Egyptian p-
language hieroglyphs: ii-(two reeds)"
"h-p-(det.–Rudder)"

References
[1] David B. O'Connor, Eric H. Cline, Amenhotep III: Perspectives on His Reign, University of Michigan Press 1998, ISBN 0-472-08833-5,
p.121.
[2] Wilkinson, Richard H. The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt. p.88 Thames & Hudson. 2003. ISBN 0-500-05120-8
[3] Raymond Oliver Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts, p.521. David Brown Book Company 2004
[4] Raymond Oliver Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts, David Brown Book Company 2004
Hathor 131

Hathor
Hathor

The goddess Hathor wearing her headdress, a pair of cow horns with a sun disk.

Sky-goddess of love, beauty, motherhood, foreign lands, mining, and music.

Name in hieroglyphs

Major cult center Dendera

Symbol the sistrum

Consort Ra, Horus

Parents Ra or Ptah

Offspring [1]
Ihy, Horus

Hathor (/ˈhæθɔr/ or /ˈhæθər/;[2] Egyptian: ḥwt-ḥr, "mansion of Horus")[1] is an Ancient Egyptian goddess who
personified the principles of joy, feminine love, and motherhood.[3] She was one of the most important and popular
deities throughout the history of Ancient Egypt. Hathor was worshiped by Royalty and common people alike in
whose tombs she is depicted as "Mistress of the West" welcoming the dead into the next life.[4] In other roles she
was a goddess of music, dance, foreign lands and fertility who helped women in childbirth,[4] as well as the patron
goddess of miners.[]
The cult of Hathor predates the historic period, and the roots of devotion to her are therefore difficult to trace, though
it may be a development of predynastic cults which venerated fertility, and nature in general, represented by cows.[5]
Hathor is commonly depicted as a cow goddess with head horns in which is set a sun disk with Uraeus. Twin
feathers are also sometimes shown in later periods as well as a menat necklace.[5] Hathor may be the cow goddess
who is depicted from an early date on the Narmer Palette and on a stone urn dating from the 1st dynasty that
suggests a role as sky-goddess and a relationship to Horus who, as a sun god, is "housed" in her.[5]
The Ancient Egyptians viewed reality as multi-layered in which deities who merge for various reasons, while
retaining divergent attributes and myths, were not seen as contradictory but complementary.[6] In a complicated
relationship Hathor is at times the mother, daughter and wife of Ra and, like Isis, is at times described as the mother
of Horus, and associated with Bast.[5]
Hathor 132

The cult of Osiris promised eternal life to those deemed morally worthy. Originally the justified dead, male or
female, became an Osiris but by early Roman times females became identified with Hathor and men with Osiris.[7]
The Ancient Greeks identified Hathor with the goddess Aphrodite and the Romans as Venus.[8]

Early depictions
Hathor is ambiguously depicted until the 4th dynasty.[9] In the historical era Hathor is
shown using the imagery of a cow deity. Artifacts from pre-dynastic times depict cow
deities using the same symbolism as used in later times for Hathor and Egyptologists
speculate that these deities may be one and the same or precursors to Hathor.[10]
A cow deity appears on the belt of the King on the Narmer Palette dated to the
pre-dynastic era, and this may be Hathor or, in another guise, the goddess Bat with
whom she is linked and later supplanted. At times they are regarded as one and the same
goddess, though likely having separate origins, and reflections of the same divine
Cow deities appear on the concept. The evidence pointing to the deity being Hathor in particular is based on a
Kings belt and the top of passage from the Pyramid texts which states that the King's apron comes from
the Narmer Palette Hathor.[11]

A stone urn recovered from Hierakonpolis and dated to the 1st dynasty has on its rim the
face of a cow deity with stars on its ears and horns that may relate to Hathor's, or Bat's, role as a sky-goddess.[5]
Another artifact from the 1st dynasty shows a cow lying down on an ivory engraving with the inscription "Hathor in
the Marshes" indicating her association with vegetation and the papyrus marsh in particular. From the Old Kingdom
she was also called Lady of the Sycamore in her capacity as a tree deity.[5]
Hathor 133

Relationships, associations, images, and symbols

Hathor had a complex relationship with Ra. At times she is the eye
of Ra and considered his daughter, but she is also considered Ra's
mother. She absorbed this role from another cow goddess 'Mht
wrt' ("Great flood") who was the mother of Ra in a creation myth
and carried him between her horns. As a mother she gave birth to
Ra each morning on the eastern horizon and as wife she conceives
through union with him each day.[5]

Hathor, along with the goddess Nut, was associated with the Milky
Way during the third millennium B.C. when, during the fall and
spring equinoxes, it aligned over and touched the earth where the
sun rose and fell.[12] The four legs of the celestial cow represented
Nut or Hathor could, in one account, be seen as the pillars on
which the sky was supported with the stars on their bellies
constituting the Milky Way on which the solar barque of Ra,
representing the sun, sailed.[13]

Hathor as a cow, wearing her necklace and showing

her sacred eye – Papyrus of Ani.

The Milky Way was seen as a waterway in the heavens, sailed upon by
both the sun deity and the moon, leading the ancient Egyptians to
describe it as The Nile in the Sky.[14] Due to this, and the name mehturt,
she was identified as responsible for the yearly inundation of the Nile.
Milky Way seen as it may have appeared to Another consequence of this name is that she was seen as a herald of
Ancient Egyptians imminent birth, as when the amniotic sac breaks and floods its waters,
it is a medical indicator that the child is due to be born extremely soon.
Another interpretation of the Milky Way was that it was the primal snake, Wadjet, the protector of Egypt who was
closely associated with Hathor and other early deities among the various aspects of the great mother goddess,
including Mut and Naunet. Hathor also was favoured as a protector in desert regions (see Serabit el-Khadim).

Hathor's identity as a cow, perhaps depicted as such on the Narmer Palette, meant that she became identified with
another ancient cow-goddess of fertility, Bat. It still remains an unanswered question amongst Egyptologists as to
why Bat survived as an independent goddess for so long. Bat was, in some respects, connected to the Ba, an aspect
of the soul, and so Hathor gained an association with the afterlife. It was said that, with her motherly character,
Hathor greeted the souls of the dead in Duat, and proffered them with refreshments of food and drink. She also was
described sometimes as mistress of the necropolis.
The assimilation of Bat, who was associated with the sistrum, a musical instrument, brought with it an association
with music. In this later form, Hathor's cult became centred in Dendera in Upper Egypt and it was led by priestesses
and priests who also were dancers, singers and other entertainers.