To be named

“Years ago, anthropologist Margaret Mead was asked by a student what she considered to be the first sign of civilization in a culture. Mead said that the first sign of civilization in an ancient culture was a femur (thighbone) that had been broken and then healed. Mead explained that in the animal kingdom, if you break your leg, you die. You cannot run from danger, get to the river for a drink or hunt for food. You are meat for prowling beasts. No animal survives a broken leg long enough for the bone to heal. ‘A broken femur that has healed is evidence that someone has taken time to stay with the one who fell, has bound up the wound, has carried the person to safety and has tended the person through recovery. Helping someone else through difficulty is where civilization starts’, Mead said. We are at our best when we serve others. Be civilized.”

“Magic has been linked with a system of jural obligations, since in many places there are words and gestures which are binding sanctions. It true that legal actions may often acquire a ritual character and that contracts, oaths and trials by ordeal are to a certain extent sacramental. Nevertheless, the fact remains that although they contain ritual elements they are not magical rites in themselves. If they assume a special kind of efficacy or if they do more than merely establish contractual relations between persons, they cease to be legal actions and do become magical or religious rites”

Any investigation of Hathor in this role is closely entwined with the sun god Ra as she is his mother, daughter and partner. Whatever Hathor’s association with Ra it is said that ‘she loves Re’. Hathor’s triple relationship with Ra is a way of expressing the idea that Hathor represents a divine energy and potency which is essential to the life of the sun god. She continually renews him but he also generates the energy needed for creation to survive. One cannot exist without the other.

It is easy, and natural, to ask ‘what is she goddess of’ as we like to define deities by areas of responsibility or the natural phenomena that they represent. The Egyptians probably didn’t think that way. To them the deities were primarily possessors of power which they would use in various ways. The Egyptians would pray to any and every deity about everything but there was a degree of specialization which was expressed using names, appearance, and roles in myths. Major deities have several spheres of interest which overlap but together make up a unique deity.