The Seven Hathors on the Philae Mammisi

This blog post has been written by Sandra Ottens, who has been working as a secretary at the municipality of Amsterdam for thirty years. Sandra studied Egyptology at Leiden University (BA and MA) from 2006 to 2012. She started blogging about her Egyptological adventures when her class attended a two-month study semester in Cairo, visiting a large number of excavation sites (https://egyptoblogie.wordpress.com). Sandra joined the excavations in Amheida (Dakhla Oasis) as an assistant epigrapher to Professor Olaf Kaper for one season in 2012. She wrote her MA thesis on the Seven Hathors, a group of seven goddesses who predicted the fate of newborn children. This blog post is about the Seven Hathors at Philae, which is written here to coincide with the Egypt Centre’s course on Gods and Goddesses currently taking place.

The seven Hathors were known in Egyptian fairy tales as a group of goddesses who come to visit a newborn child and foretell its fate. This can be found in the tales of the Doomed Prince and the Two Brothers. Consequently, they were mentioned in a number of medico-magical spells, in order to try to control their powers. In the Graeco-Roman Period, we find the seven Hathors depicted in temples where they bring good wishes to the temple’s child deity and sing praises to the mother goddess. They are often shown in the mammisi (birth house) of the temple, but also near doorways and along processional routes. 

If you have been to the island of Philae near Aswan (fig. 1), you will have seen the mammisi with its lovely columns with Hathor faces. This birth house stands in the forecourt of the Isis temple. It was built for the celebration of the divine birth of Horus, the son of Isis and Osiris.

Fig. 1: Philae Mammisi

On the same wall (the outside of the mammisi), a little further to the left, is this scene depicting the seven Hathors (fig. 2). Behind the seven Hathors a small king Ptolemy XII is shown, kneeling on an offering stand, and presenting two vessels. Here the Hathors are shown playing tambourines (hand drums) and singing praises before Isis, lady of the Abaton, and before Hathor, lady of Biggeh. The island of Biggeh was next to the original location of Philae. It had an Abaton (Greek for ‘untrodden place’), associated with a burial place of (a part of the body of) Osiris. The island of Philae had a Hathor temple as well as an Isis temple.

Fig. 2: The seven Hathors

In the fairy tales the seven Hathors are represented as a uniform group, speaking as with one mouth (fig. 3). However, in the temples they are individually named as goddesses from specific locations where Hathor temples stood. Egypt had a large number of Hathor sanctuaries throughout the country, as well as in mining areas abroad, so there were many locations to choose from. Almost every scene depicting the seven Hathors has a unique combination of Hathor sanctuary names.

Fig. 3: The procession

Here is a translation of the texts: 

·  Isis: Words spoken by Isis, giver of life, lady of the Abaton, mother of the god of the golden falcon. You are celebrated in every country, since your Majesty was born in Dendera.

·  Hathor: Words spoken by Hathor, great one, lady of Biggeh, noble one, mighty one, mistress of the goddesses, lady of drunkenness, lady of jubilation, lady of singing, lady of myrrh, mistress of wreath binding

·  Text column behind Isis and Hathor: It is the great goddesses, the ladies of Egypt, who associate themselves with Biggeh in peace. Their father Ra is pleased at their sight and jubilates each day upon seeing them.

·  Text above the seven Hathors: We play the tambourine for you, you lady of the Abaton, Isis, giver of life, lady in Biggeh. We celebrate your Majesty, who rejoices in life, Hathor, great one, lady of Biggeh. We play the harp for you, you sovereign of Bugem, you lady of the whole of Egypt. We praise to the height of heaven and jubilate to the breadth of the earth, so that your hearts are pleased, great powers, for life, duration and prosperity for the Pharaoh.

·  First Hathor: Words spoken by Hathor, lady of Thebes, Amunet, foremost in Karnak: "Jubilation for you, jubilation for your ka, Isis, giver of life, lady of the Abaton".

·  Second Hathor: Words spoken by Hathor, [lady of ...]: "Jubilation for you, noble one, lady of jubilation, eye of Ra, foremost of Biggeh".

·  Third Hathor: Words spoken by Hathor, lady of Qusae, queen of the people, who protects her brother: "The tambourine is beaten for you, noble one, lady of the two lands, gold, daughter of Ra, mistress of the goddesses".

·  Fourth Hathor: Words spoken by Hathor, lady of Heracleopolis, mother of Ra: "(I) praise you, who radiate as gold, falconess of Edfu, mistress of Biggeh".

·  Fifth Hathor: Words spoken by Hathor, lady of Atfih, mother of the great glorified god: "The tambourine is played for you, noble one, mistress of the goddesses, Hathor, great one, lady of Biggeh".

·  Sixth Hathor: Words spoken by Hathor, lady of the Southern Sycamore: "For you the tambourine is beaten, for your ka, great mistress, lady of the Abaton".

·  Seventh Hathor: Words spoken by Hathor, lady of the Red Lake, who protects her father from her enemies: "Praise for your Majesty, who is pleased with life inside Edfu and foremost in Philae".

·  King: Cartouches of Ptolemy XII Neos Dionysos.

 

Sources

Champollion, [J. F.] 1844. Monuments de l’Égypte et de la Nubie: notices descriptives conformes aux manuscrits autographes, vol. 1. Paris: Firmin Didot Frères. [178 (lower)-179 (middle), 619 to 178 and 179 ('colonne A')]

Guglielmi, W. 1991. Die Göttin Mr.t: Entstehung und Verehrung einer Personifikation. Probleme der Ägyptologie 7. Leiden: Brill. [95 note 217; 98 note 239]

Gutbub, Adolphe 1973. Textes fondamentaux de la théologie de Kom Ombo, 2 vols. Bibliothèque d’étude 47. Le Caire: Institut français d’Archéologie orientale. [325 (d)]

Junker, Hermann and Erich Winter 1965. Philä-Publikation II: Das Geburtshaus des Tempels der Isis in Philä. Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Denkschriften der Philosophisch-Historischen Klasse Sonderband. Wien: Hermann Böhlaus Nachf. [220–223]

Porter, Bertha and Rosalind L. B. Moss 1939. Topographical bibliography of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic texts, reliefs, and paintings VI: Upper Egypt: chief temples (excluding Thebes), Abydos, Dendera, Esna, Edfu, Kôm Ombo, and Philae. Oxford: Clarendon. [228 (225)–(226)]

Rochholz, Matthias 2002. Schöpfung, Feindvernichtung, Regeneration: Untersuchung zum Symbolgehalt der machtgeladenen Zahl 7 im alten Ägypten. Ägypten und Altes Testament 56. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. [76]