All temples survived on the produce of the land, and the produce of the harvest Festival at Dendera Temple proceeded the most spectacular festival that was known as the' Festival of The Beautiful Embrace' where once a year after the harvest, the Goddess Hathor’s barque was loaded with the produce of the fields in preparation for the annual visit she made to see her Husband the God Horus at his earthly home the Temple Of Edfu where they would re-enact in a mystical ceremony their marriage, and the conception of their son Ihy
At Hathor's earthly home of Dendera Temple I followed the side wall all the way around the temple where my enthusiasm increased as the relief’s were untouched, beautiful and unspoilt once more, and they portrayed the harvest festival, where the beautiful goddess Sekhet, the goddess of the fields brings the produce of the land to the temple, she walked through the fields of wheat Papyrus and lotus, small geese fly from the ground whilst she follows a calf, her breath has the scent of flowers and she is adorned with Lotus blossoms, and in her arms she carries Lotus geese fruits and wine.
In splendid celebration Hathor whose name means “The House of Horus”, was carried from her sanctuary within Dendera and greeted by all important dignitaries and priests, the locals were allowed to join this celebration, then gently her splendid barque that was known as ‘Great of Love’ carried her upstream where she was joined by a flotilla of barques until she arrived at Karnack Temple, where she would stay for a few days to visit the Goddess Mut, the wife of Amun Ra, more barques joined her flotilla as she left Karnack to continue her journey south, Her Husband Horus would leave his temple and head downstream to greet her and in glorious celebration he would escort his wife to his home of Edfu Temple to begin fourteen days of joyous celebration where their sacred marriage was enacted once more and their son Ihy was conceived. Each day throughout the waxing moon the same set of ceremonies were carefully performed. It was felt that on the evening of the fourth day Ihy, the son of Horus and Hathor, was conceived .
Over the centuries, the temple of Horus at Edfu became buried to a depth of 12 metres (39 ft) beneath drifting desert sand and layers of river silt deposited by the Nile, and just like the Temple of Dendera Local inhabitants built homes directly over the former temple grounds. the temples of Dendera and Edfu were built during the Ptolemaic period, the successors of Alexander the Great.
Only the upper reaches of the temple pylons at Edfu and Dendera were were visible. In 1860 Auguste Mariette, a French Egyptologist, began the work of freeing Edfu temple from the sands.
Hathor has 411 epithets expressing her qualities and attributes mentioned at her temple in Dendera, some of them are also written on the walls of Edfu temple, The wall relief of the pylon at Edfu describes her as:
'Hathor, the great one, lady of Dendera, eye of Re, who residence in Edfu, lady of the sky, mistress of all the gods, the Uraeu which is upon the head of Atum, who created her place upon his head, the great cow of heaven, who born Re, the first one of the Ogadoad, Rennet, the noble one in Egypt, the Uraeus to all gods, lady of charm, sweetness of love, all men and women behind her, lady of protection in the bark of millions, who protects the bow in the bark of god, beautiful of hands, who carry the sistrum to appease who hide his name, great of magic, lady of upper Egypt house, who says spells with her name, brighten of eye-brows, sweetness of love'
On the day of the full moon the festivities ended and Hathor bid Horus farewell and began her return journey to her own temple once more, where on her return announced the long awaited flooding of the River Nile
Hathor was a sky goddess, known as “Lady of Stars” and “Sovereign of Stars” and together with the goddess Isis was linked to Sirius in the heavens, once Sirius rose the Nile would flood, astronomer-priests noted that Sirius rose with the Sun just prior to the annual flooding of the Nile which was known as the “Tears of Isis” which hopefully flooded large areas, feeding the land with the rich nutrients that made the valley fertile. Over the centuries, the seasonal floods have been the lifeblood of the Egyptian civilization, and their failure could bring pestilence & famine due to crop failure.
I would like to thank my friend Mohamed A Fahmy, who is a very spiritual tour guide, for his knowledge on the titles of the Goddess Hathor and the image of Hathors Barque. You can contact Mohamed on Facebook
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