Hathor Capitals

Temple of Hathor, Dendera (plan)

Hathor's classic face is seen in these well-preserved capitals. Her attributes and functions are complicated. She is a mother goddess associated with nurturance, love and marriage, music and the dance, drunken revelry, war, and pestilence,. Originally Hathor seems to have been a combination of two very old goddesses, a cow goddess and a sky goddess. As time went on she continued to assimilate other goddesses to herself, a process known as syncretism, until she eventually became a sort of universal female deity, only to then become syncretized in turn into the worship of Isis. At least that is the simplified(!) version.