# Hathor Source: https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/gods/hathor Language: en # Hathor Goddess of love, music and the western mountain — the one who receives the dead. **Also written**: Hwt-Hor · Lady of the West · Mistress of the Necropolis · حاتحور · سيدة الغرب Useful clues to take into the temple. ## How to recognise them Cow horns around a sun disc can point to Hathor. A sistrum is a hand-held ritual rattle; a menat is a beaded necklace with a counterweight at the back. Both are associated with her worship. Isis and other deities can share attributes, so check the inscription too. ## Who they were Hathor covers a range that looks contradictory until you see how the Egyptians linked it: love, music and drunkenness on one side; the sky, the sun’s daughter and the mountain of the dead on the other. At Thebes the second half dominates. She is Lady of the West, the goddess of the cliff that the necropolis is cut into, and the dead pass into her keeping. She is also the goddess who can turn — the same solar daughter who becomes the raging lioness in the myth of the destruction of mankind, which is where she and Sekhmet touch. ## Where you meet them Her chapel at the south end of the middle terrace at Deir el-Bahari has the cow-eared capitals standing in a row in front of it, and is the clearest place in Luxor to meet her. She is on the walls of QV66, receiving Nefertari. The Ptolemaic temple that stands above the abandoned houses at Deir el-Medina — and gave the site its Arabic name — was built for her. And she is behind the whole idea of the western mountain: the peak above the Valley of the Kings is her territory. God ## Who they are shown with [ God ### Isis The reliable sign is a small stepped throne worn on her head — a seat drawn in profile, which is literally how her name is written. From the New Kingdom on she also wears cow’s horns with a sun disc between them, and that is exactly Hathor’s crown, so the two become genuinely hard to separate: if there is a throne, it is Isis; if there is only horns-and-disc, read the caption or the context, and remember that in a tomb the two goddesses flanking a coffin are usually Isis and her sister Nephthys. The other giveaway is the pose. In funerary painting Isis very often kneels at one end of a shrine, a coffin or a scene with her arms stretched out and long feathered wings hanging from them, mirrored by Nephthys at the other end. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/gods/isis)[ God ### Mut Mut often appears as a woman with a vulture headdress and the double crown. She can also take a lioness form. These attributes guide recognition, but inscriptions and the scene’s context are needed when deities share features. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/gods/mut)[ God ### Sekhmet A lioness-headed woman with a sun disc is a useful starting clue for Sekhmet, not an exclusive identifier. Other lioness goddesses share features; read the caption where it survives. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/gods/sekhmet)[ God ### Osiris Osiris often appears wrapped as a mummy, holding a crook and flail. His atef crown has a tall central element flanked by feathers. The djed is a pillar-shaped symbol with stacked crossbars, associated with stability. Use these clues together with the inscription. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/gods/osiris) Continue reading ## Where to look 1–1 / 5 [Temple · West bank ### Temple of Hatshepsut Terraces set straight into the cliff at Deir el-Bahari — and a reign that was later chiselled off its own walls. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/temple-of-hatshepsut)[Necropolis · West bank ### Valley of the Queens A royal cemetery whose tombs vary greatly in decoration and access. Check which are open before deciding how it fits your day. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/valley-of-the-queens)[Village · West bank ### Deir el-Medina The village of the men who cut the royal tombs. It is the site that makes all the others feel human. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/deir-el-medina)[Necropolis · West bank ### Tombs of the Nobles Private tombs across the Theban hills, where images of work, family and offerings express the status and afterlife hopes of officials and their households. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/tombs-of-the-nobles)[Necropolis · West bank ### Valley of the Kings The royal burial landscape of the New Kingdom: rock-cut tombs tucked into a desert valley, separate from the kings’ major commemorative temples. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/valley-of-the-kings) Sources & further reading 3 Tier 2 The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt, Richard H. Wilkinson Thames & Hudson Tier 2 Egyptian Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Goddesses and Traditions of Ancient Egypt, Geraldine Pinch Oxford University Press Tier 1 [The temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari — excavation, conservation and reconstruction reports](https://templeofhatshepsut.pcma.uw.edu.pl/badania/) Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology, University of Warsaw Official page indexed · checked 2026-09-19 Source review is incomplete. Consultation dates are shown only for checked references. Published works and institutional references for further reading. [Sources and review status](mailto:corrections@egyptmore.com?subject=Luxor101%20correction) [Gods](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/gods)