Hathor

Hathor’s puns in a nutshell

The name Hathor is written ḥwt-ḥr, either with the glyphs 𓉗𓁷 house-face, or with the combined glyphs 𓉡 house-Horus. Both spellings are interpreted to mean “house of Horus” (Horus puns with “face”). But that explanation is garbage: Hathor is not associated or depicted with Horus anywhere. And why would a goddess be called a “house”, if she has nothing to do with houses?

Rather, all aspects and attributes of Hathor are puns with her name. Like all gods, she was created from puns. In Hathor’s case, all her attributes follow the pattern H-T-H-R. Because the 2nd component H-R puns with “Horus”, Hathor borrows many attributes from Horus.

• Hathor is written with the glyphs house-Horus, simply because that spells her name. The glyphs are phonograms.
• Hathor apears with a heavenly cow, because jḥt-ḥrw / ȝht-ḥrw literally means “heavenly cow” (Horus puns with “sky”). 🡻
• Hathor is called heavenly cow, also because ḫwt-wr also means “heavenly cow”, only with different words for “cow” & “heaven”. Note that the word for “heaven” comes first here, which is not standard Egyptian grammar. It would work with glyphs though, which were sometimes written in a non-linear fashion. 🡻
• Hathor is the goddes of beauty, depicted on and as a mirror, because ḫtj-ḥr means “looking at a mirror”, and also “returned face” (as Horus puns with “face”, which also means “mirror”). 🡻
• Hathor is the goddess of love, because ḥȝwt-hrw means “naked pleasures”. 🡻
• Hathor is associated with festivities, because hȝy.t-hrw means “joyful festivities”. 🡻
• Hathor is associated with child care, perhaps because ḥṯ-ḥry means “nursing a child” (as Horus puns with “child”).
• Hathor is the eye of Ra, because ḫtj-hrw means “beholder of the day”, which is a garbled synonym for “eye of Ra” (as Ra means “day” and Horus also puns with “day”).
• Hathor helps Ra to slaughter rebellous humans as a Heavenly Cow, because ḫȝyt-ḫrw means “slaughter the rebels”. 🡻
• Hathor is a spook symbol, perhaps because ḥȝyt-ḥr means “veiled face”, and ḥȝwt-ḥr also means “veiled face”. (Horus puns with “mask” & “veil”.) 🡻
• Hathor is a spook symbol, perhaps because ḥȝty-ḥr means “masked prince”
• Hathor is a spook symbol, perhaps because ḥwwtj-ḥr means “masked messenger”, i.e. secret agent. This may be the true meaning of the Heavenly Cow: uprisings being defeated by secret agents within the ranks of the rebels. We’ll need a more in-depth analysis to confirm this though. 🡻

Hathor as pun with “heavenly cow”

Hathor is often [depicted as a cow], and also features in the Book of the Heavenly Cow, a story found on several tomb walls. In this story, humans plot against Ra, and he has them slaughtered by Hathor. To end the slaughtering, Ra has beer dyed red like blood, which is then drunk by her, getting her so drunk that she becomes her later pleasant self. Ra then rides a cow which transforms into heaven. In the story this cow is Nut though, not Hathor.

Very little in this story seems to match Hathor’s other attributes as goddess of love & festivities. Why is Hathor depicted a a cow? Why does she butcher human rebels in the cow story?

Apparently, it’s not a pun, but 4 puns:

• jḥt-ḥrw means “cow of heaven”, and puns with Hathor.
• ȝht-ḥrw means “cow of heaven”, and puns with Hathor.
• ḫwt-wr means “heaven-cow”, and puns with Hathor.
• ḫȝyt-ḫrw means “slaughtering rebels”, and puns with Hathor.

This is probably why a “heavenly cow” is featured together with the slaughtering of rebels. And it’s also why Hathor slaughters rebels, even though she is the goddess of love, festivities and childcare. Punnery always trumps logic.

Hathor as pun with “mirror”

Hathor is often depicted from a front perspective, as if looking into a mirror, and actual mirrors were fashioned with her face on it. This is because her name puns with ḫtj-ḥr “looking at a mirror” / “returned face”.

Hathor as pun with “festivities”

Hathor is the goddes of festivities, because her name puns with “festivities”: hȝy means “cheering”, and the T-nominalization hȝy.t is translated as “festivities”. hrw means “pleasing”, so hȝy.t-hrw are “joyful festivities”.

Hathor as pun with “sexual pleasures”

Hathor is also the goddess of sexuality & love. That’s probably a pun with ḥˤwt-hrw “pleasing enjoyment” / ḥˤt-hrw “pleasures of the flesh” / ḥȝwt-hrw “naked pleasures”. I suppose the Ancient Egyptians were not as stiff as they’re depicted on the reliefs.

(Another Egyptian love goddess is Qetesh, who perhaps puns with ḥˤwt-sȝ “satisfying pleasures”.)

Hathor as pun with “veiled face”

Hathor puns with “veiled face” in 2 ways:

• ḥȝyt-ḥr means “veiled face” (with ḥr as “face”).
• ḥȝwt-ḥr also means “veiled face” (with ḥr as “veil”).

Hathor as pun with “secret agent”

This is very speculative, but Hathor may be a spook pun with ḥwwtj-ḥr “masked messenger”, which could have been another way to say “undercover agent” or “secret agent”.

In the Book of the Heavenly Cow, Ra defeats the rebellous humans by sending out a heavenly cow against them, who proceeds to butcher them. In reality there’s no such thing, so we have to wonder what the ancient spook authors meant by that parable. Most of Hathor’s other puns are also not suited for defeating rebels. However, secret agents amidst the population could easily turn rebels against each other. We see the very same strategy employed in the spooky parable beneath the story of Noah, where spies among the population are described to whip up a civil war in Genesis 7:11, Genesis 7:12, Genesis 8:2.

One additional hint may be that Hathor’s wpt-wrt “horns-Uraeus” headgear also puns with wpwty-hȝrṯṯ “secret agent”. (They also pun with wp.t-ȝrt “heavenly cow”, said in yet another way, though that doesn’t help.)

However, to really confirm or refute the suspected “secret agent” pun, an more in-depth analysis of the Heavenly Cow story would be needed.