sign in sign up
<<
Home , Hathor, Montu

.     23

III. THE CULT OF , LADY OF DENDEREH, AND THE PANTHEON OF

e chapel was consecrated by King Nebhepetre of them o¨ciated at Dendereh, while others were Mentuhotep to the Hathor, Lady of Den- assigned to the cult of the goddess of Dendereh dereh.1 We have a few fragments portraying the in the area of Memphis. Other priestesses of the goddess, whose cult is attested to at , as Dendereh Hathor are known at Hemamia in the Lady of the place (Jnrty ), from the XIIth dynasty Vth dynasty and at ebes in the VI th dynasty up to the Ptolemaic period. e portrayals of the and at Dendereh itself, especially during the VIth deities in relation to the goddess of Dendereh pos- dynasty, and in the XIth dynasty at Salamiya to the sess apparently unique iconographic details, as in south of Tod. e stela of Merer from Rezeiqat, the case of the goddess (CGT 7003/160 = now at Cracow, appears to be the only mention Suppl. 12151 and CGT 7003/161 = Suppl. 12228, of the cult of Hathor of Dendereh in the Gebelein Plate XXX). e cult of Hathor in Mentuhotep’s area prior to Nebhepetre Mentuhotep, during the chapel at Gebelein, however, is not a purely local period between Ankhtify and Wahankh Inyotef.4 cult, but belongs to the special context of the e fact that the sun disk appears between the king’s legitimation. horns of the goddess toward the end of the IV th It does not seem to be a speci¢c ka cult, as in dynasty in the Mycerinus triads, and becomes the case of the wt-kA at Dendereh, where the king usual during the Vth dynasty, has led to a link appears with the triad of Hathor, Horakhty, and being assumed between the sun cult and that of Sematawy (Somtu).2 e reconstruction of some the goddess in the region of Memphis.5 In actual of the scenes seems rather to indicate that it was fact, the sun cult is associated with the cult of the a temple in which a ceremonial was celebrated goddess, together with that of the sovereign, in with the king as protagonist, performing the rites the sun temples of the Vth dynasty, in particu- of the handing over of royal power and the zmA- lar with regard to the sun temple of Neferirkare, tAwy. e presence of Sematawy (ZmA-tAwy) , who where priests are mentioned, whereas they are is none other than the king’s divine hypostasis, not mentioned for the said cult at Heliopolis. 6 not only strengthens this assumption, but rep- e association of Hathor with Re, even if not resents, together with the Dendereh chapel, one with Heliopolis, is extremely frequent in the XIth of the ¢rst examples of this deity’s cult (CGT dynasty and Middle Kingdom, especially in the 7003/116 = Suppl. 12193, Plate XXIII). Co¨n Texts.7 e name of the goddess Hathor linked to the e most signi¢cant cult by any sovereign of Dendereh area is evidenced from as early as the the Old Kingdom for Hathor Lady of Dendereh IVth dynasty by the tomb of Meresankh at Giza was, without a doubt, that of Pepy I, even though (G 7530): at least three priests and six priestesses Cheops may earlier have built a temple in that of Hathor of Dendereh were buried close to the location.8 King Teti is “loved” by the goddess, Residence, from the IVth to the VIth dynasty.3 Some as shown by the inscription on the lotus-shaped

1 Fiore Marochetti, “e Temple of Nebhepetre”, 2005, 4 Fischer, , 1968, p. 23, 29, 186. e stela of pp. 151-53. Merer in Černý, “e Stela of Merer”, JEA 47 (1961), pp. 2 Here, the king resembles and , in the context 5-9. Its provenance is assumed by Fischer, Kush X (1962). of the dei¢cation of his person, as observed by Habachi, 5 Fischer, Dendera, 1968, pp. 30-5, who also sees a rela- MDAIK 19 (1963), pp. 51-52. For a reading of the scenes tionship in the similar writing of Jwnw, Heliopolis, and represented on the walls of the chapel at Dendereh, see Jwnwt , Dendereh. O’Connor, “e Dendereh Chapel of Nebhepetre Mentuho- 6 Fiore Marochetti, “e Temple of Nebhepetre”, 2005, tep”, in Studies H. S. Smith, 1999, pp. 209-20. pp. 151-2; Nuzzolo, “Templi solari della V dinastia”, Aegyptus 3 PM III1, p. 54 ,148, 207, 309. e documents concerning 85 (2005), pp. 90-4, Table 1; Nuzzolo, “e Sun Temples priests and priestesses associated with the cult of Hathor of of the Vth Dynasty”, SAK 36 (2007), p. 247. Dendereh, from the IVth dynasty to the late First Intermedi- 7 Allam, Beiträge, 1963, pp. 113-8. Specimen CT IV, 180 ate Period, are commented on by Fischer, Dendera, 1968, k-m, in Iqer from Gebelein (G1T). pp. 23-30; see also Gillan, “Priestesses of Hathor”, JARCE 8 Fischer is doubtful, Dendera, 1968, p. 47. 32 (1995), pp. 211-231. 24 .     handle of a , at the top of which are the opposites, unity from duality, the requirements falcon-god and the cobra-goddess .9 for birth and renewal, agent of the unication of It was, however, Pepy I who rst declared himself the Two Lands.15 ‹e king takes an active part in son of Hathor, Lady of Dendereh, and of the goddess’s cult, dancing, shaking the sistrum, of Heliopolis and the close relationship between and singing. the goddess and the sovereign is evidenced by ‹e undoubted predominance of , monuments in various parts of .110 Amun, Re, Hathor and Horus as dynastic deities Consequently, the association of the cult of is vouchsafed by an inscription, probably from Hathor with that of the sun and of the regal cult the period of Sehertawy Inyotef, in which the king seems to assume importance. It is probable that appears to emphasize the goddess’s renewed pro- the cult worshipped Hathor, not only as the king’s tection, and by the hymn to Re and Hathor, mis- mother, but as mistress of the heavens and the tress of heaven and of love, by Wahankh Inyotef.16 stars, as the in the crown. In the Co†n Interest in the goddess as the dynasty’s guardian Texts, Hathor proclaims, “I am Wadjet, I am truly deity must have started in the reign of Sehertawy the mistress of the two lands”.11 Hathor is the Inyotef, with the conquest of the 4th and of king’s dress, his apron, and she feeds him with Dendereh, where the heavenly goddess was wor- her milk.12 shipped, and also Horus, son of Re, and which, ‹e cult of Re, Hathor and the king, and thus together with Coptos and Abydos, was a highly the legitimation of his kingship and his acts, is important place of cult, as late as the end of the expressed in the triad conceived as early as the IVth VIIIth dynasty. Inyotef II carried the cult of the dynasty, in which Hathor is the king’s mother, Re goddess to ‹ebes as a funerary deity.17 his father, and the Falcon is the son, incarnate in Earlier, Inyotef II had conceived the cult of the king. Hathor, as Re’s mother, daughter and Amun-Re at ‹ebes, which slowly took over from consort, mother of Horus, is at the centre of regal that of Montu, the god of the ‹eban nome and, ideology, and the triad is a theme already found in in particular, that of Montu-Re, a form that mate- the Texts (Pyr. 546 a-b). ‹e mother-son rialized under Nebhepetre. With the change in relationship between Hathor and the king is cer- writing pt with an oar in the name of Nebhepe- tainly earlier, and is recalled by the goddess’s very tre—thus in the third phase of his reign—, Men- name. At Deir Bahari, the motif is reiterated tuhotep must have instituted the ‹eban festival and Hathor and Montu seem to play the role of in honour of Amun-Re, including the celebration the king’s divine parents, only to be replaced later of the god’s sailing from the temple of to on by the couple Amun-Re and Hathor.13 During the west bank, corresponding to the course of the the sed-festival, Hathor’s role is that of consort, sun deity Re-Atum at Heliopolis, and bringing since, as Wente suggests,14 the ritual included a the whole theological system to the south. ‹e sacred marriage between the goddess and the king king thus asserted his divine sonship, reactivat- as part of the scenario of the cosmic renewal of ing his regeneration perpetually by the course his kingship. ‹e king is father and son, the male of the sun bark that represented the life cycle, as element, while the goddess is mother and wife, the also manifest in his coronation name. ‹e rite means of renewal and the female counterpart of of the course, when the oar pointed at Hathor the cosmic cycle: she mediates the unication of or another deity, belonged on the other hand to

9 De Garis Davies, “An Alabaster Sistrum Dedicated by throne, ensuring food production and its distribution to King Teta”, JEA 6 (1920), p. 69. the other gods, Preys, “Les manifestations d’Hathor”, SAK 10 Fischer, Dendera, 1968, p. 38-40. 34 (2007), pp. 353-375. 11 CT IV, 176 f-g (Chapter 331), Allam, Beiträge, 1963, 16 Turin Suppl. 1310, from Armant, according to Vandier, p. 111. “Une inscription historique”, 1964; Schenkel, “Amun-Re”, 12 ‹e nursing scene, for example, in Habachi, MDAIK SAK 1 (1974), p. 281; Vernus, “Études”, RdE 35 (1984), pp. 19 (1963), Fig. 8; Gillan, “Priestesses of Hathor”, JARCE 32 163; Gabolde, “Origines d’Amon”, Egypte. Afrique & Orient (1995), pp. 231-233, deems it probable that the king was 16 (2000), p. 8; Morenz, “Die thebanischen Potentaten”, also legitimized by marriage to Hathor’s priestesses. ZÄS 130 (2003), pp. 112-114; MMA 13.182.3, of the king’s 13 Troy, Patterns of Queenship, pp. 54-59. ‹eban tomb, in Hayes, †e Scepter I, p. 152, Fig. 90 and 14 Wente, Hathor at the Jubelee, 1969, p. 90. Lichtheim, Literature 1973, pp. 94-6. 15 Hathor was also worshipped at Dendereh in four 17 Gundlach, “Die Neubegründung des Königtums”, 1999, forms: as the , as Re’s , as the protectress of pp. 26, 31-33. her father, , and Horus, and as chief of the great