Hathor (𓉡) — Joy, Love, Music, Intoxication

Hwt-Hor (Hathor) is the cow-goddess of joy, music, love, and drunkenness, whose temple at Dendera was the center of festivals where sacred intoxication brought worshippers into communion with the divine. She carries the sistrum and the menat necklace, instruments whose sound drives away isfet and restores ma'at through pleasure rather than force. The Destruction of Mankind myth reveals her dual nature: Ra sent her as Sekhmet to punish humanity, then had to flood the fields with beer dyed red to trick her back into her benevolent Hathor form. She is simultaneously Lady of the West who welcomes the dead into the afterlife, and Lady of the Sycamore who offers food and drink to the ka in the Field of Reeds.

Cross-Tradition Resonances