Hathor Rising: The Power of the Goddess in Ancient Egypt

As a devotee of the Goddess Hathor, I had been searching for a book just about Her. There are many Egyptian booksthat mention Hathor, but it was difficult to find one that is dedicated sorely to Her. In my continued spiritual search, Hathor is the anchor to my foundation. After years of studying many years ofdifferent spiritual cultures and their paths, the Greek/Egyptian pantheon is the one where I find the true way for mysoul. After a trip to my spiritual homeland of Egypt, our spiritual tour stopped at the temple at Dendera. The finalgateway was opened, Hathor Herself. After my own encounter with Love Herself, I am Hers. Looking for books on this Goddess of Love put my search-bar on my computer on overdrive. The very best book on Hathor is this book, "Hathor Rising." If you are doing research on Her, or like me, trying to absorb everything you can findabout this Goddesss, this book will not disappoint you. Hopefully, more books will be written about Her. But for now, this is the one.

Instead of concentrating solely on Hathor, the author goes off discussing several pharaohs & male gods. But as I find Akhenaten the most interesting of the pharaohs, I did enjoy the 3 chapters she devoted to him. I just thought the main emphasis should have been on Hathor.

Good

Fantastic book. Lots of great info here and can highly recommend it to everyone interested in Egypt and the Goddess.

Very Good Historical Book

Although it's named for Hathor and focuses on her, this book is really about the roles of female deities in general. It draws most of its evidence from a limited period, the early New Kingdom. Subjects include the myth of the Eye of Ra, a companion to the sun god that can be equated with many goddesses, including Hathor; the role of Hathor in the sun god's journey through the daytime sky; the role of Mut in the Theban triad of gods with her husband Amun and son Khonsu; Isis as a companion to Min and Amun; Isis' role in the struggle between Horus and Seth; and the ambiguous position of female divinity in Akhenaten's religious revolution. All those are worthy subjects, but Roberts talks about the background for each of them in a little too much depth, so the common thread of the goddess' role is more difficult to follow than it should be. And she never draws a general conclusion out of the individual examples, so it's hard to get a bead on how goddesses were perceived overall.A follow-up to this book,  My Heart My Mother , addresses the role of goddesses in the late New Kingdom and in afterlife beliefs. However, a full discussion of female divinity in ancient Egypt would have to cover the Late and Ptolemaic periods, when temple rites were increasingly focused on family triads of deities and the birth of divine children, and therefore gave goddesses higher standing than they had in New Kingdom times.

I love this book. It's not just about Hathor, but many of her aspects/aliases. It's obvious the author is a scholar, with many references to illustrations and other egyptologists works.I loved how many illustrations there are, including photos. As an armchair Egyptologist, this is a wonderful resource. As a Kemetic priestess, this is invaluable. I have many books about ancient Egypt, and this is one of my favorites.

This is a book that needed to be written. The power of the goddess Hathor has too often been dismissed as simply a 'goddess of dance' (which she was not - dance was one of the great religious expressions in her honour, however). Her role in politics and religion have been obfuscated because of that, and the later fame of Isis beyond the land of Egypt means this goddess was somewhat forgotten. In fact, she was central to Egyptian public and private life.Alison Roberts must be commended for this work. I only wish the book had been laid out in an easier format - the three columns makes for clunky reading - and that the writer's style were more fluid. But certainly for anyone interested in Ancient Egyptian religion, this is a must.

Es maravilloso, sobre la diosa Hathor desde otra visión.