Evidence from Hellenistic Greece: Hathor is Sekhmet?

In this post, I present some of the best evidence yet in defense of my thesis, or rather, Cram Cooper’s assertions, ex-used car dealer, and present second hand stereo equipment shop owner, that in regards to the Egyptian afterlife, Sekhmet is Hathor, a concept which is easily obtainable by finding instant universal consciousness, or otherwise, obtaining a copy of the following volume:

The Journal of Hellenistic Studies, Volume XXI, The Society for Hellenistic Studies, MacMillan and Company, Limited, St. Martin’s Street, London, WC, 1901, and reading it over again until you feel oblivion making itself known. Either way…

This tidy little compendium, which is slightly under a thousand pages, boasts such subjects as: The Mycenaean Tree and Pillar Cult and its Mediterranean Relations, Patrocles and the Oxo-Caspian Trade Route, as well as A New Pandora Vase, among many others. All sublime reading, I am sure, but there is one particular article, which helps us to understand the relationship between Hathor and Sekhmet, when they were just happy go lucky teenagers. Perhaps it will free you.

I can’t personally claim the discovery that I am about to share, except in the eye of happenstance. By chance, I was rummaging through what I would expect to be more promising titles, such as: ______, when a blocky volume of heavy force descended from atop of one of the many pillars of books in the room, which I had layered up to remove thickets from my downsight. It left its perch and descended until it found my left foot, bruising it beyond recognition. Curses of disappointment parted my lips, to reach the ears of invisible beings that should never be called, although they are definitely responsible. Yet, I was crowned with the light of intelligence and immediately ashamed of the color of my tongue.

Imagine my pallor when the dint of my eyes carried the meaning of the letters across the straight my face. The light of contagion, indeed. And feeling of spite for any remaining gruel bubbling in the soul. Glower. Surrender. White teeth of truth mauling the hand that would not feed them. The meat of physical existence ever-pleasantly scrapped to tenderization. You get the idea.

I couldn’t help but absorb the rhythm of letters bespeaking the intertwined praises of Sun Gods and lion cults. It is exactly the sort of evidence for which we should binthrust. Without adieu, I’ve attached the particular page, which found my complexion and saved the entire book from having its binding smashed up against a concrete foundation.

Of course, to get to the good stuff, you have to bear the initial mumblings about the double axe god and a few sacred trees, Believe me, they go on and one, but eventually, contemplate the Mycenean carvings of a goddess associated with a lion, and of course the author must speculate upon the summary state of affairs. In fact, on one particular intaglio on a lentoid of plae yellow cornelian which forms the bezel of a gold ring, there is the igame of a goddess seated between twl lions, who are looking back, as if referring to an even more ancient goddess who has had enough of them and is casting them upon a newer and more unsuspecting protégé. But enough of that, you can read the hundreds of pages for yourself, if you want, but if you’re in a hurry, you need only see the quote I’ve provided below from page 167 and a aprt of the previous page, which cut to the quick of the matter:

On the cylinder seals of the Cypro-Mycenaean class there is also evidence of a Lion Goddess. On an example from Salamis a seated female divinity holds in her left hand a bird, perhaps a dove, and places her right on a low pillar, representing her baetylic form , behind which is a rampant lion who, resting one paw on the pillar-idol, raises the other in the act of adoration. Lions in the schematic pose of adorants or guardians appear before several of the sacred pillars on these Cyprian cylinders which in some cases at least may be taken to represent the same Goddess. In the case of these Cypriote types we are led from the associated symbols to seek a celestial divinity who, if on the Hellenic side of her being she approaches Dionê, has certain attributes in common with the Egyptian Hathor. It is possible that both in Asia Minor and in prehistoric Greece equally with Mycenaean Cyprus the lion cult may have passed to the Great Mother ‘ of the indigenous religions, owing to the near relation in which Hathor the ‘ Great Mother ‘ of Egyptian cult stood to the Sun-God who was there the special Lord of Lions. In considering the religious subjects on the Cypro-Mycenaean cylinders we shall see to what a large extent the cult of Hathor left its impress on that of the Mycenaean colonists, and the same influence is clearly traceable on the contemporary ‘ Hittite ‘ art of Anatolia. It would even appear that the turret or inural crown common to the Asiatic Goddess in her several forms is the direct derivative of the ‘ House of Hor ‘ on the head of Hathor. Kybelê too was a ‘ Virgo Caelestis, ‘ with sun or moon for her attributesMother according to one tradition of Hêlios and Selênê,’ just as the closely allied Hellenic Rhea is made the Mother of the Cretan Light- God known to the Greeks as Zeus. Her title of Basileia as ‘ Queen of Heaven ‘ recalls the title of Fanassa applied in Cyprus to Dionê or Aphroditê Urania. Finally the Phrygian Kybelê is the special protectress of cities. The Mycenaean column supports the roof-beams ; in her mural crown the Mother Goddess supports the city itself. So far at least as Mycenae itself was concerned, no more appropriate tutelary image could have been found for its citadel gate. As the special patroness of the Tantalidae Kybelê would have been the natural protectress of the city of Pelops, Atreus and Agamemnon.2 But, as we have seen, the pillar image between the lions also takes a male form. Moreover, the lion guardians of Egyptian religious art, which, as has already been shown, in reality supplied the starting-point for this very scheme, are bound up with the cult of the male solar divinities Ra and Horus.

The article clearly annunciates the idea that Hathor is associated with the Lion. Of course, this coming from a hellensitic point of view, and perhaps the associated professors of Greek history didn’t have the same pressure as their cousins in the Egyptian study to stick with the first impression of the forefathers of the field. What a breath of fresh air. Sure, it’s a Hellenistic Journal, nevertheless, those seeking the truth can’t be took picky about where they find it.