Hathor’s strangely beautiful, uterus-shaped face with outstretched ears is often found at the tops of columns in temples. A fitting placement, for her name signifies the House of Horus. This style of facial features aligns her with the bovine that feeds and nurtures, giving wholly and completely, while in paintings she is depicted as a cow with a divine headdress, or as a beautiful woman with a headdress of horns. Hathor as a creation goddess is credited to have used her horns to raise the Sun into the heavens. Her strange faces carved atop square columns in various temples point in two or four directions, as though she has multiple perspectives or views of the world.

This archetype of divine creation has broad implications in all of life and the cosmos, in fact she is said to govern both childbirth and rebirth. I chose to create a column of these images to reconstruct the sense of home and gain broader perspective, to aid in the foundational aspect of resolution itself, and to incorporate the ankh as a gift of longevity and quality of life.

Photography notes for bird: 2005, a dashed egg on the sidewalk near home, San Jose, California

Photography notes for Hathor: 2006, Canon Powershot, Abydos

Archetype and Symbols: Hathor, ankh

K. M. Ehrenfeldt, 2013