Constellation to some, star cluster to others, we cannot fully know what the Pleiades meant to Ancient Egyptians. It is believed their Krittikas, (the Pleiades) was seen as the source of all procreation. As the realm of their divine mother goddess Neith, or the seven Hathors, or as the watery bodies representing three parts of Nut’s body in the sky, the stars position heralded the spring’s rainy season, and some temples dedicated to Hathor were constructed to receive the seven rays. This is perhaps why the temple Abydos, a site of heady intellectual life with an observer’s eye toward the heavens, in this image needed to embody the constellation itself. A temple filled with bird imagery invites one to soar beyond limited thought into higher realms, guided by Horus – the hawk-headed sky god whose right eye represents the sun and left eye represents the moon.

K. M. Ehrenfeldt 1/3/2013