ABSTRACT
The cow was one of the oldest sacred animals of Egypt and the worship of the cow-goddess was wellnigh universal in Egypt. As the goddess of heaven Hathor was associated with the Sun-god RA and she appears as his wife and curiously enough is described as his eye. The Egyptians compiled a list of all the great goddesses who were regarded as forms of Hathor and this shows that shrines wherein she was worshipped existed in all the great towns of Upper and Lower Egypt. The cult of Hathor was followed in some of the large towns in Syria, e.g. Byblos and in Sinai, and certainly in the islands at the head of the First Cataract and in Lower Nubia. Hathor associated with the rise of the Nile preparatory to the annual Inundation and under the form of Sothis, the Dog-star Sirius, she appeared near the sun in the second half of July.
