Nude Hathor

This statue of the goddess Hathor was made from Egyptian Terracotta, or Brown Nile Silt, and dates from 400-200 B.C.

The Ptolemaic influence in this depiction of Hathor is easy to see, as the statue resembles the soft nude bodies of the female deities of the Mediterranean, such as Hathor and Isis’s Greek counterpart, Aphrodite.

Although the head is missing, the remnants of Hathor’s Egyptian plaited wig can be seen cascading down her back.

This figure was produced in the region of ancient Naucratis (Greek: Ναύκρατις, Egyptian: njwt-kꜣrṯ, nskꜣrṯ, pr-mryt,) at the Nile Delta and now resides at the British Museum (1886,0401.1469) but is not on display.

Although difficult to see, the British Museum writes that Hathor wears a necklace with an amulet in the form of either an animal or possibly a crescent moon.

A particularly important aspect of Hathor’s maternal nature is the role she played as the mother of the king, which was often expressed by means of her identity as the nurturing bovine goddess. Infact in her bovine form Hathor protected the king and acted as a royal nurse, symbolically suckling the monarch even as an adult.