IDNO

P.52903.RDG

Description

View down colonnade showing hieroglyphs in the Temple of Hathor (Athor) in the Dendera Temple complex. The temple was constructed in the Ptolemaic period as a protector of woman.

Place

N Africa; Egypt; Dendera

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

Hathor (Athor)

Photographer

C. & G. Zangaki Brothers; reprinted by P. Peridis

Collector / Expedition

Ridgeway, William

Date

circa 1880 - 1900

Collection Name

Ridgeway Collection

Source

Format

Postcard

Primary Documentation

Other Information

P.52889.RDG to P.52908.RDG came from envelope now numbered C235/3/ which was found inside envelope C235/. The latter
came from wooden drawer I.

Photographer: P. Peridis was a photographer operating in Cairo circa 1885 - 1905. As the back of this postcard is divided into message and address sections, it is probably that the postcard was produced after 1905. [JD 13/10/2006]

Related Image: As this image was printed by Zangaki (fl. 1880 - 1899) with annotation “No 902. Denderah Collonnade” it appears that Pereidis may have purchased and subsequently printed Zangaki’s negatives. See University of Chicago Library, www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/su/mideast/photo/PharUp.html#, and Related Documents File. [JD 13/10/2006]

Place: Hathor Temple is the main temple in the Dendera Temple complex. The temple construction date is suggested as around the 1st century BC. The temple was rebuilt from another temple on the same site dating from the Middle Kingdom. The existing structure was built no later than the late Ptolemaic period. The temple is one of the best, if not the best, preserved temple in all Egypt. The temple is dedicated to Hathor. Subsequent additions were added in the Roman times.
Hathor, in ancient Egyptian mythology, was a sky goddess; wife or mother of the sky god Horus; goddess of dance, music, and love, (equivalent to Greek Aphrodite); also, goddess of desert cemeteries. She may appear as the great celestial cow, creator of the world; or as a human with cow's horns and ears. Other variations include a hornlike hairstyle, or a headdress in the shape of a sun-disc with cow's horns. She was popular with women as their protector, and was later associated with the principal goddess Isis whose headdress was indistinguishable.
The centre of her cult was Dendera, where a Ptolemaic temple was built and dedicated to her, and where she was embodied as a sistrum (a musical instrument thought to drive away evil spirits). [Source: Encyclopedia Britannica Online, Rome in Egypt www.romeinegypt.unipi.it/index.php?pageId=48, [JD 13/10/2006]

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Jocelyne Dudding 13/10/2006]