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Egypt Exploration Society

Hathor DancesAuthor(s): A. C. MaceSource: The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Vol. 6, No. 4 (Oct., 1920), p. 297Published by: Egypt Exploration SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3853808 .Accessed: 21/11/2013 19:33

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COMMUNICATIONS 297

II

HATHOR DANCES

NOTE BY MR A. C. MACE

In DAVIES-GARDINER, he Tomb of Amenemhet (p. 96), Dr Gardiner discusses the representation ofHathor dances in tomb scenes, and draws the following conclusion:

...after these things the priestesses of Karnak doubtless paraded the town, stopping at one houseafter another in order to bestow upon their owners the blessings of Hathor, as symbolized in song anddance. From the eastern bank of the Nile they may have passed over to the Necropolis in the western

hills, there to accomplish for the dead that which had been accomplished already on behalf of the living.

At HA, where our camp was close to a large modern cemetery, I have frequently seen what I thinkmust surely be a survival of this Hathor ceremony. At some interval after a funeral-I am not surewhether it coincided with the rahrna or not-a band of singing women used to make procession tothe cemetery with tambourines and red handkerchiefs. At frequent intervals on the path they would

stop, form themselves into a circle, and dance, jumping up and down and beating the tambourines. Thetune of the chant they sang was as follows:

aLj II . I'

and that of the dance a repetition of the five notes _- _

A close parallel to this modern ceremony is shown in ROSELLINI, Monumenti, Vol. II (Mon. Civili),P1. XCIX (=WILKINSON, Manners and Customs, I, p. 443), where the women carry palm branches in

addition to the tambourines.

Journ. of Egypt. Arch. vi. 39

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