This ritual sistrum, lovingly carved from green alabaster by artisans in Egypt, features the goddess Hathor and inscriptions of hieroglyphics and includes a stand. Invite Hathor to grace your altar and ritual dance with the sacred magic of love, fertility Read more.
This ritual sistrum, lovingly carved from green alabaster by artisans in Egypt, features the goddess Hathor and inscriptions of hieroglyphics and includes a stand. Invite Hathor to grace your altar and ritual dance with the sacred magic of love, fertility, and the divine feminine!
The sistrum is a musical percussion instrument, akin to a rattle, with a handled frame of wood, metal, or clay featuring crossbars with tiny metal discs that clash against one another to generate sound. In ancient Egypt, this ritual implement was typically shaped like a temple or a closed horseshoe. Often adorned by the image of the goddess Hathor, once the attributes of the cow goddess were later given to Isis, the sistrum came to be associated with Isis as well, following the mother goddess throughout her incursion into the vastness of the Greco-Roman world. It is from the Greek word, “seistron,” that we derive the name sistrum still in use today.
Originating in early dynastic eras (c. 3rd millennium BCE), the cow goddess Hathor is an Egyptian goddess of the sky, music, femininity, fertility, motherhood, and love, with her many aspects making her crucial to the religious worship of Egypt. The name Hathor means “estate of Horus,” as she was consort to the falcon-headed God of the sky, Horus, and, like Isis, she was seen as his mother as well. Portrayed as either a woman, a cow-headed woman, or a cow, Hathor was crowned with the horned sun disk. As time wore on, the traits of Hathor, such as her crown, were also attributed to Isis. As a goddess of music and dance, Hathor was represented by the symbol of the sistrum, a musical percussion instrument similar to a rattle. Hathor also arouses the fullness of the Nile so needed for the fertility of Egypt.
Materials: Green Alabaster stone
Height: 14 inches
Width: 1 inches
Depth: 1 inches