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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Role of Goddess in changing religion of Ancient Egypt, October 17, 1998
By A Customer
This review is from: Hathor Rising: The Power of the Goddess in Ancient Egypt (Paperback)
British Egyptologist Alison Roberts has blended history, religion, myth, and art in this first of projected two volumes. Focusing on Upper Egypt (especially Thebes) and the New Kingdom era, she follows the evolving role of the solar serpent goddess known as Hathor through the reigns of such famous pharaohs as Hatshepsut, Akhenaten, and Tutankhamun. Sprinkling her narrative with poems, hymns, myths, and folktales, Roberts avoids the common mistakes of books for the general reader. She does not treat the religion of Ancient Egypt as monolithic and static, nor does she allow Western biases toward monotheism to turn Akhenaten into a hero. She shows how Egyptian religion was already changing after the rise of Thebes and how a new emphasis on inward personal religious experience was manifested during the reign of Hatshepsut (150 years before Akhenaten). She points out the ironic fact that Akhenaten, personally close to the female members of his family (mother, wife, and daughters), made religious changes which actually decreased the role of female deity. The book is lavishly illustrated with black and white photograps and drawings, all clearly explained and tighly woven into the narrative. I look forward to the projected second volume, in which she intends to focus on Upper Egypt (especially Memphis) and the resurgence of female deity in the post-Akhenaten era.
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22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
On the mark!, December 28, 1999
This review is from: Hathor Rising: The Power of the Goddess in Ancient Egypt (Paperback)
Dr. Roberts has a deep understanding of the core structures of Egyptian religion, and in particular the Goddess dynamic and its fundamental importance in that system. I noticed an earlier reviewer that stated that Massey, Kuhn and Schwaller de Lubicz understood Egyptian Religion, and that this author did not. Nothing could be further from the truth. Those three men saw Egyptian religion in terms of the continuation of some vast and ancient tradition from the Golden or Hyperborean Age, rather than looking at Egypt on its own terms. I have even seen one author who went so far as to state that the Egyptians only passed along knowledge that they did not understand! Another author said that the Greeks and Romans, being closer in time to Ancient Egypt than we are, possessed a more valid understanding than we can ever have at the present. Again, such attitudes denigrate the realization and understanding within that civilization and allow for overlays that do not have any basis from an archaeological viewpoint, to say nothing of a religious or spiritual viewpoint. One has to look at the dynamics of Egyptian religion in terms of its own expression and interpretation of reality, rather than imposing one's own interpretation. In a list of of twenty-five books essential for building an introductory knowledge base of Egyptian religion, I would rate this about #12. The books by R.A. and Isha de Lubicz would be somewhere around #30 and off the bottom of the list.
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
offers excellent information on the goddess Hathor, August 11, 2000
This review is from: Hathor Rising: The Power of the Goddess in Ancient Egypt (Paperback)
Although the text is awkwardly laid out in three-column pages, the content of the book is excellent. The author focuses primarily on New Kingdom aspects of the Egyptian goddess Hathor, explaining her importance in history, religion, myth and art; and discusses Hathor's influence on Hatshepsut's reign. With black and white illustrations, the book is informative to those researching the role of women and Hathor.
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