Isis, Hathor, and the Family and Protector Gods

Beyond the great gods of the sun and the afterlife, the Egyptians worshipped a wide family of deities who looked after the most intimate parts of daily life: birth, motherhood, marriage, childbirth, the home, and the protection of children. These were the gods on whom the household depended, and they were among the most popular and long-lasting of all the Egyptian gods.

This page introduces the main gods and goddesses of the family and the home, including Isis, Hathor, Mut, Bes, Taweret, and several others. For a deeper dive, see Hathor, Isis, and the Divine Feminine.

Isis: The Divine Mother

Isis was one of the most important goddesses in the Egyptian pantheon. She was the wife of Osiris, the mother of Horus, and the most powerful magician in Egypt. To read the full story of her marriage, her grief, and her son, see the myth of Osiris, Isis, and Set.

In her role as mother, Isis was the protector of children and the patron of motherhood. She was the divine wet-nurse, often shown nursing the infant Horus in the marshes of Chemmis. This image of Isis with her child became the most enduring image of Egyptian goddess worship, and it was later borrowed by early Christian art to depict the Virgin Mary and Jesus.

Isis was usually shown as a woman wearing a throne-shaped headdress (her name, Aset, means “she of the throne”) or, as a mother, as a woman with the child Horus on her lap. Her cult center was on the island of Philae near Aswan, the last major Egyptian temple to be active before the spread of Christianity.

Hathor: The Goddess of Love, Joy, and Motherhood

Hathor was the cow-horned goddess of love, music, dancing, joy, and motherhood. She was the patron of women in childbirth, the goddess of the foreign lands of gold, and the welcome face of the afterlife for the blessed dead.

Hathor was usually shown as:

• A woman with the horns of a cow on her head, often with a sun disk between the horns
• A cow, lying on a standard or standing
• A woman with a headdress of cow horns and feathers

Her cult center was at Dendera in Upper Egypt, where the great temple of Hathor still stands with its famous astronomical ceiling and its crypts that held the most sacred cult objects. To learn more, see Hathor, Isis, and the Divine Feminine.

Hathor’s roles were numerous. She was:

• The Eye of Ra, the fierce solar goddess sent to destroy humanity
• The Lady of the West, who welcomed the dead into the afterlife
• The Lady of Turquoise, goddess of the Sinai mining expeditions
• The Mistress of the Sky, sometimes identified with the sky itself
• The goddess of drunkenness, celebrated in the annual Feast of Hathor at Dendera

Mut: The Mother of Thebes

Mut was the wife of Amun and the mother of Khonsu in the Theban triad. Her name means “mother,” and she was the great mother goddess of Thebes during the New Kingdom.

Mut was usually shown as a vulture-headed woman, or as a woman wearing the vulture headdress often combined with the double plumes, the atef crown of Amun, and a sun disk. Her sacred animal was the vulture, and she was associated with the great temple of Mut at Karnak, which was one of the largest religious complexes in Egypt.

The Temple of Mut at Karnak is the second-largest temple at Karnak after the great temple of Amun. It was built by Amenhotep III in the 18th Dynasty and added to by several later kings. The sacred lake there was once home to a sacred goose, which the Egyptians believed was a manifestation of the goddess.

Bes: The Dwarf God of the Household

Bes was a dwarf-god of the home, protector of women in childbirth, children, and sleep. Unlike most Egyptian gods, who were shown in profile and on a formal scale, Bes was shown full-face, grinning, with his tongue sticking out and a crown of feathers on his head. He was a friend of the household, not a god of state temples, though he was honored in a small temple at Thebes and was popular in the homes of the Late Period.

Bes’s image has been found on:

• Cosmetic pots and mirrors
• Headrests and bed frames
• Amulets hung in the home
• Wall paintings in private houses

In the Birth House at the Temple of Dendera, Bes is shown with his wife Beset, dancing before the birth of the goddess Isis, a sign that he was considered essential at the moment of childbirth. His image also appears on the headrests of the dead, protecting the sleeper from bad dreams.

Taweret: The Hippopotamus Goddess of Childbirth

Taweret, “the Great One,” was a pregnant hippopotamus goddess who protected women in childbirth. She was usually shown as a standing hippopotamus with the legs of a lion, the back of a crocodile, and a pregnant belly, often holding a knife to ward off evil spirits.

Taweret’s image was hung in the home during labor, painted on cosmetic jars, and carved on the headrests of women. Her fierce appearance was meant to scare away the demons and evil spirits that threatened the mother and the newborn. Bes and Taweret often appear together on these objects, the two household gods of fertility and childbirth.

Nephthys: The Sister at the Edges

Nephthys was the sister of Isis and the wife of Set. Her name, Nebet-hut, means “lady of the house,” and she was the goddess of the night, the dead, and the boundaries of life. In the home, she was the protector of the marriage bed and the sister of the household; in the afterlife, she stood with Isis to mourn Osiris.

Nephthys is sometimes credited as the mother of Anubis, conceived in a brief union with Osiris during the search for his brother’s body. Her image often appears in funeral texts as a mourner and a protector of the deceased.

Other Family and Protector Gods

The Egyptian household had a long list of protector deities, including:

• Heqet, a frog-headed goddess of fertility and childbirth
• Meskhenet, a goddess of childbirth, who determined the fate of the newborn
• Shesmetet, a lion goddess of healing
• Bastet, a cat goddess of the home, fertility, and protection, with a major cult at Bubastis
• Sekhmet, a lion-headed goddess of war and healing, the Eye of Ra
• Tefnut, goddess of moisture, often shown as a lion or a lioness

These gods were invoked at every stage of life. The ancient Egyptian civilization made the home a sacred place, and these gods kept it safe.

The Family Gods and the King

The family gods were not the official gods of the state, but they often merged with state gods. Isis and Hathor were both identified with the king in his role as the son of the sun god. Mut was the mother of the king. Bes and Taweret protected the royal children: in the Temple of Luxor, a relief shows the divine birth of Amenhotep III, with the young king brought forth by the gods of fertility.

The royal women of the New Kingdom often took goddess names: the great queen Nefertiti was paired with the Aten; the queen Tiye was paired with Hathor; and the queens of the Ramesside period were called “Daughters of Isis.” To see how the queens used these goddess names, see our guide to the Queens of the New Kingdom.

The Family Gods in Daily Life

In daily life, the family gods were the gods most Egyptians actually interacted with. They were invoked in lullabies, in marriage songs, and in spells for protection. The Westcar Papyrus, a Middle Kingdom story collection, contains tales of gods and magicians in the royal court, and several of the tales feature the family gods intervening in human affairs.

In the Late Period, the cult of Isis had spread so widely that it became the dominant form of Egyptian religion in the Mediterranean world. Temples to Isis were built in Greece, Rome, and Gaul, and her image, the mother holding her child, remained a powerful symbol of divine love long after the Egyptian state had disappeared.