Here's an interesting quotation from Petrie's 'Researches in Sinai' regarding an association of Hathor with Sopdu, to the extent of being named as such...


After two or three thousand years of worship at the primitive shrine, the Egyptians introduced side by side with it the worship of the god of the East, Sopdu. He was closely associated with Hat-hor, or rather, probably his symbol, the zodiacal light, was identified with the goddess, as she is called Sopdu at Elephantine and Abydos (LANZONE, Diz. Mil., 863). A smaller shrine and cave for him was carved at the side of the older shrine; and on the later steles he appears worshipped as well as Hat.hor.


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The Turqoise mines of Serabit had a Temple dedicated to Hathor in conjunction with Sopdu, a Deity prominent in the North-Eastern region, and an aspect of the cultic worship there involved sacred cones, which Petrie saw as of Semitic origin, but this was not necessarily the case.


Another specially Semitic feature at Serabít was the dedication of cones of sandstone (fig. 143, nos. 10, 11), of which two were found in the Sacred Cave or the Portico. The sacred cone was the central object of worship and impersonation of the deity in Syrian temples. It is shown on the coins of Paphos in the midst of the temple. At Emesa was the sacred conical stone, the high priest of which, when he became Emperor of Rome, signalised his devotion by taking the name of Elagabalus, and brought his stone and his ritual with him to the capital; and other less obtrusive instances «p.190:» are known. No such sacred stone occurs in Egyptian worship.



Conical/triangular stones were quite common cultic objects of worship in the Near East/Hellenic world, in general associated with a union of the Sun God and Venus/Aphrodite/Ishtar, but then the conical/triangular form as a cultic object was common in Egyptian symbolism and arguably of earlier origin.



An association of Hathor with Sopdet is quite common, particularly with regards to the yearly renewal of the Heavenly patterns which saw the Sun reborn, seemingly in contradiction to the identification of Isis with Sopdet, but i'll outline a scenario which see's Hathor merged with Sopdu and Sopdet. This of neccesity involves my revisionist postition regarding an identification of 'Sopdet' with Spica (rather than Sirius), and Sopdu with Regulus. The current Theosophical hand-me-down identifications still sadly in vogue have proven worthless in these regards.



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Below one see's a couple of star charts relative to Giza during the OK at the time of the Summer Solstice taking place at 62 degrees, at which point Regulus and the Sun would be practically merged, certainly visibly so.

The critical factor here then is the yearly Solstice seen as marking the re-commencement of the yearly cycle, seen also as the birth of Sopdu/Regulus, through Sopdet/Spica, the two aspects being seen as a singularity, thus a particualr mergence of Re and Sopdu upon that day.


Given this, then it should also be considered that the Planets Mercury and Venus would appear to have been seen in ancient Egypt as aspects of the Sun/Re, due to their close relationship through having inferior orbits, literally the eyes of Re, and thus the mergance of Regulus with the Sun would also see the total symbolic mergence/identification with these two aspects of RE.












The two examples above were not uncommon, Mercury and Venus either rising very close to the Sun such as to be visibly merged or rising shortly before as Morning Stars. Mercury i would always identify with Horus, and hence the birth of Hor-Sopdu as the two were ever closely related, and Venus has been most commonly identified as an aspect of Re, and also less so with Hathor, though this is the most obvious, and correct in my opinion.



Given these considerations then, Hathor/Venus, as an aspect of Re, has merged with Sopdu, to the extent that arguably she can thus at that point be considered indistinguishable, the association of Sopdu with Sopdet was also extremely close, the child and mother as one



The earliest writings of the decanal name for Sopdet are spd, a masculine referance. In the later coffins a feminine ending t appears sporadically. In coffin 11 we consistently have spdt. The Senmut ceiling and the later lists always have spdt, frequently coupled with 3st "Isis". The compound "Isis-Sothis" is common and it is suggested that Spdt was in origin a nisbe of spd referring to Isis as "the one of spd"

In Utterance 216 of the Pyramid Texts, it is translated: “Spdet is swallowed up by the Netherworld, Pure and living in the horizon.” However, there is a footnote that says: “Despite the lack of correct gender ... in a triple repetition of the phrase, the scribe has ignored the discrepancy of gender in the case of Sopdet.”

Thus it is apparant that there was a very close association between the masculine Sopdu and the feminine Isis-Sopdet, Har-Sopd was literally given as being seen as within Sopdet, in the sense of son and mother, or brother and sister as the case may be. This is important when the association of Sopdet with the New Year is considered, as it is Sopdu/Regulus which rises merged with the Sun on New Years Day, not Sopdet, yet the two in this context were obviously not differentiated between, Sopdet has given birth to the New Year, in the form of Sopdu. Also of primary consideration is that they were of the same sharp/tooth triangle and thus essentialy singular in terms of this conceptual motif.

“Your sister Isis comes to you rejoicing for love of you. You have placed her on your phallus and your seed issues into her, she being ready as Sopdet, and Har-Sopd has come forth from you as Horus who is in Sopdet.”

(Utterance 366)

“I go up on this eastern side of the sky where the gods were born, and I am born as Horus, as Him of the horizon; I am vindicated and my double is vindicated; Sopdet is my sister, the Morning Star is my offspring.”

(utterance 472)




Not only then is Hathor, as an aspect of Re, seen as totally merged with Sopdu at this point in time, but also inevitably Sopdet, as at this critical point of birth the two are inseperable, until one presumes the year gets underway and things start to move apart. The Morning Star offspring would be Mercury/Horus.




Morph.