| This article is about the Goa'uld. For the episode, see Hathor (episode). |
- "We are the mother of all gods."
- ―Hathor
Hathor was the mate of Ra and the mother to Heru'ur. Stranded on Earth after the Tau'ri rebellion, she became imprisoned in her sarcophagus for centuries before being set free. Leaving Earth, she attempted to rebuild her power base, before being killed in a confrontation with SG-1.
Biography
Ra's queen
Once a Goa'uld with her own empire, Hathor originally ruled from her place of power on Ta-Netjer. The local population, the Netjerians, were anthropomorphic beings who worshiped Hathor as a god with even more devotion than that seen in other races. She eventually entered into an alliance with Ra, becoming his queen and, not wanting his queen to have her own base of power, Ra forced her to leave Ta-Netjer for good to join him on Earth, though the Netjerians did not take her absence lightly, committing mass suicide and performing rituals to bring her back through the Stargate. It was because of this alliance that Hathor lost much of her independence and freedom of movement, both of which she valued dearly, which led to her secretly loathing Ra.
Hathor's symbol.
Little is known of Hathor's history after this time until the Goa'uld ruled over the Tau'ri world of Earth, but legend holds that she was supposedly the daughter of Ra—perhaps through his queen, Egeria—and the mother of Heru'ur. It was a lesser known fact that she also took on the persona of Sekhmet, the Eye of Ra, which led to some confusion as to what her history actually entailed due to the fact that at least two other Goa'uld, Bastet and Sekhmet herself, used that name. It was thought that the cult of Hathor's personality spread over the Earth to Greece, Italy, Mesopotamia, and beyond, inspiring the myths of—or perhaps being modeled on by—Aphrodite, Venus, and Ishtar as "love goddesses" and figures of female beauty.
Hathor was known to control both her enemies and friends through use of the pleasure principle—as well as nish'ta—which meant that she gave people what they wanted, within reason, so that they would follow her anywhere. She generally encouraged celebrations, sports competitions, and festivals in her own honor—as well as the honor of her beloved hosts—whenever she arrived on new planets which she used to garner information. On a more personal level, however, she often used nish'ta to control Human males that served around her, rendering them very suggestible to her orders and willing to trust her where they usually would not. She would only use this as an addition to her own abilities as a liar and fabricator, and would often tell audiences whatever they wanted to hear regardless of if she could deliver or not.
Hathor's most recent host itself was one of the factors responsible for the Greek myth of Andromeda, the myth being that a princess was fed to a serpent in order to pay for her mother's vanity. In actuality, the mother of Hathor's host—a queen who ruled over Asia Minor—refused to pay tribute to Hathor during a festival in her honor, believing that her own militia could defeat Hathor's Jaffa in combat. Showing her species violent nature, Hathor accepted the challenge and wiped the queen's armies out, and demanded the queen's daughter as payment for the outrage. Although the princess's fiancé attempted to rescue her, he was unable to do so and Hathor soon took the young woman as her new host, ultimately taking the fiancé as one of her many consorts. During this time of power, Hathor took Humans from Mesoamerica and transplanted them to another world, Javabli. She used these people to mine naquadah for her as well as other minerals which were used in starship construction, and let her priests rule over the planet in her absence. This system would last for thousands of years, the people prospering in Hathor's absence and mining vast amounts of resources for her.
In the following centuries, Hathor became known throughout ancient Western culture, becoming well-loved in her role as Hathor but also hated for her alternate identity as Sekhmet. Indeed, at one point in time, Ra supposedly sent Hathor—as Sekhmet—to destroy mankind. If this is true, it is unknown if Hathor simply chose to disobey the order, or Ra changed his mind at a later date. What is known for sure is that Hathor chose to disagree with much of Ra's decisions, leaving her outside the power structure of the Goa'uld, and it is rumored that she also attempted at least one coup. Because of this, Hathor either left, or was evicted from, Egypt and made her way to pre-Mayan Mexico which resulted in her being trapped on Earth after the Tau'ri rebellion. There she became known as the goddess Ixal and, for a time, was worshiped by the natives. Her luck seemed to run out, however, as another coup—this time aimed at Hathor herself—happened within her priesthood, with one of the priestesses becoming fearful of Hathor's influence on the populace. As such, the priestess concocted a scheme to "save" the goddess, trapping her inside her sarcophagus in 332 BC and thus preventing Hathor from influencing the populace.
Rediscovery
There she stayed for thousands of years, until archaeologists unearthed the sarcophagus in 1998. Flabbergasted that it bore Egyptian hieroglyphs, the archaeologists cited Daniel Jackson’s outlandish theories and his expertise on ancient Egypt. As the archaeologists continued to postulate, they inadvertently opened the sarcophagus, awakening Hathor, who then murdered them and escaped her tomb unseen. Uncertain as to the state of the Goa'uld hierarchy, Hathor used a piece of Goa'uld technology to locate the nearest source of concentrated naquadah, drawing her to the Chappa'ai now located in Cheyenne Mountain. She trekked on foot for over 1,000 miles, seducing and tricking her way across the American border before finally reaching Colorado and the Stargate.
Making her way into the SGC, Hathor informed the personnel that she was an enemy of Ra, and thus was taken into custody. Initially regarded as a kook, her familiarity with the Stargate quickly changed the minds of the SGC. Claiming that she wanted to help the Tau'ri, she soon learned that Ra was dead, among others, and so launched an attempt to conquer Earth. Using nish'ta pheromones that her body naturally secreted, she managed to subjugate the males at the SGC, including General Hammond and Colonel Jack O'Neill. Under her influence, Daniel Jackson was used to spawn Goa'uld larvae to be used to create an army of Jaffa, and the females of the facility were locked away. In addition to this, she used her Goa'uld bodice to transform O'Neill into the first of her new Jaffa, planning to make him her First Prime. This attempt to gain a power base on Earth was thwarted by Captain Samantha Carter, Doctor Janet Fraiser, Teal'c (who, as a Jaffa, was immune) and a handful of capable female airmen and marines, who exterminated Hathor's infant larvae and destroyed her sarcophagus. However, Hathor managed to escape through the Stargate, fleeing to start up a new empire.
Return to power
Returning to planets which had once been under her control, Hathor slowly built up her resources and intelligence, learning that much had changed during her absence. She managed to build up the ranks of her Jaffa by seducing and stealing those who had once been loyal to the current System Lords, including Apophis and Heru-ur which meant that she could no longer call on her 'family' for help. The worlds she stole these Jaffa from were remote enough to not attract any direct attention from the System Lords, ensuring her continued survival. Although she was pleased by the death of Ra, Hathor remained cautious about making any direct attempts for power and so tried not to make direct moves against the current hierarchy. She actively sought the means to obtain her own ha'tak motherships, as well as weapons and technology so that she could one day join the ranks of the System Lords.
Hathor soon made contact with Javabli, learning that the planet still worshiped her as their goddess, and so resumed her control of the people once more. Though previously her interest in the planet had been for resources, she was now more interested with the populace. Converting many of them into her new Jaffa, she used others as simple cannon fodder in her forays against the other System Lords. It was on this planet that she chose to house her sarcophagus, most of her combat weapons, and an invisibility device which she had somehow acquired. One of the other planets which she discovered during her expansion was Neone, a planet formerly under the control of Nirrti. Nirrti had given up on the planet when the population showed a vulnerability to toxins, but left behind a legacy of a technologically advanced "healing" goddess whose sole wish was to help the people, which Hathor was quick to take advantage of. Quickly establishing control of the planet, she soon started to recruit the population into her army. She managed to keep the population in control largely by establishing a series of sports and music festivals which she also used to select her new Pharaohs.
Hathor also selected the planet Eskal as one of her her new bases due to its remote location and lack of any population, building a large Egyptian-style base which contained a fake version of the SGC inside. As she did not know precisely what the SGC looked like from her limited experience inside, she chose to make it resemble a futuristic SGC of the year 2070. Adding her own advances to the base, supposedly the result of a Tau'ri-Tok'ra alliance, the false base was as complete as she was able to make it, though there were several doors which led nowhere. To protect this base, she placed a shield on the planet which extended around the structure in every direction, and even reached underground to cover the Tok'ra tunnels which she was not aware existed.
Downfall
Nearly two years after her escape from the SGC, she managed to capture O'Neill, Carter and Daniel and put her new base to use. Having them wake up isolated from each other, they were each told by their hosts they had been in cryogenic suspension for 80 years at the SGC and that all their teammates were dead. Their hosts attempted to glean information about Earth’s allies and enemies by accessing their memories through a memory device, Hathor planning to use this information to steal technology from these allies. O’Neill suspected something is wrong and, feigning unconsciousness, he soon overheard their hosts speaking in Goa’uld. Alone with one technician, he escaped and located his teammates and along the way, discovering that this was not the SGC but a replica. Finding the gate room, they were confronted by Hathor and her Jaffa. She explained to them that, since she had limited knowledge on the state of the Goa'uld Empire, she had hoped to use their memories to acquire an advantage. Her plan failed and she decided to implant one of them with a Goa’uld. O’Neill was chosen to be Hathor’s new Pharaoh.
Unfrozen from the cryogenic chamber, O’Neill was implanted with Hathor's Goa’uld symbiote and Carter and Daniel were carted away. However, a female Goa'uld working with Trofsky turned out to be a Tok'ra operative and stepped in to save O’Neill by hurriedly placing him again in cryogenic suspension, telling him it would prevent the Goa’uld from implanting itself and kill it. Hathor happened upon the scene and attacked Raully for her betrayal. Carter and Daniel in the meantime were rescued by Robert Makepeace and his team. Carter went after O’Neill and found the injured Tok’ra woman, who told her how to free O’Neill from suspension. Hathor attacked Carter, but O’Neill awoke in time, grabbed Hathor, and sent her to her death by dumping her into the cryogenic tank.
Notes
- Hathor refers to herself in the plural ("We are Hathor. You would be wise to unbind us an kneel before your goddess.") This is a convention of royalty, known as a "royal we," but was likely done by the show's producers simply for the camp of it.
External links
- GateWorld's article on Hathor in The Stargate Omnipedia
- The Stargate character Hathor on Wikipedia
- The mythological Hathor on Wikipedia