Mefkat and the goddess Hathor, topography and religion in the 3rd province of Lower Egypt. MIFAO 146.

Since the work of Jean Yoyotte in the 1980s, it had become apparent that a resumption of the file on Mefkat, a city in the western delta, was necessary, which would include in particular a new edition of the Ritual of Mefky (block Cairo Egyptian Museum JE 45936). The information contained in this naos fragment allows us to revisit the local geography and the places used in the Ritual, but also to clarify different aspects of the theology of Mefkat. The figure of Hathor who was venerated there, associated with an Osiris and a Harsomtous in a triad of Osirian inspiration, had a strong bovine connotation. Described as the ba of Isis, brilliant or Golden, Hathor of Mefkat was a maternal cow, a goddess whose head cut off by Horus was replaced by a cow's muzzle, like Isis in the story of the confrontation between Horus and Seth. This etiological myth is further found, with some minor adaptations, in other sanctuaries of Hathor of Mefkat, which can be identified in northern Upper Egypt and in the eastern Delta.
This monograph is the revised version of a doctoral thesis defended at the University of Lille in 2009. It presents a new translation and a commentary on the Ritual of Mefky , then proposes to return to the toponym, its origin and its location, before analyzing the different facets of the local religion.