The temple of Hathor at Busiris is now back online and is somewhat historically correct.

Here's a Hymn to Hathor:

“Let me worship the Golden One to honor her Majesty

and exalt the Lady of Heaven;

Let me give adoration to Hathor And songs of joy to my heavenly Mistress!

I beg her to hear my petitions

That she send me my mistress now!

And she came herself to see me!

What a great thing that was when it happened!

I rejoiced, I was glad, I was exalted,

From the moment they said, “Oh, look at her!

See, here she comes!” – and the young men bowing

Through their enormous passion for her.

Let me consecrate breath to my Goddess

That she give me my Love as a gift! It is four days now I have prayed in her name;

Let her be with me today!"

Hathor was the goddess - or rather "netjer" which means "principle" or "concept" - of fertility, love, dance and music. Temples of Hathor were therefore designed to bring fertility to the fields (by sympathetic magic).

Since fertility and reproduction were extremely important to Kemeteans, young girls left their parents' home soon after their first blood in order to serve Hathor. They incarnated the goddess to the Temple visitors and as such entered a socially condoned life-and-death initiation ritual, not wanton sexuality.

To outsiders, whether Greeks or modern historians this is known as "religious prostitution".

However, real prostitutes were active in Kemet and they appeared during the New Kingdom where they were called "khenemet". They were slaves brought in by Syrian traders who labelled them as "Babylonians" and put them at work in Kemetean beer taverns.

Regarding the Temple of Hathor at ptolemaic Busiris, it is not related to the Kemetean concept of devotion to the Goddess of Fertility and Love but to the "khenemet" activity.

Since I am a fan of Mucha's artwork, it seemed fit to me to use it to illustrate the "temple" with non-Kemeteans and in a slightly erotic manner. I didn't want anything too explicit since the web is already loaded with "adult" websites.

As I started the "Legends of Busiris" thread five years ago, it seemed necessary to provide a visual background to the various roleplayers. The Busiris website took me a lot of time and efforts, especially since the real city has completly disappeared.

After the sad demise of Ancient Sites four years ago and Busiris' move to Pan Historia, the thread died within a few months: never move a party that is rocking, it doesn't survive in new surroundings!

After a few years away in the Real World, I am back here at Ancient Worlds and am resurrecting Busiris from its ashes - I am glad that all the website files were saved on a CD-.

But! Website standards are higher now than they were then and I have to spend quite some time to enhance my old webpages..

The Temple of the Djed is OPEN again and I just added a Star Sign Banner Shoppe

So bookmark the Busiris website and make sure you come back regularly!