La figure hathorique à Chypre (IIe-Ier mill. av. J.-C.)

This essay deals with the origin, the identity, the place and the functions of the Hathoric figure in Cyprus (IInd-Ist millennium BC). Unlike in Egypt, Hathor is not identified by inscription in Cyprus. Her spreading is exclusively attested by hundred of iconographic evidence of varied nature (such as capitals, steles, terracotta, metal objects, vases, etc.) which were discovered almost everywhere on the island between the Late Bronze Age and the classical period (ca. 1600-400 BC). An examination of the representations of the Egyptian goddess was essential to define the iconographic features of the Hathoric figure in order to identify and isolate, among the Cypriote furniture, the imagery of the goddess. These Cypriot testimonia are listed in an exhaustive catalog, which constitutes the base of the reflection built on an iconographic, stylistic and contextual analysis of each document. In this way, these researches aimed to understand and to explain, on one hand, the introduction, the distribution and the disappearance of this Egyptian divine figure in Cyprus, and on the other hand, the symbolic value that the inhabitants of the island conferred on her. A first analytical chapter so supplies a punctual but detailed interpretation of every document in chronological and comparative viewpoints. The last two chapters are more synthetic: the second defines the identity of this divine figure in Cyprus (forms, attributes, functions) and wonders about its links with the Great Cypriot Goddess; the last one proposes an identification of the historic process and the intentions which preside over the penetration of this Egyptian divinity in Cyprus, its adaptation and its disappearance in 4th century BC. In the Cypriot context, this study brings to light the existence of a syncretism proceeded between this Egyptian divinity and the local Great Goddess. The Image of the hathoric goddess was not simply borrowed from Egypt, but was really transposed in Cyprus in order to enrich the theological personality of the local Great Goddess. Under her hathoric avatar, this Great Goddess was especially linked to the funerary context, to the fertility and the protection of natural resources and more particularly metalliferous resources, and, during Ist mill. BC, when appeared the kingships, to the protection of the royal power. By measuring the role of the Near East in the distribution of this divine figure in Cyprus, this study shows the complex cultural links established between the various cultural areas of the Oriental Mediterranean world (Cyprus, Egypt, Levant).