Florence Farr
The beloved of Hathor, and The shrine of the Golden Hawk
"The beloved of Hathor, and The shrine of the Golden Hawk by Farr and Shakespear" is a pair of ritualistic verse dramas written around the turn of the 20th century. The book stages mythic tales set in ancient Egypt, blending temple ceremony, magic, and political destiny to explore the tension between worldly power and spiritual illumination. In The Beloved of Hathor, the high priestess Ranoutet prepares the warrior Aahmes—victor over the Hyksos—to receive the goddess’s mysteries if he can withstand a final temptation. Nouferou, a nobleman’s rebellious daughter with a wanderer’s blood, enchants and seduces him on the eve of battle, and though Aahmes wins military glory, he fails the spiritual trial; Ranoutet declares he will rule Egypt but be shut out from the sanctuary. In The Shrine of the Golden Hawk, the fire-magician Gebuel completes a talisman of Heru to challenge King Zozer, but Zozer’s daughter Nectoris arrives, guided by her Ka, to claim the Hawk for Egypt. Defying Gebuel’s warnings, she enters the blazing shrine, unites with the god, and emerges bearing the amulet unharmed. She commands Gebuel to bring the shrine to Egypt, and he yields; the play closes with her triumph as the chosen bearer of Heru’s power.