In the Kingdom of Kush the King was thought to be a manifestation of Horus, the son of Osiris and Isis and the Lord of the Sky, and in the tradition of Osiris and Isis the King usually married his sister who was thought to be the personification of Isis. In the later culture of Nubia Isis takes on traits of Hathor, an earlier goddess, who provided the King with supernatural powers to protect the nation and who presided over women, fertility, children and childbirth.   The daughters of the king and his sister bride, one of whom would be the future queen, became known as “the Daughters of Hathor” and they were adorned in Laptis Lazult, a blue stone from Afghanistan; its blue colour was thought to emanate from the heavens where Hathor, the Lady of Turquoise, watched over them.

The Daughters of Hathor are usually depicted in hieroglyphs adorned with falcon feathers and the stone of Laptis Lazult signifying respectively their paternal connection to Horus and the maternal protection of Hathor.