Before Egypt had human kings, its ruler was the god Re. In his declining years, angered by his subjects' lack of respect, the god sent his Eye, deified as the goddess Hathor, to take vengeance. The earliest version of this myth was found in TutAnkhhamun's tomb (c.1323), but it may have originated much earlier, possibly in a year when the Nile failed to flood and thousands died.

Re, as ruler of men, was past his prime. As he grew old his bones turned silver, his body gold, and his hair as blue as lapis lazuli. But his age did not prevent him from hearing that men were mocking him and plotting to overthrow him. Calling the gods to a secret conference, he asked their advice. Nun, as the eldest, was the one to whom he listened most avidly. Nun advised Re to punish the blasphemers by scorching them with his blazing heat. However, when Re did this, his victims ran for shelter to the rocks and escaped his fury. Frustrated, Re reconvened the conference. The gods were unanimous: Re should send his Eye in the form of Hathor-Sekhmet (who had previously done Atum good service in finding his children in the cosmic waters; to punish mankind. "No eye is better for this task than yours, concluded Nun. "Let it go forth as Hathor-Sekhmet." Hathor did as she was bidden: she perpetrated a savage slaughter, taking the form of a lioness. By the time that she was recalled by Re, she had acquired an insatiable taste for blood and was determined to return to earth to destroy the rest of humankind. Re was alarmed. He had meant only to each people a lesson, not to wipe them out. WHile Hathor rested, he sent messengers to Aswan to bring back a consignment of local red ochre. He order the High Priest of Heliopolis to pound it. As this was done, the god ordered servant girls to brew barley beer. The two elements were mixed together to produce seven thousand jugs of an intoxicating drink that looked like blood. Re ordered the jugs to be emptied over the fields were Hathor planned her next day of destruction. Hathor was taken in by the ruse. Flying over the fields, she saw what she assumed to be blood and swooped down for a drink. She drank too much and fell into a stupor. On regaining her senses, she had forgotten her original aim and set off home again, once more the benevolent goddess. As a gesture of his gratitude, Re decreed that the Egyptian people could drink as much as they liked at Hathor's festivals, in commemoration of Hathor, Lady of Drunkenness.