In various artworks I have seen, there have been changes in the attire of the same gods. This is seen with Hathor as sometimes she is depicted with a white dress and multi-coloured headdress, yet in others she is wearing different dresses. Is this simply a change of attire? Or is there a deeper meaning? With some other gods the differences are a lot greater, how can you easily identify which god is which?
Thanks.
I’m going to assume this isn’t a joke question because of when you posted it.
I’m certain that others can give better, more complex answers, but the most basic explanation is that different depictions of the gods are intended to give some indication of which “aspect” of said god is being discussed. The Egyptian pantheon is extraordinarily complex in this way, with thousands of gods that differ only slightly but each serve a different role. Often, each village would have its own pantheon, and each god would be localized. The Egyptians are additionally known to have a tradition of combining gods, the most well-known of those being Amun-Ra (Amun, Ra, and Amun-Ra are all separate gods in the pantheon).
As for Hathor specifically, her attire would depend upon what role she was meant to be fulfilling in that particular scene, whether it would be goddess of love or a conduit on behalf of her divine father Ra, as two examples.
The Egyptians generally would be able to identify which god/dess was being depicted in their local area due to context clues indicating the aspect of the deity (as you mentioned, color or feature are two big indicators), but this does not mean they would have carried that understanding over to depictions of gods from other parts of the Egyptian empire. As said, it was all extremely localized.
Sources:
Hornung 1982
Dunand and Zivie-Coche 2004
Traunecker 2001a
Years of my own study, including university classes on the topic.