161 Athor is an M-type Main belt asteroid that was discovered by James Craig Watson on April 19, 1876, at the Detroit Observatory[1] and named after Hathor, an Egyptian fertility goddess.

It is the namesake of a proposed Athor asteroid family, estimated to be ~3 billion years old.

[12] Photometric observations of the minor planet in 2010 gave a rotation period of 7.2798±0.0001 h with an amplitude of 0.19±0.02 in magnitude.

[13] An occultation by Athor was observed, on October 15, 2002, showing an estimated diameter of 47.0 kilometres (29.2 mi).

[7] The spectra is similar to that of carbonaceous chondrites, with characteristics of ferric oxides and little or no hydrated minerals.