Hedvig Győry: Mélanges offerts a Edith Varga „Le lotus qui sort de terre” (Bulletin du Musée Hongrois des Beaux-Arts Supplément 1. Budapest, 2001)

HANS GOEDICKE: Anthropological Problems - Gynecological Questions

Khnum's part in the event is not an immediate one. That he was nevertheless assigned to it stems from his supporting role. It is quite literally demonstrated by Rawoser describing Khnum as the "porter" of the ladies, to whom he gives a sack of barley and with which Khnum loads himself. In other words, Khnum's role is that of continued sustaining, but not the delivery of the human beings. While we find a separation of divine and human beings into the Middle Kingdom, the role of the gods being only that of support, the situation is quite different in Hatshepsut's account about her own origin and birth." The major change, when compared with the earlier times, is the intertwining of the two spheres which previously had been kept separate. When seen in this larger setting, Brunner's thesis,

12 that Hatshepsut advertised a notion going back to the Old Kingdom, becomes no longer tenable. There is no indication prior to Hatshepsut of a direct divine participation in the creation of human life. While the divine powers might be supporting or interfering, human life was due to human procreation, but not to divine creation. Hatshepsut's account has thus to be attributed to her - and probably even personally. Displayed on the back wall of the northern portico on the middle terrace of Hatshepsut's mortuary temple

1

' is not the oldest preserved version of a myth of the king's divine birth, but rather the preposterous claim of Hatshepsut to have divine parentage.

14 As soon as one takes our familiarity with the Amphitryon motif away, the so-called "myth" turns out to be nothing else than an attempt to glorify an act of adultery, either on the part of Amun or on the part of Hatshepsut's mother lahmes. The aim is, of course, to elevate Hatshepsut and her claim to kingship beyond the human realm. As she lacked the constitutional basis for her execution of power, it had to be derived directly from the divine, either by divine oracle or by the claim

15 of her divine nature. 11 É. Naville, The Temple of Dei,- el-Bahari II, London 1897, pi. 46ff.; K. Sethe, Urk. IV, pp. 215-234; S. Ratié, La Reine Hatchepsout: Sources et Problèmes, Leiden 1979, pp. 93-107. 13 H. Brunner, Die Geburt des Gottkönigs, ÄA 10, Wiesbaden 1964, pp. 188ff. " E. Naville, op. cit (note 11), pis. 47-55. The texts are also available in Sethe, Urk. IV, pp. 216-234. 11 Her claim might not be limited to the display at Deir el-Bahari, but appears to have its basis in the statement included in lnana's biographical inscription (Sethe, Urk. IV, 60,5), prwt-ntr Iht prthnt.f, "the glorious gods-seed which came forth before him" in which not only Hatshepsut's precedence over Thutmosis III is stressed, but also her descent from the deceased Thutmosis I, who is appropriately denoted as ntr, cf. also the interpretation of E. Dziobek, Das Grab des Ineni - Theben Nr. Hl, AVDA1K 68, Mainz 1992, p. 54. 15 For the divine oracle that was staged on her behalf, see P. Lacau - H. Chevrier, Une Chapelle d'Hatshepsout à Karnak, I, Le Caire 1977, pp. 97ff,