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

LÁSZLÓ KÁKOSY: A late Horus cippus

A Late Horus Cippus T

he Horus cippi display a great variety both in the composition of the central picture and the illustrations of small size accompanying the principal scene. One gets even the impression that, despite the common function of all these pieces, it is impossible to find two of them exactly alike in size, decoration and in their inscription. The small stela to be treated below shows several peculiarities, which may contribute to our knowledge regarding the latest chapter in the use of these monuments. ROUND-TOPPED THICK SLAB. Height 8.6 cm width 6.4 cm thickness 3.4 cm Limestone Private collection in Budapest Bought in Cairo in 1965 The front bears the common composition of the cippi in raised relief with the Horus child in the centre. (Fig. 1, 1/a) Though greatly worn and damaged the outlines of the god are still well defined. The face became flat and the body is worn off and pitted. The flatness of the face can perhaps be explained as a sign of popular piety; the stroking, rubbing or kissing of the divine face

1 was a perKákosy, A Small Monument of the Popular Cult, in: M. Schade-Busch (eds), Wege öffnen. Festschrift fur Rolf Gundlach, ÄAT Bd. 35, Wiesbaden 1996, p. 116. On Bes see J. Krall, Über den ägyptischen Gott Bes, Jahrb. der kunsthistorischen Sammlungen des ... Kaiserhauses IX. (1889) p. 72f; F. Ballod, Prelogomena zur Geschichte der zweighaften Götter in Ägypten, München 1912; Fl. Bonnet, RÁRG 101 ff; Kl. Parlasca, Zwei ägyptische Bronzen aus dem Heraion von Samos, Min. der Deutschen Arch. Inst. Athenische Abt. 68 (1953), p 128f; B. H. Stricker, Bes de danser, OMRO XXXVII (1956), pp. 35-48; LÄ\ cols. 720-724 (H. Altenmüller); LIMC III 98-108 (Tran Tarn Tinh); 11. Györy, Une amulette particulière du Dieu Bes, BMHBA 70-71 (1989), pp. 11-16; M. Malaise, Bes et les croyances solaires in: Studies in Egyptology presented to Miriam Lichtheim, Jerusalem 1990, pp. 680-729; J. E. Romano, The Bes - Image in Pharaonic Egypt, PhD Thesis, N. Y. Univ. 1989; Y. Volokhine, Dieux, masques et hommes f propos de la formation de l'iconographie de Bs, BSEG 18 (1994), pp. 81-95.