Tátrai Vilmos szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 94. (Budapest, 2001)

GYŐRY, HEDVIG: To the Interpretation of Pataikos Standing on Crocodiles

TO THE INTERPRETATION OF PATAIKOS STANDING ON CROCODILES The Egyptian Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest has several amulets representing a dwarf god. One of them could be used not only as an amulet but, according to the signs on the bottom, also as a seal (figs. 1-4). The small statuette of the dwarf god

1 is made by an open-worked technique at the legs and at the right arm. The god wears an angular cap with a scarab on the top. Outstanding ears flank his round head. The eyelids and eyebrows, modelled in raised relief are worked out subtly. The nose is wide and flat. Both lips are level and shorter than the nose. At the comers they are set off from the chin by a marked groove. On the right face two narrow grooves are directed toward the ear. The neck is short and stocky. The chest is rendered in the form of a raised collar. On its upper half the outlines of a narrow, two-rowed collar can be discerned. The slightly bent arms are placed beside the potbelly. Both hands hold the handle of a knife with the tip curved outwards on a right angle. The navel is deepened at the bottom of the belly. The short and bent legs rest on an oval base with uneven surface referring to the former crocodile motif. A wide two-banded loop, decorated with horizontal lines, is applied on the back of the neck. On the backside of the trunk an elongated triangular groove extends downward from the waist. The bottom of the base is incised with hieroglyphs. Among the representations of the amulets two types of rendering a dwarf are evident: figures of Bes

2 and of the so-called Pataikos.

3 Each is derived from the same root of iconography. It can be determined on the basis of excavated material that the amulet types of the dwarf gods originate from the figurines of men with arms akimbo, which were manufactured from the time of the Old Kingdom. During the 18

th Dynasty they got split into two groups, Pataikos amulets and Bes amulets, and were increasingly popular from the Ramesside Period onwards. They developed more and more diversified varieties. They were the richest in iconographical details during the Third Intermediate Period. From Saitic Period the classical types became dominant again but 1 Inv. 51.2557, M: 4,8 x 2,11 x 1,72 cm, green glazed brown steatite, unbroken, worn. 2 Ballod, F., Prolegomena zur Geschichte der zwerghaften Götter in Ägypten, Moskau 1913; Györy, H., Egyiptomi amulettek. A Szépművészeti Múzeum gyűjteményében található amulett fajták régészeti elemzése (doktori disszertáció), Budapest 1993, ELTE, Egyiptológia Tanszék, (Egyptian Amulets. Archaeological Analysis of the Amulet Types in the Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest (dissertation). Budapest 1993 ELTE Chair of Egyptology), pp. 305-321. 3 Griffith, J.G., LÄ. IV, pp. 914-915, Patäke. For the development of the amulet manufacturing see: Györy, op.cit., pp. 292-305.