Csornay Boldizsár - Dobos Zsuzsa - Varga Ágota - Zakariás János szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 98. (Budapest, 2003)
GYŐRY, HEDVIG: A Pataikos with Hawks on the Shoulders
on their own, but in relation to other elements; both options will be explored below. Also, it should not be forgotten that in the course the centuries, the overall composition could have undergone essential alterations and the birds' meaning and interpretation could thus change with time, as well. The first possible explanation of the birds could be derived by comparing the Pataikos composition with other, different but yet similar, artifacts, notably the Horus cippi, which likewise were belived to offer protection against snake-bites and share several elements of composition. 63 There is a Pataikos with hawk, which is wearing a crown, in the Egyptian Collection of the Louvre 64 : the crown is the hnw n dwit, 65 that is, the double ostrich feather with the solar disc. On the backside is a striding Nofertum. If one takes into consideration that on the Horus cippi, the Horus child regularly appears between a Nofertum emblem put on a standard on the one side, and a hawk/falcon 66 standing on a standard 67 on the other side, and that the latter hawk often has the same feather-crown on its head, then it could perhaps be presumed that the Nofertum on the back of the Pataikoi mirrors the Nofertum emblem on the cippi, and that the birds of the Pataikos amulets would mirror the hawk on the cippi. This is particularly plausible because the hawks and the Nofertum depictions seem to appear simultaneously on the Pataikoi. In this way, the two birds of the Pataikoi could possibly be interpreted as the birds of either Haroeris, Sopdu, or Montu. And in spite of the fact that this Louvre amulet is an exceptional piece, such an interpretation fits naturally into the general protective meaning of the composition. The number of the birds, and the position on the shoulders, would, however, not be explained by this option. A general explanation that would come to mind is seeing a relation with ancient Egyptian texts that speak about a connection between shoulders and hawks/falcons. Certain texts, of a medical-magical nature, suggest that the shoulders are protected by (and identified with) hawks/falcons. 68 Other texts, like pChester Beatty VII, rt. 3,2, 69 seem to suggest that "falcons" could be an anatomical term for the tips of the shoulders 63 Cf. Sternberg-el-Hotabi, H., Die Götterdarstellungen der Metternichstele. Ein Neuansatz zu ihrer Interpretation als Elemente eines Kontinuitätsmodells, GM 97 (1987) 25-70 (henceforth abbreviated Götterdarstellungen). 64 Louvre 037759 (unpublished). It shows a winged Hathor at the back, plus two miniature lions or cats at the sides. The seal contains, however, the usual cryptographic pattern. 65 Barguet, P., Au sujet d'une représentation du ka royal, ASAE 51 ( 1951 ) 211. 66 E.g. Feucht, E., Vom Nil zum Neckar. Berlin-Heidelberg-New York-London-Paris-Tokyo 1986, p. 105, no. 237. On the Horus cippi, the bird is represented without crown, with double feather, or with the double crown. 67 About the hawk on the wadj column, see Kees, H., Farbensymbolik in ägyptischen religiösen Texten. NAWG phil.-hisl. Kl. 11, 1943. 68 Cf. MUK, Utt. E vs. 4,3: "/?7 hlw hr rmn.wj.fj - bjk.w pw c nh.w - 'Do not fall on his two shoulders/ arms, they are living hawks.'" This addresses a disease that is to be warded off, and occurs in a list with many parallel sentences in which the various parts of the body are given first, and then something frightening that protects those parts. The child that is to be protected is equated with Horus. Erman, A., Zaubersprüche für Mutter und Kind, Berlin 1901, p. 17. 69 jw psh pi sr hr bjk(.wj) n rmn.wj ("the magistrate having been bitten upon the falcons' of the shoulders I arms" ; bjk(.wj) is written with the hieroglyphs of falcon (G5) and falcon on standard (G7)). Gardiner, A.H., Hieratic Papyri in the British Museum: Third series: Chester Beatty Gift, London 1935, pi. 33 and p. 57.
