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

The god Ptah himself is regularly connected with two birds.

77 The two hawks of Ptah are mentioned in several texts as the personification of his two arms,

78 thus they were considered to be an organic part of him. And on representations of Ptah-Tatenen, two birds (though with human face) do at times occur, again in relation to the shoulders of the god. When this aspect of Ptah is modelled, he is often wearing a sundisc in front of the double ostrich feather. This headdress is also refered to in one of his epithets, kij swtj-"he with the two high feathers" ?

9 This expression recalls exactly the headdress of the above mentioned Louvre hawks. Finally, it may deserve mentioning that Ptah's syncretistic form of Ptah-Sokar-Osiris had a link with hawks, as well: the sacred bird of Osiris-Sokar was the mummified hawk, as the dead Osiris was elected to king again in the shape of a hawk.

80 That the two hawks are connected to, and sometimes, even identified with, Ptah's arms, may perhaps tie in with the simultaneous occurance of the two arms, the hawks, and the person of Ptah in the rites for establishing the royal ka: this is the work of PtahTatenen, who could, however, be identified with this ka, transmitting also in this way the creative forces. As the hawks / falcons do stand in connection with the arms, which are indispensable in the hieroglyphic writing of the fö-soul, the birds could in the representation of Ptah express the life-giving power transmitted by the arms. The sundiscs a top the heads of Ptah's birds fit well into this context as the solar symbol for rebirth. (A similar view is reflected in the expression hrj-kl, "lucky, happy one", i.e. the person is standing below the H-soul, which secures his life.) It must be said that the birds in the statues of Ptah are standing on two djed columns, not on plain bases. However, these columns are fit close to the back side of the god, in such a way that they are not seen in a frontal view.

81 This means that the frontal view of Ptah in this aspect resembles the frontal view of the Pataikos with the two birds on the shoulders very closely. The absence of solar discs in the Pataikos compositions are not striking at all because of the small dimensions of the amulets - although the absence is no doubt deliberate. The parallellism of the two compositions, especially if people saw them next to each other, would hardly remain unnoticed. If such statues would be placed side by side, the notion of the adult Ptah and the child Ptah could be established very easily.

82 77 Kákosy L., Probleme der ägyptischen Kosmogonien der Ptolemäer- und Römerzeit, in Hommage à F. Daumas II, Montpellier 1986, pp. 429-431, 52-53; Berlandini, loc.cit (n. 61) pp. 25-28. 78 k

(

h-fm bjk.w.i n Pth; Erman, op.cit. (n. 68) Sp. E (Rt. 4,3) and U (vs. 5,1); Klasens, A., A Magical Statue Base (Socle Béhague) in the Museum of Antiquities at Leiden, OMRO 33 (1952) 60, line 10; Borghouts, op.cit. (n. 3) Rt. 5,6-7. 79 E.g. Daressy, op.cit. (n. 26) pl. VI. 80 Cf. Kaplony, P., Eine Spätzeit-Inschrift in Zürich, in Festschrift zum 150jährigen Bestehen des Berliner Ägyptischen Museums, Berlin 1974, pp. 136-137. 81 In the Egyptian collection of the Walters Art Gallery, there is a Pataikos statuette with djed column at the back. However, on top of the djed, Hathor is kneeling. Also here, nobody who would see the frontal view of the object would spot the details of the reverse. Catalogue of the Egyptian Sculpture of the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore 1946, p. 123, no. 499. 82 The word "Pataikos" written down in Greek (Herodotus III. 37), and used for the figure of a dwarf god, means "little Ptah"

. being the diminutive form of the name of the god, which expression incorporates naturally a childish form of Ptah; cf. RÄRG, p. 584.