Csornay Boldizsár - Dobos Zsuzsa - Varga Ágota - Zakariás János szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 99. (Budapest, 2003)
LIPTAY, ÉVA: Between Heaven and Earth. The Motif of the Cow Coming out of the Mountain
own on the vignette to BD Ch. 137 B. 19 She is the one who expels with the torch the hostile demons threatening the resurrecting sun god and the embalmed Osiris in the darkness of the night. 20 The text of the chapter, however, clearly attributes this action to the Eye of Re. Consequently, in this situation the figures of the hippopotamus-shaped goddess and the Eye of Re correspond with each other with regards to their function. In most of the cases, Ipet is missing from the parallel scenes in Ramesside private tombs 21 and on the sides of 21 st Dynasty coffins. 22 It is in accordance with the commonly held opinion that the private tombs of 19 th-20 th dynasties served as prototypes for the burials of Theban Amon-priests 23 : the scenes on the coffins intended to follow and, for want of a tomb, to replace to a certain extent the earlier model of decoration. The winged ureus above the body of Hathor has been introduced as a new iconographie motif, but everything points to that she fulfils the same function as the hippopotamus-goddess in the earlier scenes. Since both the deceased and the sun god arrive at the Western Mountain at sunset, the hippopotamus-goddess holding a torch or the Eye of Re in her form as a winged ureus shining for the deceased are not unexpected figures here. The cow-goddess is attested in a very similar situation at Deir el-Bahari, in the 18 th Dynasty sanctuary built over the Middle Kingdom temple of Montuhotep Nebhepetre. 24 Here the cult of this form of Hathor gains its origin evidently not from the New Kingdom, but from an earlier tradition dated back at least to the 11 th Dynasty. Under the reign of Hatsepsut a cave-like chapel was constructed for the goddess on Middle Kingdom foundations, in the southern part of the temple. A relief on the northern wall of its outer sanctuary displays an offering presented to the Hathorcow, who is standing in a bark and wearing a memf-pendant on her neck. 25 A similar scene on the southern wall of the inner sanctuary depicts the cow without the bark, but with a sistrum hanging from her neck. 26 Under Thutmosis III, who succeeded Hatshepsut on the throne, another „cave" was hewn out from the rocky wall of the north-western corner of the temple, at a height of about 3 feet. This was the place, where the life-size statue was discovered, 19 Schott, S., Das Löschen von Fackeln in Milch, ZÄS 73 (1937) 7-8. 20 Altenmüller, Apotropaia (n. 18) 148-152; Seeber, Ch., Untersuchungen zur Darstellung des Totengerichts im Alten Ägypten (MAS 35), München 1976, 175-184. 21 Except for scenes where she is depicted receiving an offering independently of the Hathor-cow.: Saleh, op.cit. (n. 12) 89. 22 She may appear on the contemporary ..mythological papyri": Heyne, loc.cit. (n. 1) 59-60. 23 Ibid., 60. 24 Naville, E., The XP h Dynasty Temple at Deir el-Bahari I, London 1907, 63-67. 25 Id., The Temple of Deir el-Bahari IV, London 1901, pi. CIV. 26 Ibid., pl. CV.
