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
time: in the Pyramid Texts it can still be identified as a kind of overcoat, but the Middle Kingdom alternatives depict a kind of cloth, the two ends or straps of which were tied to each other on the back. 39 Some scholars identified it as some sort of'necklace', 40 others opted for 'pendant'. 41 I find it reasonable to think of some kind of necklace or collar on the neck of the anthropomorphic or cow-shaped goddess, or it can even be some other ornament of Hathor, but a necklace attached to the raemf-counterpoise, or a sistrum fixed around the neck appears to me the most likely candidate. 42 To conclude what has been said so far: 1. Hathor appears in anthropomorphic or cow-shaped form for the deceased on the border of the ofherworld; 2. the deceased ritually adorns the goddess with a special kind of cloth or ornament at a festival event, and his performance is closely related to one of the most prominent attributes of Hathor, the menit; 3. the mythical event takes place on the horizon, and aims at getting to the solar bark; 4. the goddess assists the deceased to overcome the underworld enemies and to become a god. II. ENTERING THE NETHERWORLD - MEETING THE GODDESS OF THE WEST CT Spell 400 43 was sentenced to assist the soul to reach „the ferryboat (kij.t) to the realm of the Dead, to the place [where Osiris is]". In lines 173f and 173g an unnamed goddess is mentioned „kneeling at the stairway" (misn.s r rwd), who „brings and takes away", as „she crosses over to the Field of Rushes." This passage seems again to describe the moment of arriving at the border of the otherworld, when the goddess of the West is greeting the deceased. Certainly the same scene is meant by a passage of the Pyramid Texts 44 which identifies the goddess of the West, who welcomes the deceased at the beginning of his night journey, with the Celestial Cow: \ ..Lo, she comes to meet thee, the beautiful of the West, to meet thee with her beautiful locks. Both the personified West and the cow-shaped goddess are manifestations of Hathor. The former greets the dead at the gate of the West / Netherworld / Cemetery, 39 See the votive textiles offered to Hathor: Pinch, G., Votive Offerings to Hathor, Oxford 1993, 102-134. The word, snd, which denotes another type of garment for the gods, can well appear with the same determinative. For instance, the goddess of the West is shown wearing this particular dress when she meets the Osiris-deceased (CT [32] I 109a). 40 van der Pias, D. - Borghouts, J.F., Coffin Texts Word Index, Utrecht - Paris 1998, 315. 41 Drioton, loc.cit. (n. 31) 175. 42 „Sous la forme funéraire, Hathor porte le sistre au cou, à la manière d'un collier" (Jéquier, G, Les frises d'objets des sarcophages du Moyen Empire, Le Caire 1921, 82). 43 It has survived on a coffin from Assiut (SIC) and four others from Meir (M2Ny a , M2Ny h , M5C\ M5C b ). 44 Pyr. [254] 281-282, see: Piankoff, A., The Sky-Goddess Nut and the Night Journey of the Sun, /£A 20 (1934) 58.
