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

The presence of a papyrus scrub in front of the mountain, where the cow-goddess steps out is so much a further reference to the Mehet-weret aspect, as the offering vase with a bunch of papyrus placed in front of the Hathor-cow.

56 No wonder that Hathor and other cow-shaped goddesses assisting the dead in their journey to the otherworld are often associated with the papyrus swamp, since, in the eyes of the Egyptians, the sky is essentially a watery substance.

57 Conforming to this concept, the deceased, who becomes identified with the sun god, is regarded as the offspring of the cow-goddess.

58 The goddess of marshland in the celestial waters or primordial abyss takes the shape of a Wild Cow (smi.t). Besides Mehet-weret, the Hesat-cow of the celestial Jirw-¥ie\â can also be deemed as a form of Hathor.

59 Her motherly character makes the Hesat-cow the nurse of the reborn sun god / deceased, and relates her to the cow of Deir el-Bahari coming out of the Mountain who suckles the pharaoh (see above).

60 As it has been discussed, in his journey to the netherworld the deceased reaches the border of the West, where - in the testimony of the traditional 21

st Dynasty scene, which goes back to at least Middle Kingdom precursors - Hathor welcomes him in the shape of a cow. In the Coffin Texts, it is either the goddess of the West, or the Celestial Cow in her form of Nut or Hathor who helps the dead to ascend to the sky and to get on the solar bark, and her sycamore tree manifestation nourishes him as well. The Celestial Cow (Nut, Hathor, Mehet-weret or Hesat) resides in the marshland (/:>rH'-Field) which flanks the heavenly waters. In the Pyramid Texts the deceased, proceeding to the evening bark, passes the goddess of the West,

61 and subsequently, in his capacity as the Bull of the Sky, he unites with his mother, Nekhbet, the Great Wild Cow (smi.t wr.t).

62 During the night, the soul, who is practically identical with the sun god, turns to be conceived again in the Primeval Waters, then purifies himself in the swamp of the /^m-Field, and finally, having resurrected, he takes his seat in the morning bark at dawn.

63 56 Heyne, loc.cit. (n. 1) 63. 57 Allen, P.A., The Cosmology of the Pyramid Texts, in Religion and Philosophy in Ancient Egypt (YES 3), New Haven 1989, 8-10. •^

8 The deceased ruler as the „White Bull": Kees, H., Göttinger Totenbuchstudien, Berlin 1954, 1516. 59 LÄ II, 1170-1170; Wilson, P., A Ptolemaic Lexikon (OLA 78), Leuven 1997, 677. 60 Altenmüller, Synkretismus (n. 4) 83-85. The goddess Neith, whose name is written next to a cobra right above the head of the cow in a coffin scene concerned (no. 51.2093), can also be connected to Hathor and the cow of the celestial marshland (CT VI 297i-j). 61 Barta, W., Die Bedeutung der Pyramidentexte für den verstorbenen König(MÄS 39), München 1981, 139-140 = Pyr.§§ 150a, 283b, 185a. 62 Pyr. §§ 388c, 397a; Pyr. 729a, 2003a. 63 Barta, op.cit. (n. 61) 142; Allen, loc.cit. (n. 57) 6.