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 deceased performs the ritual in our discussion to Hathor, mistress of the Sycamore,

73 as he advances towards to the northern sky. The ceremony takes place in a papyrus scrub of the northern marshland; certain tomb inscriptions label it as the /?rvv-fïeld, that is, the transitional region between heaven and earth. Moreover, given that the otherworld was placed in the sky in Old Kingdom religious conceptions, reaching the northern sky could fully correspond to entering the Netherworld. Middle and New Kingdom descendants of the motif clarify the parallelism of the mythical and ritual dimensions: splitting papyrus' is essential to make a ladder, which serves to help the deceased to the sky (to Hathor). Thereby he will be able to unify with his mother, goddess of the sky.

74 The deceased makes his ladder in the marshlands of the western horizon (Jirwfield), and "splits papyrus for Hathor" at sunset, on the narrow temporal and spatial borderline between day and night. Having reached the nocturnal sky,

75 the evening bark proceeds towards the f/fp-field.

76 Another epithet of Hathor must be added to this matter: she is known as Nb.t •>h.t, 'mistress of the Horizon' from the First Intermediate Period and Middle Kingdom on.

77 The same title occurs in a CT spell ([Spell 276] IV 17 d) in connection with the goddess' netherworld aspect, which enables the deceased soul "to assume the shape as Hathor in the realm of the dead". Hathor is, consequently, mistress of the western horizon, where the sun goes down.

78 The ultimate purpose of the zH vWd-rite as it occurs in the Pyramid Texts and on the walls of Old Kingdom private tombs (in fact, it survives to the Late Period) does not differ from that of 'the cow coming out of the mountain' scene: to meet Hathor, goddess of the nocturnal sky, and to enter the West'. These two concepts This epithet of Hathor in Old Kingdom scenes, such as her „Mistress of the Two Lands" title, signifies her netherworld / night sky character. Both attributes occur on panels of 21

st Dynasty coffins. Altenmüller, Himmelsaufstieg (n. 69) 33-35. It is to be noted that even in spell 568 of the above mentioned „Hathorsprüche" the deceased climbs up to Hathor on a ladder. See also: CT I 270e-f, where it is Nut (the sky goddess / tree-goddess) who assists the deceased in his way up on a ladder (Allam, op.cit. [n. 2] 109). Altenmüller, H., Die Nachtfahrt des Grabherrn im AR. Zur Frage der Schiffe mit Igelkopfbug, SAK 28 (2000) 1-26 (henceforth abbreviated Nachtfahrt). The destination is explicitly indicated by a passage („journey from Buto (Dep) towards the Htpfield"). Further discussion: Settgast, J., Untersuchungen zu altägyptischen Bestattungsdarstellungen (ADAIK 3), Glückstadt - Hamburg - New York 1963, 72-74; Kessler, D., Szenen des täglichen Lebens, ZÄS 114 (1987) 74-77; Willems, op.cit. (n. 16) 145-156; Altenmüller, Nachtfahrt (n. 75) 21-22. LÄGG IV (OLA 113) 5. It is worth noting here that the hippopotamus goddess, who occasionally accompanies Hathor on New Kingdom BD Ch. 186 variants, is also bound to the horizon by her hnw.t Ih.t epitheton (Verner, M., Statue of Tweret [Cairo Museum no. 39145]. Dedicated by Pabesi and Several Remarks on the Role of the Hippopotamus Goddess, ZÄS 96 [1969] 52-62; LÄGG V [OLA 114] 163). Chapter 110 of the BD mentions a white female hippopotamus, who lives on the J3rw-ûeld. (Kees, op.cit. [n. 58] 15-16).