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

7. The variant of the scene with the sun-bark of the netherworld seem to be combined in a unique variant of the latter scene, where Hathor is depicted twice: as a cow-goddess and as an anthropomorphic deity in the evening bark (fig. 7).

79 IV. THE FUNERARY RITE: ENTERING THE BEAUTIFUL WEST / CHANGING TO THE EVENING BARK - THE SCENE OF 51. 2093 (FIG. 2) It was highlighted above that the scene of'the cow coming out of the mountain served well to express chthonic and solar netherworld-concepts within one composition. The Amon-priesthood of Thebes in the 21

st Dynasty appears to have been extremely keen on attaining this synthesis in the funerary cult, which was centred on the anthropoid coffin with the mummy inside. The symbolism of the coffin could aptly convey different concepts simultaneously, since the coffin represents the eternal residence (tomb / Netherworld) on one hand, the womb and the microcosm (sky goddess) on the other, but beyond these, it can even symbolize the bark of the netherworld journey.

80 After the all-night vigil over the mummy (Stundenwachen), the procession leaves the sh-ntr behind (the tent of the god was originally set up at the entrance of the Schäfer, loc.cit. (n. 51) fig. 17. Barguet, P., Les textes spécifiques des différents des sarcophages du Moyen Empire, RdE 23 (1971) 15-22; Willems, op.cit. (n. 16.) 156-159.