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

valley temple), and goes on a symbolic pilgrimage to the three sacred towns of the Delta (Sais, Buto, Hut-ser / Heliopolis). Offering rituals and the entombment completes the funerary procedure.

81 The funeral ceremony runs along three parallel lines: 1. funerary rites to promote the resurrection of the dead 2. the night journey of the sun god to resurrect on the eastern horizon 3. to do justice to Osiris in his conflict with Seth. The various phases of the burial ceremony, in the course of which the mummy approaches to the gate of the tomb, can be taken as individual stations of this symbolic voyage.

82 It was demonstrated above that in the Ramesside pattern of tomb decoration the scene with 'the cow coming out of the mountain' represented the final stage of the funerary ritual. In other word, Hathor meets the ba of the deceased at the entrance of the vault just after all the rites necessary to revive and to go along the paths of the Netherworld have been performed.

83 Instead of successive scenes recalling the long and complex ceremony of the Opening of the Mouth, we find only one composition involving and emphasizing the most substantial events.

84 The scene on the left side of coffin no. 51.2093 in Budapest exemplifies this solution (fig. 2). Recovering eyesight, faculty of speech and all senses was fundamental to the resurrection of the dead, and played the central role in the Opening of the Mouth ritual. On a mythological level, this act was symbolized by offering the eye of Horus and, as the Pyramid Texts put it, resulted in obtaining the bi and shm powers.

85 The former referred to resuming the vital functions (being a living person in the Netherworld), the latter concerned the competence for ruling (being the lord of the Netherworld)

.

86 According to the Pyramid Texts, this competence for ruling (shm) may manifest itself as overcoming the enemies. The act of handing over the s/im-sceptre pertained to the ritual of destroying the enemies, which symbolized the victory of Osiris over Seth as well as the triumph of the sun god over the Apophis-snake. In the burial ceremony a cattle-offering signified the triumph over the hostile forces.

87 For this reason, the motif of handing over the sAm-sceptre in the scene under discussion 1 Willems, op.cit. (n. 16) 146. 2 Kees, H., Totenglauben und Jenseitsvorstellungen der alten Ägypter, Leipzig 1956, 109. 3 Barthelmess, op.cit. (n. 12) 93. 4 Ibid., 93 and 98. 15 Roeder, G., „Mit dem Auge sehen". Ägyptisches und Ägyptologisches zum „Auge des Horus", GM 138(1994)37-69. 16 Ibid., 59-61. 17 Willems, op.cit. (n. 16) 150.