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

In the chthonic concept the Hathor-cow coming out of the desert edge mountain greets, nourishes,

92 and guards the ba-sou\ at the entrance of the Necropolis. The iconographical program of 21

st Dynasty Amon-priest coffins from Thebes laid special emphasis on integrating these two distinctive underworld-concepts. Our coffin makes use of several symbols to underline the solar aspect of the scene (winged cobra, udjat-eye, and the hieroglyph of the "lower sky" / netherworld), which is concerned with the arrival of the solar bark with the deceased and the sun god at the border of the nocturnal sky. Hereupon the fra-soul, who has just entered the netherworld (tomb) and the evening bark, is enabled to surmount the difficulties, and by defeating all of his enemies, he has a good chance to reach the blessed state of regeneration. ÉVA LIPTAY Translated by Éva Liptay and Zoltán Horváth 92 With fruit as a sycamore tree, and with milk as a cow.