Czére Andrea szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 105. (Budapest, 2006)

ÉVA LIPTAY: Between Heaven and Earth II: The Iconography of a Funerary Papyrus from the Twenty-First Dynasty (Part II)

There are a number of similarities between the two situations: the barque, which momentarily runs aground upon the backbone of Apophis, can only proceed in its course by overwhelming the serpent of Non-Existence. The alternative way, likewise, leads through the body of a huge snake: in this case the sun-god can reach the locale of the sunrise by passing through the body of the Mehen. However, the conception of passing through the Mehen snake by the sun-god and the deceased in order to revive in its fiery breath, is by no means a new idea.

71 It seems, however, that in the case of the Budapest papyrus the usual iconographie position of the two snakes had been changed. The reptile of the first scene with the mummy-shaped figures among its coils which represented a positive, but destructive power for the hostile forces in the New Kingdom Underworldbooks, here seems to have transformed into the subdued figure of Apophis. Beneath the solar barque, on the other hand, where Apophis would be expected (the so-called enigmatic wall in the tomb of Ramesses IX provides an unambiguous textual proof for the characteristic features and identity of the snake under the sun boat), the Mehen serpent seems to appear on the discussed papyrus,

76 in spite of the fact that the iconographie position of the Mehen in the funerary material of the discussed Theban period is regularly above and around the barque, surrounding its cabin and the sun disc comprising the manifesting divine aspect." This transposition of roles must have been a deliberate decision of the adopter, but this fact inevitably raises the question as to what was his reason for doing so. It is tempting to assume that this iconographie solution is used to refer to the sometimes ambivalent character of the chthonic and primeval energies.

78 One can cite some examples from Egyptian religious thought, especially considering certain snake- and crocodile-shaped beings linked to the Primeval Ocean and the Netherworld, and especially from the New Kingdom versions of the Underworld-books and their later versions.

79 Furthermore, it is worth mentioning two variants of the Litany of Re from the Twenty-first Dynasty, among the row of figures of which an enormous, many-coiled serpent with a seemingly ambivalent character can be found.

80 4. 7. THE SOLAR EYE AND THE MEHEN One can draw the conclusion from the above discussion that the aspect of the sun-god represented in the sun disc of the >ht-sign is the wdit-tyt as the actual form of the b> of Re wdiich becomes visible to the human eye only after it has manifested itself at dawn. As for the New Kingdom versions of the Litany of Re, however, the common pictorial representation of the same aspect was typically the ram-head placed in the disc.

81 The group of the scarab and the ram-headed figure inside the disc, which one can meet in New Kingdom royal tombs,