Tátrai Vilmos szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 94. (Budapest, 2001)

GYŐRY, HEDVIG: To the Interpretation of Pataikos Standing on Crocodiles

an own temple and priesthood in Sais.

102 The dwarfs have, above all, connection to the infants or the birth itself, but they also gave protection against different harmful animals. This latter fact is vividly indicated e.g. by the knife or snake held in the hand and the snakes winding out of the mouth;

103 not by chance as snakes, scorpions and other wild animals endangered particularly the small children. Children cannot protect themselves, moreover their organism reacts to even a small doze of poison more intensively than adults do. A scorpion in the marshes also bit the child Horus. The story was used by Horus cippi and healing statues for healing snake- and scorpion-bite,

104 and on both types of objects mentioned the presence of the representations of different dwarfs is indeed significant. The representations of Pataikos-like dwarfs standing by themselves and standing on crocodile(s) are frequent among them.

105 Also the attributes of the amulets render many associations possible. The scarab, indicating a solar and creating aspect, can refer to Re or Amun; the cap fitting closely to the head joins him to Ptah and Chonsu; the double feather crown assimilates him to Amon, and there are indeed some pieces with Amon trigrams,

106 also; and the cryptographic Atum trigrams are also conspicuous. Remarkable is the frequent representation of the snakes that can also refer to Atum,

107 though they give him a demonic and netherworld-like aspect. The atef crown combined with a scarab refers to the solar aspect of Osiris. The various attributes point to the fact, that whilst establishing the iconography very complicated ideas were joined to this type of the dwarf god and neither that time nor later the aspects of the god were completely unified. If the discussed figure of the Pataikos standing on crocodiles amulet is considered as a whole as the reflection of a homogeneous conception, then the amulet itself is a theological monogram

108 referring to the figure of the creator god Ptah, who connected 102 Daressy, G., Remarques et notes, RT 14 (1893) p. 182; Spiegelberg, W.. Neue Schenkungstelen über Landstiftungen an Tempeln. ZÄS 56 (1920) pp. 59-60, pl. VI; Meeks, D., Les donations aux temples dans l'Egypte du 1er millénaire avant J.-C., in: E. Lipinski (ed), State and Temple Economy in the Ancient Near East, II, Louvain 1979, p. 674, no. 26.0.6.; el-Sayed, R., Deux aspects nouveaux du culte a Sais. BIFAO 76 (1976) pp. 91-100, pl. XVIb: Magical Harris Pap. V. 9. 5; Ola el-Aguizy, Dwarfs and pygmies in Ancient Egypt. ASAE 71 (1987) p. 57, n. 12-She supposed that the dwarf is the representation of Osiris, Horus, Amon or Sobek. cf. in Bubastis three dwarfs celebrate a liturgy - Naville, E., The Festival Hall of Osorkon II. in the great temple ofBubastris (1887-1889), London 1892, pl. XX. 103 Petrje^ Fl., Amulets, repr. Warminster 1972, no. 144, f. pl. XXVI; Vercoutter, op. cit. (note 73), pp. 270, 286; Schott, N. E., The Metternich Stele. BMMA, April. 1951, p. 201, 2. Dwarf on the crocodile at the edge of the line: p. 208, a dwarf on crocodiles holding snakes in the hands and wearing a flat crown between tutelary gods; Hölbl, G., Beziehungen der Ägyptischen Kulten zu Altitalien I, Textteil, Leiden, 1979, pp. 117-118. cf. A. Morét, A., Horus-Saveur, Rev. Hist. Religions, 1915, pp. 213-287, pl. I, registre II. 104 E. g. Sander - Hansen, op. cit. (note 98), p. 60, Spruch XIII, 168 - Heracle also killed the snakes as a child, Kákosy, L., Egyptian Healing Statues in Three Museums in Italy (Turin, Florence, Naples), Turin 1999,pp.

11-13. 105 E. g. Scott, op. cit. (note 103), p. 211, picture below; Jelinkova-Reymond, op. cit. (note 22), p. 37, dwarf with udjat-eye above him; Sternberg-el-Hotabi, H., Die Götterdarstellungen der Metternichstele, GM 97 (1987) pp. 45^16; Kákosy, op. cit. (note 104), p. 54, fig. 8, p. 58, fig. 13, pis. XVII, XVIII, XXII, XXIII, XXIV, XXVI, XXIX, XXX, XXXI, XXXIII, XLV 106 Kákosy, op. cit. (note 104), pp. 13-17. 107 Mysliwiec, op. cit. (note 65) /, pp. 95-124. 108 Ryhiner, op. cit. (note 76), pp. 125-137.