Csornay Boldizsár - Dobos Zsuzsa - Varga Ágota - Zakariás János szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 98. (Budapest, 2003)
GYŐRY, HEDVIG: A Pataikos with Hawks on the Shoulders
had to find another way. One of the methods they applied is shown in the composition of the dwarf amulets: it became characteristic that the subsidiary figures got connected to this Pataikos as reliefs. The complex figures combine in this way a three-dimensional main figure with extensions of which the details are reduced to two-dimensional compositions. The subsidiary figures, usually gods in human shape, are sometimes separated from the main figure by a-jour technique, or they are merged into the main figure. The most often represented subsidiary figures are: (a) a winged goddess on the back, and (b) three deities surrounding the Pataikos. The latter version regularly is completed by a pair of hawks (and / or sometimes by a pair of lions), but this seems to happen rarely with version (a). 4 THE PATAIKOS IN BUDAPEST A Pataikos 5 of the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest (figs. 1-5) is such a complex Pataikos figure with extensions. Both sculptural techniques, the statue and relief, are mixed, as the back side of the Pataikos is supplemented, not with a regular back pillar, but by a backboard cut off at the upper part and carved subsequently with a sketchy relief pattern. With his short legs, the god is standing on two crocodiles of which the heads are turned towards each other and touch at the front of the statuette, and so do their tails at the back. The bodies of the crocodiles are decorated with a checkered pattern, the tails are articulated with vertical lines carved in the surface, and in the heads the mouths are grooves, the eyes circles. The animals are lying on a circular base. In each hand, the Pataikos is holding a long snake in front of his disproportionally large torso. The snakes are not plastically elaborated, only their outlines are carved in the god's chest and belly. The heads of the snakes are unclear - they are roundish, similar to representations of knives. The arms of the god are short, and the forearms are unusually slim. The outlines of two birds sitting on bases can be seen on his shoulders. The god's neck is very short, his head is narrowing downwards and is elongated at the back. The upper side of the head is flat and there is no trace of a cap, but there is a scarab carved into the top of the skull, executed with the same technique as the snakes on his body. The eyebrows of the Pataikos are slightly projecting from the wide forehead, the nose is relatively long and stocky, the eyes look big under the thick eyelids, his mouth is long and straight, the tip of the chin is slightly protruding. On the backside of the figure there is a backboard of a somewhat irregular shape, with the representation of a goddess. She is looking to the god's right, and is holding her stretched arms at some distance of her body. Starting down from her hips, there are some oblong lines which refer to the wings that are usual for this type of goddess. Details of face and hands are missing, and there's no indication of any garment. Only her wig is signalled, 4 I would like to thank here Aayko Eyma for making suggestions about English formulation, and for the discussion of some aspects of the topic. 5 Inv. no. 51.2332, M: 7,26x3,27x2,18 cm, much worn, of green faience. See Nagy, I., Egyptian Collection, Budapest 1999, p. 68, fig. 51.
