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
Suspension loops, 29 and that most of the pieces with known provenience were found in tombs together with other amulets, make it highly probable that the majority of them were worn by the Egyptians - eventually only for a restricted time or under specific conditions, for example during a rite to speed up delivery, as is prescribed in the Ramesside pLeiden 1.348. 30 Also bifrons statuettes do occur, in which the interior duality of the god is formulated in a masterly way by decorating the amulets also at the back with a frontal face. A part of such statuettes is designed at both sides in the same, or nearly the same, shape; in several instances, however, the ordinary Pataikos figure with a dwarf's face in front is combined with a hawk's head at the back, occasionally mounted by a crescent moon and a sun-disc. 3 1 This type is known from burials in the area of Meroe of the early 25th Dynasty. 32 In this area, there are also ram-headed Pataikos statuettes, 33 i.e. not bifrons but with only a ram's face in front, which are probably the prototypes for the Egyptian ram-headed Pataikoi. 34 Although in the area of Meroe, the pantheistic tendency is also usual in other aspects, the ram-headed combination is not a local specialty, for the same types can be found among surface finds in Egypt itself and among pieces without a known find-spot. (The later Pataikoi in Egypt with ram's face are sometimes bifrons? 5 but more often not, and in the latter, fully ram-headed type the ram's face is sometimes in front, 36 but more usually at the back. 37 ) How complicated the notions were that were expressed by these Pataikos figures, and how important the element of expressing the divine link with the help of sacred animals was, is well signaled by those amulets in which also the hawk's face did not form the back side of a bifrons statuette, but was the 2l> In most cases, the loop is placed behind the neck of the statuette, but sometimes the loop is situated on top of the god's head or behind the crown. 30 Győry, H., 'Oh komm guter Zwerg, komm...' Über den religiösen Hintergrund der Patäken-Amulette im Neuen Reich, in Egyptian and Semito-Hamitic (Afro-Asiatic) Studies in Memóriám W. Vycichl (ed. Takács, G.), Brill 2004. pp. 55-68. 31 Daressy, op.cit. (n. 26) CG 38.817. 32 Dunham, D., The Royal Cemeteries ofKush. EI Kurru (Meroe /), Cambridge Massachusetts 1950, Tomb W. 832. p. 25. fig. 18. Merőé /. no. 5. pl. LU, A-B, Tumulus Ku 2, #5 without inv. no. 33 Ibid., pl. LIV, A-B, nos. 1034, 1112, Tomb Ku 2, although they come in different types: there is a lion-headed goddess, standing and with wings or sitting and nursing a baby, on the back in relief. A very peculiar piece shows a ram-headed dwarf with four wings spread into four directions, wearing a broad collar and the two ostrich-feathers crown with solar disc, put on ram's homs, while on the back side a winged uraeus can be seen on the upper half of a broad stele (ibid., pl. L, A-B, no. 1284, Tomb Ku 53). 34 In Nubia, a deeply rooted ram cult did exist, which in the New Kingdom got connected to the Theban Amun-Re cult (see Wenig, St., "Napata", inL/t IV, cols. 343-344, esp. notes 8-9). As the Pataikoi were also understood as the representations of Amun (as signalled by the cryptographic groups on the bottom of the amulets), the Kushites might have identified the statuettes as an aspect of Amun. 35 E.g. Daressy, op.cit. (n. 26) CG 38.320, a bifrons statuette with usual Pataikos head in front and a ram's head at the back, from Tell Moqdam/Leontopolis. 36 E.g. Auktion 49 - Werke Ägyptischer Kunst, von der Frühzeit bis zur Spätantike, Sammlungen F.P., E.R., K.L. und anderer Privatbesitz. Donnerstag, den 27. Juni 1974, Basel Auktionsleitung: Gantbeamtung Basel-Stadt, p. 48. 37 E.g. BM 60109 (unpublished, permission of studying by W.V. Davies) and Leipzig, Ägyptisches Museum, inv. no. 2395 (unpublished, permission of studying by H.-W. Fischer-Elfert). In such cases the front side of the statuette's head is formed by the back side of a wig.
