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

or for the shoulder-blades.

70 However, such texts are unfortunately somewhat obscure, and they would deserve more study before we could tell whether the concepts they are reflecting could have influenced the iconography of the Patakoi. Besides these general explanations, it would make sense to look for local Memphite explanations of the birds, because the first Pataikos type with hawks/falcons on the shoulders are thought to be connected with the god Ptah through Nofertum and Sakhmet,

71 meaning that the birds could well be linked to the city-god Ptah himself or to other Memphite gods closely associated with him. LINKS WITH PTAH AND SOKAR According to an ancient Memphite funeral conception,

72 when the king was reborn in the Netherworld, his egg was broken by Sokar from Saqqara with the help of sharp utensils. The text continues: "The god will make his [i.e., the king's} arms hale, for sharp are the teeth and long are the claws of the two guides of the gods", and then describes how the king is formed and has broken the egg. Subsequently, the king, in the shape of a bird

73

, shall fly up "and alight on account of the plumes of [his] father Geh"

14 . Thus the text possibly says that the egg-breaking power of Sokar is transferred to the arms of the king via the 'THY; Guides", so the king can hatch out of the egg (be reborn).

75 In this light, the picture of the hawks on the shoulders of the Pataikos could recall the notion of the "Two Guides", linked with (Ptah-)Sokar and equipped with sharp claws - guides who in the case of the Pataikos were then supposed to assist with birth in general (not just rebirth). The facts that in the text the two mysterious guides have the divine determinative of the falcon on a standard (2x G7), that Sokar, with whom they were associated in the text, was a falcon god, and that with their help the king was bom from the egg as a falcon, could logically give rise to the notion that the "Two Guides" could symbolically be depicted as two hawks/falcons.

76 70 Compare Hannig. R., HWB, p. 248: "bjk.w hr rmn.wj - 'Falken auf den Schultern' (wörtliche oder übertragene Bedeutung unsicher, veilleicht *Schulterblätter)." 71 Cf. also Herodotus III.

37: RÄRG, title "Patäke", pp. 584-585; Sternberg-el-Hotabi, Götterdarstellungen (n. 63) pp. 65-66. n. 57. 12 Pyr. 1962-1971. 73 Surely a hawk/falcon, for in the previous Utterance, no. 668, the king is said to become a Hying falcon, on the eastern horizon upon his rebirth. 74 These words suggest that the earth-god Geb is here identified with the Memphite earth-god Tatenen (regularly equated with Ptah) who wears a crown with double feathers. 7:1 If the link with the arms / shoulders would be correct, the Guides logically would sit on the shoulders of the one to whom they give strength. However, the interpretation of the text remains uncertain. It is at least clear that the Two Guides have something to do with the egg-breaking events. And earlier, the formed king is said to have no arms and legs yet (Pyr. 1965), while here the shaping of the arms (of the king, reborn as falcon) seems to be directly related to the Two Guides with their powerful claws and sharp teeth (Pyr. 1969). Thus they may eventually be the prototypes for the identification of the birds and shoulders. 76 Despite their "sharp teeth" - unless the termjbh (which is also used for, e.g., elephant's tusks) could also refer to the sharp beaks of birds of prey, that is, teeth and claws symbolizing the weapons of animals in general.