Csornay Boldizsár - Dobos Zsuzsa - Varga Ágota - Zakariás János szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 99. (Budapest, 2003)

LIPTAY, ÉVA: Between Heaven and Earth. The Motif of the Cow Coming out of the Mountain

1. The scene with the cow-goddess. Budapest, Museum of Fine Arts The symmetrical constellation of these two pairs of goddesses cannot be confined to a group of iconographie motives; they should rather be interpreted as hieroglyphs which define Hathor in her capacity of „Lady of the Two Lands" {nb.t ti.wj). Their linguistic value is further supported by the presence of complementary i-signs below the „lower sky" as well as the inscription {Stj.t) behind the cobra on the right. However, the winged cobra placed above the body of the cow and strongly associated with her, refers to the goddess in terms of iconography rather than linguistics.

4 The other central figure of the composition is the funerary priest performing a libation offering for the goddess. The two main characters represent two different semantic levels with simultaneous actions. On a mythological level, the goddess is stepping out of the western mountain: a situation, which is well-defined in terms of iconography, while, on a ritual level, she is receiving an offering. The two actions obviously depend on and complement each other. The scene preceding and separated from the other one discussed above by two columns of a hieroglyphic inscription (fig. 2), records the last moments of the funerary ritual which took place in front of the tomb. The mummy is set upright next to the entrance of the grave, which is - conforming to the Ramesside tradition topped by a small pyramid. The captions dw'.t and jmnt.t on both sides of the pyramid imply that here an afterlife scene is concerned. In front of the mummy, a 4 The title „Lady of the Two Lands" is sufficient enough to bound Hathor with the cobra goddess: originally it was the title of the cobra goddess, however, her role as the Eye of the Sun made her to be one of the manifestations of Hathor as early as the Coffin Texts: Altenmüller, B., Synkretismus in den Sargtexten (GOF IV/7), Wiesbaden 1975 (henceforth abbreviated Synkretismus), 35 and 131-132.