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

BD Ch. 186 is a hymn to Hathor, which, by listing many of the epithets, highlights those aspects of the goddess which were considered to be important in this particular situation. The divine titles can be divided into two clearly distinguishable categories. While the first class of epithets emphasizes the connection of the goddess with the chthonic afterlife, the rest concentrate on her sky-goddess character, and relates Hathor to the solar concept of the other world, and the celestial voyage of the deceased and the sun god. For example, the BD papyrus of AnP puts a stress on the following characteristics of Hathor: 1. chthonic aspect: mistress of the netherworld / necropolis / tomb mistress of the West (nb.t jmnt.t); the one who belongs to the Necropolis (jmj.t Wr.t); mistress ofDeir el-Bahari {nb.t tl-dSr.t); resting place for the one who executes Maat {s.t htp n jr-mV .t)

6

; ferryboat for the praised ones {mhn.t n hsj.w)

7 2. sky-goddess character; Eye of the Sun; appearance in the solar bark Eye of Re, which is on his forehead (Jr.t R

l jm.t hi.t-f); beautiful of face in the Bark of Millions of Years {nfr.t hr m wj> n hh.w)

s

; the one who creates the Great Nesmet-bark {t> s.t rjr(.t) nSm.t wr.t). Other New Kingdom versions cite further qualifications, which tend to emphasize primarily the sky-goddess aspects that Hathor owns in common with Nut, as well as her relations to the sun god (Eye of Re): Wr.t

9

, Nb.t p.t, Hnm.t R

c-Hr-3h.tj Jtm m htp-fnfr I htp-fm c

nh.t

w

, Nb.t t$.wj

u Under the influence of the BD papyri, the same scene found its way to the tomb decoration during the Ramesside era. It was apparently considered to be a part or rather the end of BD Ch. 1, and served to represent the final stage of the funeral ceremony.

12 5 Naville, E., Das ägyptische Totenbuch der XVIII. bis XX. Dynastie I, Graz 1971, pl. CCXII. 6 Lexikon der ägyptischen Götter und Götterbezeichnungen (henceforth abbreviated LÄGG) VI (OLA 115), (ed. Leitz, Ch.), Leuven-Paris-Dudley MA 2002, 65. 7 LÄGG III (OLA 112), 396. 8 LÄGG IV (OLA 113), 231. 9 Altenmüller, Synkretismus (n. 4.) 130-131: this epithet which associates Hathor with the Eye of the Sun / the ureus is also used for Nut. 10 LÄGG VI (OLA 115), 22. 11 See: n. 4. 12 Saleh, M., Das Totenbuch in den thebanischen Beamtengräbern des Neuen Reiches (AVDAIK 46), Mainz am Rhein 1984, 89; Barthelmess, P, Der Übergang in Jenseits in den thebanischen Beamtengräbern der Ramessidenzeit (SAGA 2), Heidelberg 1992, 121.