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
can stand as the symbol of resurrection, and on the opposite side of the coffin, the personified sceptre calls forth the resurrected ruler, Osiris. 88 Moreover, the text of the ritual links the voyage to Sais with the verdict of the divine tribunal in favour of Osiris, and a ritual slaughter. After the sacrifice the deceased is declared as king in the mythical place called mr n hi, where the sun god in his bark overcomes his enemy. This event, which takes place in the region of the horizon, immediately antedates the moment of resurrection. 89 Having arrived at the west bank of the river, the coffin was placed on a sledge, thus symbolizing the sun god who embarks his morning bark. The deceased is Re and Osiris at the same time: each of them is destined to resurrect. 90 The scenes on the left side of the coffin under investigation (figs. 1-2) show afterlife actions and ritual events collaterally. The pictures of various rites carried out on the mummy at the entrance of the tomb and the figure of the enthroned Osiris with the winged ureus form part of the same composition. It is evident that synchronous events are concerned here. 91 The journey of the morning bark comes to its end as it reaches the western horizon at sunset, at the very moment when the coffin on the sledge finally arrives at the gate of the Netherworld / Tomb, where the goddess of the Necropolis / Western Horizon welcomes the deceased and extends her protection to him. The motif of the Hathor-cow, „Mistress of the Two Lands", emerging from the Western Mountain to the papyrus scrub, combines the solar underworld-concepts with the chthonic ones. According to the former, the cow-shaped goddess, who resides in the papyrus marshes flanking the celestial waters, helps the deceased to ascend to the nocturnal sky and nurses him in her capacity of the divine mother. 88 It is basically related to the Osiris-cycle: Bonnet, op.cit. (n. 2) 693. For the connection of the motif handing over the.v/im-sceptre with the cattle-sacrifice see: Otto, E., Das ägyptische Mundöffnungsritual (ÄgAbh 3), Wiesbaden 1960, 73-78 and 102-103; figs. 23 II—III + 24 II, fig. 43. See also: Jequier, G., Les frises d'objets des sarcophages du Moyen Empire, Le Caire 1921, 325. 89 See above, and furthermore: Altenmüller, Apotropaia (n. 18); Derchain, Ph., La couronne de justification, CdE 30 (1955) 238-239. 90 Willems, op.cit. (n. 16) 155. 91 With regard to the libationer funerary priest in front of the cow, the following question may arise: what kind of ideas can be suspected behind the concrete action? It is well-known that certain boat processions could have been reduced to mere libation rites in the funerary cult, and the voyage itself was invoked only by the recited passages. (Settgast, op.cit. [n. 76] 72-74; Willems, op.cit. [n. 16] 157-158.) For instance, the act of traversing the water of mr n hí could have been substituted by a libation. (Derchain, loc.cit. [n. 89] 238-239). Although a libation offering is presented to the goddess of the West in the course of the funerary ritual (Settgast, op.cit. [n. 76] 64-65), it cannot be excluded that libation in front of the cow is the ritual equivalent of the mythical change to the evening bark. This is the case on a „mythological papyrus", too: Piankoff - Rambova, op.cit. (n. 51) no. 8.
