Czére Andrea szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 105. (Budapest, 2006)

ÉVA LIPTAY: Between Heaven and Earth II: The Iconography of a Funerary Papyrus from the Twenty-First Dynasty (Part II)

The same certainly cannot be said about an interesting version of the scene of the "cow coming out of the mountain", where in addition to the usual figure of the Hathor-cow a snakeheaded creature is also represented, and is shown just about to emerge from the depth of the hill, balancing a sun disc encircling a wdlt-eye upon its head with one arm.

4 The sun disc comprises the left eye in this case.

4s Therefore the concept inherent in this composition can be rather associated with the western horizon or the journey through the Underworld, and in this manner with the nightly aspect of the solar eye (i.e. the Moon). 4.4.2. SOLAR EYE AND b'-BiRD In some Twenty-first Dynasty depictions, the solar eye is accompanied by a figure of a /?i-bird inside the disc. On the sidewall of a coffin case in Cairo

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'' exactly the same iconographie motif can be observed on the sun boat. The barque, which is flanked by a worshipping baboon on both sides, is set on the back of the Aker-lions, with an Ibdw-ush. under the stern and the prow.

50 A close parallel can be seen on another piece'

1 where the scene is divided into two registers: the upper one contains the representation of a sun barque with an » h/-sign on the board, upon which the sun disc is placed with the solar eye and the bl inside the Mehen-snake above it; while in the lower register a sycamore tree is bordered by a pair of b/-birds.

12 The Aker-symbol with the sun disc containing the same motifs again appears on a third example, on the inner decoration of the coffin case, at the head part.

53 The New Kingdom forerunner of the composition where the Aker-lions hold the barque on their backs in the same manner can be found in one of the Underworld books: in a scene of the Book of the Earth.

14 Atum and the scarab-headed Khepri standing in the sun boat greet the ram-headed nightly aspect of the sun-god." In the chthonic sphere, which is located below the Aker, the motif of a haw

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k head spreading light towards the body of Osiris can be seen. A similar situation can be recognised in the Book of Caverns

16 with the only difference being that there the Aker-lions serve as the basis for an oval encircling a scarab. The relating text refers to Khepri "ivbo is inside his coffin". The presence of the Aker-lions marks a kind of borderline that separates the surface of the earth from the chthonic sphere (the Underworld) located beneath that surface

—only in order to represent the passage provided between them.

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" The very same motif refers to the rebirth of the sun-god in the depths of the earth at the same time.

58 It is also emphasized by other iconographie peculiarities occurring in the different versions of the scene that the representation must be associated with events which take place around the border of this world and the Beyond. The appearance of the i&ç/vv-fishes, for example, refers to the struggle with Apophis on the edge of the horizon.

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