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)

depict the bl of "the great god", namely his last moments beyond the fringes of the Underworld before the beginning of the process of his rebirth which becomes apparent in the phenomenon of the sunrise, at the end of which

—after having left his nightly form

—he takes his seat in the sun barque in order to ascend to the sky.

72 The bl of the sun-god is the immanent part of his entity in which his divine power is able to manifest itself and be effective. In our case it is equivalent iconographically with the sun disc itself including the actual form of the god inside. Re is the bl of Osiris,

73 and Osiris is the otherworldly embodiment of Re. The nocturnal journey of the sun-god

—revealing their mutual dependence

—provides the only opportunity for both of them to unite with each other: for Re to trace his inert body in order to revive it and for Osiris to ascend to the sky in his aspect of the unified bl. Its symbolism simultaneously involves the unification of the two different time-conceptions (dt és nhh) symbolised by them.

74 In the third scene of the Budapest papyrus the bl of the deceased standing behind a stylised offering table is depicted worshipping the above analysed divine aspect, the unified bl of the god to be reborn at dawn. Thus the motif seems to involve a further level of interpretation: the wdlt-eye is presented not only to convey the meaning connected with the power necessary for resurrection and regeneration, but can also be considered as a symbol of the divine offering, the purpose of which is to achieve the same objective. 4. 6. SERPENT UNDER THE BARQUE (FIG. 3) If one makes an attempt to compare the first three scenes of the Budapest papyrus it is immediately striking that they are linked by a kind of serpent symbolism proceeding along the whole series. The symbol of the sky under the barque is placed upon a many-coiled body of an enormous snake. As has been repeatedly emphasized above, in the Twenty-first Dynasty iconography the place under the barque was regularly reserved for the defeated figure of Apophis

—influenced by the very motive of the so-called enigmatic wall of the tomb of Ramesses IX. Nevertheless, in the present case, the serpent under the barque depicted on the third scene of the Budapest papyrus bears a strong resemblance to the huge reptile in the 11th hour of the Amduat, which is carried towards the border of the eastern horizon by twelve chthonic

—on the basis of their names

—"aged" (in the sense of "not yet being resurrected"/'"looking forward to resurrection") figures in order to allow him to pass through its body and come out of its mouth to be reborn.