Czére Andrea szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei (Budapest, 2008)

ÉVA LIPTAY: Éva Liptay "My Face Is (That of) Ra"

2. THE SOLAR GOD REPRESENTED EN FACE IN THE CONTEXT OF THE NETHERWORLD The head en face inside the blue sun disc

—similarly to other manifestations of the sun god depicted inside the disc

—obviously refers to the nocturnal / otherworldly aspect of the god.

15 In the middle register of the 11

th hour of the Book of Gates (73 rd scene), the passenger of the solar barque manifests as a rust-red head en face (i.e. the hieroglyph hr) guarded by an uraeus (fig. 3). The barque with the solar face on board proceeds in the opposite direction to that of the actual solar barque of the middle register as if it were returning.

16 In the royal tomb of Tawosret, however, the face is placed inside the sun disc.

1

' The text accompanying the representation discusses the power of Ra revealing itself through the divine face at the very moment of opening his eyes during his voyage through the netherworld. The radiant glance of his eyes is able to expel the nocturnal darkness of the underworld / primordial chaos and to create the order of the universe.

18 The same symbolism is conveyed when the disc encircles and so comprises an wdit eye, a relatively frequently occurring motif from the Twenty-first Dynasty onwards.

19 The tradition, according to which the unique divine eye worked as a mobiliser of the inactive creative power at the beginning of creation, seems to originate from the Coffin Texts. One of its spells discusses how Atum

—who had previously existed in the Abyss in a helpless and passive state

— sent forth his eye in order to "seek" (shn), "find" (hh) and finally "fetch" (in) his children, i.e. his first creatures.

20 In contrast to the other abstract means of creation, such as the creative THE DIVINE FACE IN THE BARK (AFTER HORNUNG 1972. ABB. 60)