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

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

dence (i.e. tomb).

23 In the tombs of Merenptah

24 and Tawosret

25 (fig. 4), however, the mound comprises the divine face (i.e. the hieroglyph hr) instead of the sun disc. According to the accompanying text, the interior of the mysterious mound is "the great secret". Similarly to the two versions of the scene of the 11 division of the Book of Gates mentioned above, here again the sun disc and the symbol of the divine face (hr) appear not only to be strongly connected components of the same idea, but even clearly interchangeable notions in a netherwordly context, i.e. when alluding to the hidden or secret manifestation of the sun god in the realm of the dead just before sunrise. They are evidently meant to signify the same divine substance. Another well-known representation of a similar manifestation of the solar god can be found in the tomb of Ramesses VI

26 and can also be linked to the final phase of the nocturnal journey of the god before sunrise. The image of a divine child is represented with the head (and the entire body) en face, holding his phallus in one hand and sucking a finger from his other hand. Below the solar child are two figures without heads and arms, indicating the places of Isis and Nephthys, whose task, according to the traditional Schlußszene of the Book of the Night, is to transfer the same solar child (the sitting figure of which is the characteristic iconographie motif of the prow of the night barque in the nocturnal hours) encircled by the sun disc from one barque to another.

27 Finally, an early example of this iconographie solution is worthy of note. The inner decoration of the Middle Kingdom coffin Cairo CG 28083 contains the picture of the sun god Ra (with the head en face) sitting in the centre of the circling roads of Mehen in the realm of the afterlife.

28 3. THE FACE OF THE GOD AS THE ICON OF THE EPIPHANY OF THE DIVINE POWER As noted earlier, all en face manifestations of the solar god seem to appear attached to the final phase of his nocturnal journey through the underworld, showing one of his aspects directly before sunrise. The complex symbolism conveyed behind the interchangeability of the divine face and the sun disc on one hand, and the representation of the divine face inside the disc as a nocturnal form of the sun god on the other, seems to be a recurring motif among New Kingdom royal Schlußszene compositions of various Underworld books. The hr of the god alludes to his appearance (a kind of divine epiphany) and to the glance of his eyes (which can be identified with the two uraei / crowns / feathers of the headdress worn on his head)

29 and at the same time his creative energies can manifest themselves and become effective through them.