“semitisches pantheon”. eine “männliche tyche” - MOSAIKjournal.com

294| ALEXANDRA MIRONOVA
festival celebration inside the temple. As shown by the present
research, the Festival Hall was probably associated with the
nighttime and the afterworld, to which the first half of the Opet
Festival responded (i. e. the travel from Karnak to Luxor and
backwards). The second half of the festive ceremonies was held in
the Karnak temple, where the sun, after emerging from the Underworld,
made its daily journey. Taking this into account, it would
be strange to assume that by the end of its return journey to Karnak
the festive procession could, figuratively speaking, enter the
Underworld (= the Festival Hall) once again and make another trip
through it. Thus, the scenes of the Opet Festival from Akhmenu
only demonstrated the correlation between the festive program and
the myth of the journey of the sun-god and the pharaoh in the
Underworld.
GRANITE SANCTUARY OF THUTMOSE III AND THE
“SOLAR ALTAR” OF THE AKHMENU TEMPLE: THE
SEMANTIC RELATIONSHIP
The previous discussion shows the importance of understanding
the role of the temple premises decorated with the relief images of
rituals in their performance. Continuing the study of the Opet Festival,
we have to say a few words on the function of the Bark Sanctuary
– the final point of the procession. We will focus on the socalled
Granite Sanctuary built by Thutmose III in place of the Red
Chapel (figs. 4 [Nr. 2]. 8).
G. Legrain showed that the Granite Sanctuary, as the present
Bark Shrine built by Philip Arrhidaeus on the place of Thutmose
III`s building, had a window (instead of doors!) in its eastern wall,
to which a small stepped platform led (fig. 8). 70 It is significant that
such construction was similar in its plan to the “solar altar” built by
Thutmose III in the northern part of Akhmenu (fig. 4 [Nr. 7]). 71
The “solar altar” was established on the special dais, to which the
staircase led (fig. 9); in the eastern wall there was a window. This
type of building resembles the New Year’s chapel where the effigies
of the gods (Hathor in Dendera, Horus in Edfou) were
70 LEGRAIN (1917) 14–15. 19–20.
71 PORTER – MOSS (1972) 122, room XXXV.