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

296| ALEXANDRA MIRONOVA
walking from Luxor to Karnak, are located in the northern part of
the Festival Hall and oriented towards the “solar altar”. 78 It follows
from the general layout of the Karnak temple that in reality the
festive procession entered the Granite Sanctuary which was thus
neatly correlated to the “solar altar” of Akhmenu. Taking into consideration
the fitness of the Granite Sanctuary for the ceremony
Xnm Itn, we can assume that this building had been a sort of semantic
link between the Festivals of the New Year and the Opet
Festival.
According to the relief scenes of the Red Chapel, the final part
of the Opet Festival included the offerings to the gods of Karnak
and the ritual repetition of the coronation rites, with Amun-Re
crowning the king. 79 Perhaps the latter ritual was conducted after
the rite of Xnm Itn over the effigy of Amun-Re and was closely
connected with it, as the king crowned by Amun-Re came into
contact with the vitalizing sunlight emanated from the god’s body;
and this led to the renewal of the golden substance of pharaoh’s
body. 80
The present study shows that the rite of Xnm Itn was held
both on the “solar altar” of the Akhmenu and the Granite Sanctuary.
These buildings, being the birthplaces of the sun-god, played a
key role in the festivities.
It is also necessary to remark that the Granite Sanctuary was
sandwiched between the so-called Halls of Offerings built by Hatshepsut
(fig. 4 [Nr. 3]). 81 In the mythological context these rooms
can be linked to the Fields of Offerings where the dead king arrived
82 and the Sun Bark stopped during its day travel. 83 Besides,
the Fields of Offerings were associated with the northern part of
the sky 84, i. e. with the place of the circumpolar stars; meanwhile,
the “solar altar” is located in the northern part of Akhmenu which
symbolized, in the theory of P. Barguet, the northern region of the
78 PORTER – MOSS (1972) 110 (335–336).
79 PORTER – MOSS (1972) 67 (97–121).
80 БЕРЛЕВ (1979) 53.
81 PORTER – MOSS (1972) 102–107, plan XI. XII (1).
82 Pyr. §1216a–e.
83 PIANKOFF (1942) 20–21.
84 Pyr. §749c–e.