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

302| ALEXANDRA MIRONOVA
According to the images of Amduat from the tomb of Thutmose
III, the region of Sokar was located in the fourth and fifth
valleys of the Underworld. 120 These valleys, unlike other valleys of
Duat, were a desert where darkness dwells and where the solar boat
was being dragged by the gods. The scene of the fourth hour depicts
the god Thoth giving the Udjat Eye to Horus/Sokar. C. J.
Bleeker asserts that here the god Sokar is represented receiving his
own life and energy in the form of the Eye, which he then gives to
the dead Osiris. 121 Further, in the scene of the fifth hour the figure
of Sokar appears in the lower register, inside the oval protected by
the earth-god Aker (fig. 12). The oval is covered with the pyramidshaped
hill crowned with a female head and labeled “the flesh of
Isis, who is over the Land of Sokar” (iwf %t Hrt Say %kr). This image
resembles the roles of the deceased Osiris and of Isis, as she hovers
over him in the form of a hawk, intercourses with him and conceives
the child Horus. Regarding the scene of Amduat, the hill
with a female head over it could be understood as the image of Isis
who spreads her wings (= hill-slopes) and hovers over Sokar – the
personification of the potential life implicit in the dead body of
Osiris. 122
This life is embodied in the form of a scarab represented in
the upper register of the same scene. One see him coming out of
the hill (the sign of the night) and holding the rope of the Sun
Bark, “in order to help Re (lit. “his hand is the hand for Re”), to
straighten the secret paths of Re-Horakhty” (af a n Ra mAa.f wAwt
StAwt n Ra-@r-Axty). 123 Thus, the scarab plays a prominent role in
the process of the sun-god’s rebirth, and at the same time appears
to be the personification of the final form of Re, i. e. the morning
manifestation of the sun-god. Furthermore, the hill, from which
the scarab emerges, symbolizes the sarcophagus which contained
the dead body of Osiris and mourned by Isis and Nephthys (= two
birds on the hill-slopes). 124 In such a case, the scene of the fifth
hour of Amduat bears another meaning: The conception of the
120 HORNUNG (1963) pl. 4–5.
121 BLEEKER (1967) 66.
122 BLEEKER (1967) 75.
123 HORNUNG (1963–1967) 85, pl. V.
124 HORNUNG (1963–1967) 80.