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

304| ALEXANDRA MIRONOVA
The scene of zSS wAD was carved under Thutmose III on a
wall of the Karnak temple, in the northern court situated near the
VI th pylon (fig. 13). 129 Here one finds a fragmentary scene depicting
the boat navigation in a papyrus thicket and the pharaoh, standing
on this boat. At the stern and at the prow of the boat there are the
statues of the ithyphallic god Amun-Min, to whom in this case the
ritual was devoted. At the same time, the whole scene was directed
to Hathor, as the wall adjacent to the discussed scene contains the
image of Hathor holding mnit and greeting the ritual run of the
pharaoh. 130
It seems that in the area of Karnak the rite of the plucking of
the papyrus and then, the Xnt @wt-@r Festival referred both to
Hathor and Amun-Min. Perhaps this evidence may explain the
presence of Amun-Min’s image in the reliefs of the Sokarian rooms
at Akhmenu 131, where the Xnt @wt-@r could be held. Hathor
brought the deceased pharaoh into these rooms (figuratively speaking,
into the afterworld) and protected him there during various
ceremonies. Moreover, drawing the analogy between the Sokarian
rooms and the 5 th hour of Amduat, one may suggest that the former
appeared to be the place where the goddess Hathor/Isis conceived
a new Horus-pharaoh.
It is quite possible to suppose that the leading role in the discussed
process was played by the ithyphallic god Amun-Min, or
Amun-Kamutef (“Amun, Bull of his mother”) who personified the
male sexual procreativity and fertility. 132 From this point of view,
the ritual Xnm jtn (“union with the solar disc”) of Hathor during
the Khoiak Festival can be understood as the sexual intercourse of
Hathor with the sun-god Amun-Re in his ithyphallic form. Here,
one can recall the ancient Greek myth of Danae who conceived
Perseus, after being powdered with Golden Rain into which the
god Zeus transformed himself. A visual expression of this interpretation
can be clearly seen in the tripartite composition in a scene of
the fifth hour of Amduat (fig. 12): There one can see a scarab (=
129 PORTER – MOSS (1972) 92–93 (267), plan XI; DITTMAR
(1983) Nr. 14.
130 PORTER – MOSS (1972) 93 (268).
131 PORTER – MOSS (1972) 115 (366); BARGUET (1962) 183.
132 Павлова (1984) 71–72; ROMANOFSKY (2001) 413–415.