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

306| ALEXANDRA MIRONOVA
as a consort of Osiris, conceiving from him the young Horus, who
was probably Hatshepsut herself.
It is important to point out that the ritual zSS wAD also had
sexual character, for it commemorated the unity of the deceased
pharaoh with his mother, a wild cow. 141 Perhaps it is this aspect of
the ceremony that Thutmose III emphasized in the Karnak temple
reliefs when placing the ithyphallic statue of the god on the royal
bark in a scene neighbouring to that with Hathor holding mnit.
To sum up what was said above, we can assert that the scene
of Hathor’s voyage carved on the wall of the Akhmenu temple has
a dual semantic content. On the one hand, it reflects the idea of
Hathor as a guide of the deceased in the afterworld (= the Rooms
of Sokar). On the other hand, this scene itself is of a mortuary
character and represents the motif of the pilgrimage of the dead
pharaoh in the Underworld. The night journey in the Duat, a dangerous
sphere, was guarded by the goddess Hathor, who directed
the deceased into the fourth and fifth valleys of the Duat (= the
Rooms of Sokar) conceiving a new Horus in the latter valley.
THE ROUTE OF THE FESTIVAL OF HATHOR IN THE
KARNAK TEMPLE AREA UNDER THUTMOSE III
Having defined a possible nature of the Xnt @wt-@r Festival, we
proceed to the question of its venue. First of all, let us examine the
orientation of the Hathoric scene from the Festival Hall of the
Akhmenu temple.
It is noteworthy that these scenes face north, towards the cult
chapels of the pharaoh and the royal ancestors. On the one hand,
this evidence seems to force a connection between the Xnt @wt-@r
Festival, the kingship and the royal mortuary cult. On the other
hand, this orientation of the scenes could reflect the real route of
the procession which moved from north to south. This brings us to
the question: What part of the Hathoric festival is represented in
Akhmenu? From the alleged relationship between the Xnt @wt-@r
Festival and the Festival of Sokar, one may suggest that there are
scenes depicting the second part of the festival, which included the
arrival of Hathor’s procession from some northern district. In or-
141 Pyr. §388; HERMANN (1959) 14–18; BARTA (1981) 139.