Bulletin du Musée National de Varsovie (42.2001)

White Crown of the Upper Egypt.6 In the times of the New Kingdom, as
religious iconography developed into morę complex forms, also the
representations of Osiris, sculpted and painted, gained morę elaborate forms.
One of the most popular was a royal representation of a shrouded mummy-
style Osiris standing or seated in the throne, wearing an atef-ciown and
holding the royal insignia: sceptre heqa and flagellum nekhakha.7 The
sculpture discussed in this paper is this kind of depiction of Osiris. The
message of this iconographic form was no doubt the theological concept
expressed already in the Pyramid Texts from the times of the 5th Dynasty,
according to which each ruler became Osiris at his death.8 It emphasised the
direct link between the god and the deceased king.

The atef-crown, which was placed on Osiris' head, belonged to royal
headgear which were chosen depending on the character of the religious
ceremony.9 In the studies of royal iconography atef is interpreted as symbolising
the divine aspect of royal power.10 The concept of royal power was based on the
association of the king with two gods: Horus, the son of Osiris, and Re, whose
son a king was believed to be. The crowns demonstrated the power
of the king on the one hand, and were the attributes of the gods representing
various aspects of their naturę, on the other. The symbolism of the crowns
illustrated the link between the earthly and divine power, between the
worldly and heavenly sphere.11 Not only Osiris was depicted wearing an atef.
The crown was also worn by Horus and Re, and other creator-gods such as
Khnum, whose certain aspects were identified with the former deities.12

6 The Oxford Encyclopaedia of Ancient Egypt, ed. by D.B. Redford, London 2001, p. 615.

7 As depicting Osiris wearing the atef-c rown became widespread in the times of the 18,h Dynasty,
the White Crown was not eliminated and was still used although less frequently than atef.
Works of Gunther Roeder remain the most exhaustive study of Osiris' iconographic patterns:
G. Roeder, “Die Arme der Osiris-Mumie”, in Agyptologische Studien (Festschrift Grapom), ed.
by E. Firchow, Berlin 1955, pp. 248-286; idem, Agyptische Bronzewerke, Pelizeus-Museum zu
Hildesheim, Gliickstadt 1937; idem, Agyptische Bronzefiguren, Berlin 1956.

8 Griffiths, op. cit., pp. 44^-5.

9 The key source of information on this important feature of royal iconography is the
publication by A.M.J. Abubakr, Untersuchungen iiber die agyptischen Kronen, Gliickstadt-
-Hamburg-New York 1937.

10 C. Aldred, “The 'New Year' Gifts to the Pharaoh”, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, 55, 1969,
pp. 73-75; D. Wildung, Egyptian Saints. Deification in Pharaonic Egypt, New York 1977,
pp. 1-8; L. Bell, “Luxor Tempie and the Cult of the Royal Ka”, Journal of Near Eastern Studies,
44, 1985, pp. 252-294.

11 K. Goebs, “Some Cosmic Aspects of the Royal Crowns”, in Proceedings of the Seventh
International Congress of Egyptologists. Cambridge 3-9 September 1995 (Orientalia
Lovaniensia Analecta 82), ed. by C.J. Eyrie, Leuven 1998, pp. 447-459.

12 Abubakr, op. cit., pp. 20-21. Aside from the night sun Atum we find Khnum as the another
ramheaded deity. Khnum was portrayed with a ram's head and human body. In her work on
Khnum (“Liconographie du dieu Khnum”, Bulletin de 1'Institut Franęais dArcheologie
Orientale, 91, 1991, pp. 55-63) Susanne Birkel describes consecutive changes in the depictions
of Khnum's horns as compared to the atef-c rown and relates it to the developments in KhnunYs
iconography. The type of horizontal, spiralling horns which appear on Khnum's head and in
the atef-crown were the horns of sheep of ovis longipes palaeoaegyptiens bred in Egypt until
the times of the Middle Kingdom. When this breed died out a new type was introduced with

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