DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4862#0045
Evidences of
royal favor
and disfavor
Mutilations
of the figure
of Puyemre
PERSONALIA
of their last years which they wrote on the walls of the tomb, rather
in hope than in confidence of their reward. Probably no one was better
aware than Puyemre that he lived under a cloud, however gold-lined, and
served an implacable master, who could never forget his adherence to the
queen's party nor forgive those assumptions of greatness which her ser-
vice seems to have fostered. Apparently Puyemre long outlived the queen
and the years of bitter strife within the palace; but not, as it seems, the
king's hidden resentment and mistrust. The tomb which keeps the record
of his name, his activities, the long list of his honors at the hand of the
king, exhibits also a mutilated effigy of himself in the midst of the very
text which calls down curses on those who practise such impiety. His
services apparently warded off the worst blow; and if his tomb, amongst
its many scars, wears those also of a king's anger, and he had the pain of
seeing a hand which he had served write an undying insult across the
walls of his grave, the full bitterness may have passed again. We may
after all have intensified the signs of evil fate in his half-obliterated horo-
scope, and if, as is likely, a too stubborn loyalty to the past and perhaps
other less pardonable weaknesses invited, as well as received chastise-
ment, he had at least the satisfaction of having played a man's part in
the great enterprises, civil and military, of two outstanding reigns.
The deliberate erasure of the figure of Puyemre to which reference
has just been made is a feature which will meet us repeatedly in this hall.
It concerns him personally and therefore had better be dealt with at this
point. But in order that we may only have to do with mutilations
which are incontestably due to personal hostility to Puyemre, we have
first to eliminate the erasures under Akhnaton, together with the subse-
quent attempts at their restoration, and also any injuries the walls may
have suffered in modern times.
The facts are these, (i) The name and titles of Puyemre were never
an object of attack. Both remain uninjured in close proximity to erased
figures. (2) His profile is intact on (a) the south wall of the shrine, (b) its
back wall (if I remember rightly; for the figures were defaced in the recent
outrage), (c) the north wall of the middle chapel, (d) the south wall of
22
royal favor
and disfavor
Mutilations
of the figure
of Puyemre
PERSONALIA
of their last years which they wrote on the walls of the tomb, rather
in hope than in confidence of their reward. Probably no one was better
aware than Puyemre that he lived under a cloud, however gold-lined, and
served an implacable master, who could never forget his adherence to the
queen's party nor forgive those assumptions of greatness which her ser-
vice seems to have fostered. Apparently Puyemre long outlived the queen
and the years of bitter strife within the palace; but not, as it seems, the
king's hidden resentment and mistrust. The tomb which keeps the record
of his name, his activities, the long list of his honors at the hand of the
king, exhibits also a mutilated effigy of himself in the midst of the very
text which calls down curses on those who practise such impiety. His
services apparently warded off the worst blow; and if his tomb, amongst
its many scars, wears those also of a king's anger, and he had the pain of
seeing a hand which he had served write an undying insult across the
walls of his grave, the full bitterness may have passed again. We may
after all have intensified the signs of evil fate in his half-obliterated horo-
scope, and if, as is likely, a too stubborn loyalty to the past and perhaps
other less pardonable weaknesses invited, as well as received chastise-
ment, he had at least the satisfaction of having played a man's part in
the great enterprises, civil and military, of two outstanding reigns.
The deliberate erasure of the figure of Puyemre to which reference
has just been made is a feature which will meet us repeatedly in this hall.
It concerns him personally and therefore had better be dealt with at this
point. But in order that we may only have to do with mutilations
which are incontestably due to personal hostility to Puyemre, we have
first to eliminate the erasures under Akhnaton, together with the subse-
quent attempts at their restoration, and also any injuries the walls may
have suffered in modern times.
The facts are these, (i) The name and titles of Puyemre were never
an object of attack. Both remain uninjured in close proximity to erased
figures. (2) His profile is intact on (a) the south wall of the shrine, (b) its
back wall (if I remember rightly; for the figures were defaced in the recent
outrage), (c) the north wall of the middle chapel, (d) the south wall of
22