DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4862#0048
PUYEMRfe
(Plate XXXV), the passive bearing assumed in scenes of purification.
Two short columns of text having in each case been sacrificed to make
room for the royal emblem, the sense was preserved in one case by the
omission of a phrase and the re-insertion of a connecting word; in the
other case, it is doubtful if the destroyed name and titles were ever made
good. The connected scenes above these two (Plates XXXVII, XXX)
showed Puyemre presiding, seated, over (i) the dedication of obelisks
and vessels to the service of Amon, (2) the reception of tribute from
peoples of the North. In the former case, where no foreign races appear
and the king's cartouche is used, the figure was left untouched, but in
the latter it was erased, the later restorer replacing it by a standing figure
with pendent (?) arms. This excision is to be attributed to the same
motives as urged the addition of the royal standard to the lower figures;
but, owing to sloth, the agents were content with mere destruction.
The feelings which moved the king to this act of resentment may be
divined. Puyemre, in depicting on his walls the story of his official
career, could not forget its early stages, when the influence of the queen
was supreme, and Thothmes a belittled consort. He had several times
introduced the cartouche of Thothmes in his tomb1 and perhaps on the
south wall had given full credit to the king for his military achievements
in Syria. But in the picture of the tribute of incense from Punt, he had,
perhaps designedly, not been explicit. His mention of "the Sovereign"
and of "His Majesty's victories" in that region might well apply to the
queen's great expedition; for nothing is known of a military campaign of
Thothmes there. The king's obelisks, his benefactions, his fame among
the peoples, and his golden harvests from humbled nations, even when
greater than his predecessor's, could not but follow in her wake, and
unless these records were stamped definitely with his cartouche, lauda-
tion was turned into a slight. The colorless and non-committal records
of his official did not deceive a king whose treatment of his partner on
the throne shows that he was not possessed of a magnanimity beyond
that of his age. Thothmes knew well what was in the heart of his fol-
1 Pis. XXX, XXXVII, XLII. In these cases, so far as we can see, the figure has not been erased.
25
Contempo-
rary erasures
Causes of the
king's dis-
pleasure
(Plate XXXV), the passive bearing assumed in scenes of purification.
Two short columns of text having in each case been sacrificed to make
room for the royal emblem, the sense was preserved in one case by the
omission of a phrase and the re-insertion of a connecting word; in the
other case, it is doubtful if the destroyed name and titles were ever made
good. The connected scenes above these two (Plates XXXVII, XXX)
showed Puyemre presiding, seated, over (i) the dedication of obelisks
and vessels to the service of Amon, (2) the reception of tribute from
peoples of the North. In the former case, where no foreign races appear
and the king's cartouche is used, the figure was left untouched, but in
the latter it was erased, the later restorer replacing it by a standing figure
with pendent (?) arms. This excision is to be attributed to the same
motives as urged the addition of the royal standard to the lower figures;
but, owing to sloth, the agents were content with mere destruction.
The feelings which moved the king to this act of resentment may be
divined. Puyemre, in depicting on his walls the story of his official
career, could not forget its early stages, when the influence of the queen
was supreme, and Thothmes a belittled consort. He had several times
introduced the cartouche of Thothmes in his tomb1 and perhaps on the
south wall had given full credit to the king for his military achievements
in Syria. But in the picture of the tribute of incense from Punt, he had,
perhaps designedly, not been explicit. His mention of "the Sovereign"
and of "His Majesty's victories" in that region might well apply to the
queen's great expedition; for nothing is known of a military campaign of
Thothmes there. The king's obelisks, his benefactions, his fame among
the peoples, and his golden harvests from humbled nations, even when
greater than his predecessor's, could not but follow in her wake, and
unless these records were stamped definitely with his cartouche, lauda-
tion was turned into a slight. The colorless and non-committal records
of his official did not deceive a king whose treatment of his partner on
the throne shows that he was not possessed of a magnanimity beyond
that of his age. Thothmes knew well what was in the heart of his fol-
1 Pis. XXX, XXXVII, XLII. In these cases, so far as we can see, the figure has not been erased.
25
Contempo-
rary erasures
Causes of the
king's dis-
pleasure