DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4859#0050
DESCRIPTION OF THE MURAL PICTURES
transgress ... [I gave to the] poor man who asked for corn. I did right
for the lord of Right; for I knew that he lives thereby. Grant that I be
among the favored ones who supply offerings to thy altar, in the midst
of the great ones, in the number of thy train, my body1 (committed) to
earth, my soul in Dat, and I myself enduring with endless duration. 1
have come into your presence, 0 Lords of Eternity, to be with you in the
holy land. I am one of you; for sin is what I abhor.' " This speech is, of
course, the traditional apology of the mortal when he appears before the
gods. A slip in the defense might be fatal; safety lay in approved form-
ulas. The gods who sit before him in a row (as the overlapping thrones
show), with Osiris in front of them,2 are enumerated thus: "Osiris-Khen-
tamentiu-Onnofer, lord of To-joser, the great god, ruler of all the living,
having his seat in Abydos of the Thinite nome, (whose) forms are many
in heaven and on earth, Imseti, Hapi, Duamutef, Kebehsenuf. Hail!
ye Lords of [Eternity] . . . ."3 ,
The owners, having shown their piety towards the gods in general,
to Hathor, to the deified king and queen, to Osiris and the genii of the
dead, now turn to the sanctified dead, their parents, and confidently
seek from the propitiated gods burial blessings for them also (Plate
XVII). In this case, then, their piety is disinterested. The figures of
Nebamun and Apuki (back to back) in the center of the picture have
both been expunged because they acted and were clothed as sem-priests.4
On the left Nebamun performs the hotpedens rite before his parents.
"Veteran honors from Osiris, who controls fit burial in the west, for the
ka of the chief of sculptors in Ast-josret, Neferhet, justified before [the
great god] (and) his wife, the house-mistress Thepu, justified in the ne-
cropolis before the great god, lord of To-joser." "Pure, pure (four times).
1 HH is probably the reading.
1 As the knees of Imseti overlap the figure of Osiris, a strict interpretation would place them in a group
on his right hand. But the throne of Osiris is farther removed from the four than they are from one another.
3 The dog's head of Kebehsenuf is a replaced fragment. The two scraps of text inserted here by Mr.
Mackay may be queried. That on the left, being in black, is much more likely to belong to the same position
on PL XIX.
4 Perhaps this is what is meant by "taking the divine role of Horus, the eldest son" at festivals, and
hence disapproved of by the puritanical Aton-worshipers (Davies, Tomb of Puyemre, I, p. 42). But the skin
itself seems to be an object of hatred; for it is erased in Tomb 85.
35
Worship of
gods of
burial by
Nebamun
Honors
shown to
the parents
transgress ... [I gave to the] poor man who asked for corn. I did right
for the lord of Right; for I knew that he lives thereby. Grant that I be
among the favored ones who supply offerings to thy altar, in the midst
of the great ones, in the number of thy train, my body1 (committed) to
earth, my soul in Dat, and I myself enduring with endless duration. 1
have come into your presence, 0 Lords of Eternity, to be with you in the
holy land. I am one of you; for sin is what I abhor.' " This speech is, of
course, the traditional apology of the mortal when he appears before the
gods. A slip in the defense might be fatal; safety lay in approved form-
ulas. The gods who sit before him in a row (as the overlapping thrones
show), with Osiris in front of them,2 are enumerated thus: "Osiris-Khen-
tamentiu-Onnofer, lord of To-joser, the great god, ruler of all the living,
having his seat in Abydos of the Thinite nome, (whose) forms are many
in heaven and on earth, Imseti, Hapi, Duamutef, Kebehsenuf. Hail!
ye Lords of [Eternity] . . . ."3 ,
The owners, having shown their piety towards the gods in general,
to Hathor, to the deified king and queen, to Osiris and the genii of the
dead, now turn to the sanctified dead, their parents, and confidently
seek from the propitiated gods burial blessings for them also (Plate
XVII). In this case, then, their piety is disinterested. The figures of
Nebamun and Apuki (back to back) in the center of the picture have
both been expunged because they acted and were clothed as sem-priests.4
On the left Nebamun performs the hotpedens rite before his parents.
"Veteran honors from Osiris, who controls fit burial in the west, for the
ka of the chief of sculptors in Ast-josret, Neferhet, justified before [the
great god] (and) his wife, the house-mistress Thepu, justified in the ne-
cropolis before the great god, lord of To-joser." "Pure, pure (four times).
1 HH is probably the reading.
1 As the knees of Imseti overlap the figure of Osiris, a strict interpretation would place them in a group
on his right hand. But the throne of Osiris is farther removed from the four than they are from one another.
3 The dog's head of Kebehsenuf is a replaced fragment. The two scraps of text inserted here by Mr.
Mackay may be queried. That on the left, being in black, is much more likely to belong to the same position
on PL XIX.
4 Perhaps this is what is meant by "taking the divine role of Horus, the eldest son" at festivals, and
hence disapproved of by the puritanical Aton-worshipers (Davies, Tomb of Puyemre, I, p. 42). But the skin
itself seems to be an object of hatred; for it is erased in Tomb 85.
35
Worship of
gods of
burial by
Nebamun
Honors
shown to
the parents