karnak

the king is wearing the blue helmet and a long coat. He stands before the barque of Amun, which terminates with a ram's head crowned with a disk, spraying incense. The barque is supported by a stretcher that is carried on the shoulders of three groups of five falcon-headed figures in the front and thirteen jackal-headed figures in the back. These are the spirits of Pe and Nekhen, though some Egyptologists have suggested that these are real priests wearing jackal and sparrow hawk masks, a notion that has been hotly debated. If indeed priests wore masks in some of the ceremonies, they must be clearly distinguished from the depictions in the sanctuaries where animal headed figures are "functional principles" and certainly not masked officials.
The king facing the barque of Amun
The king facing the barque of Amun
In the center of the scene, the first prophet of Amun, the king Usermaatre Setepenre, clad in a panther skin, accompanies the barque. Scholars who have studied this representation believe that the scene was first sculpted in relief, by either Seti I or Ramesses II, and then, with the exception of the naos and the king's face, was entirely re-carved in sunk relief, preserving the traces of the original scene.
Within the upper part of the naos is the ram-headed Amun. He rests upon a lotus and the mer sign, and is overshadowed by two winged Ma'ats placed on the men sign and holding the user symbols in their hands. In the middle part of this representation, Ra is also present. He his placed on the men, and is also holding the user symbol in his hand rather than the feather of Ma'at that his holds in the north naos.
The king offering the oryx in the upper register, and kneeling before Amun in the lower register

 the king as an older man. He is represented in a large naos in the lower register, which encloses the entire scene. To his left is a deity wearing the disk in the lunar crescent on his head and holding all the scepters in his and except for the wadj. Before the king, Amun is seated and holding the was scepter and the palm of the years in his left hand. Amun's right hand extends to the king the hek and nekhakha scepters, which is for the renewal of the king. Behind Amun, Mut is blessing the king and holding a double palm of the years in her right hand, from which are hanging eight sed renewal festival symbols.
Above this scene in the second register we find the king sacrificing the oryx, which is placed on a table of offerings adorned with the djed pillar of Osiris and the knot of Isis, alternating with each other. The Theban triad is also present in this scene. The oryx is one of the forms of Seth capable of devouring the Eye of Horus, and there are various mythological passages concerning this beast. There are countless allusions in the Ritual of the Daily Divine Worship concerning the sacrifice of the Sethian oryx (in this instance, white), which symbolizes the last phases of the re-conquest of the Eye of Horus. Hence, this scene is all about renewal and the sacrifice of the oryx is indispensable in the ceremony of the sed festival.

Comments