Author Description

The upper three registers on the outside of the side walls of the temple house at Edfu contain 104 scenes of rituals and sacrifices, which are thematically connected. The present study shows that - contemplated as a whole - the suggested mythical motifs tell about the kingdom of the gods, about the rule of Horus and his divine predecessors. The connection among the mythical motifs is demonstrated as well as their integration into the overall concept. Just as in a mythical narrative, the motifs follow upon each other chronologically and appear on the outer wall of the temple house in their sequence from back (area of the sanctuary) to front (hypostyle hall); the groups of rooms inside the temple invisibly order the voluminous array of scenes on the walls into chapters.