Hepet-Hor

I've long been captivated by this figure, but didn't imagine I'd ever be able to find out her name -- let alone so much information about her. She first appears during the Twenty-First Dynasty, a time of innovation when new scenes of the afterlife were introduced. She is most usually called Hepet-Hor, She Who Embraces Horus, though she may also be called She Who Embraces Osiris, Lady of the West, the Eye of Re, etc.

 

Hepet-Hor is shown with the head of a lion and a crocodile (coming out of the back of the lion head), or with a snake head, or other variations -- there's one example where she has three heads, lion, crocodile, and flaming brazier. She holds two knives (or a snake may be substituted for a knife). She might be set to guard the door of the mound where Osiris is resurrected (another 21st Dynasty invention); or she might accompany the deceased. On two papyri, she holds the sun aloft. So she plays a role in both the rebirth of Osiris and of the sun god.

 

The most spectacular image of Hepet-Hor I've come across is on the coffin of Ankh-Hor at the Norwich Castle Museum, where she has three heads -- lion, crocodile, and flaming brazier. Warren R. Dawson's 1929 article on the museum's coffins calls her "a graphic abbreviation for three demons usually represented separately". But if so, which ones?

 

At my Tumblr: http://dwellerinthelibrary.tumblr.com/tagged/Hepet-Hor

ETA: On the coffin of Padiamun in the Cairo Museum (JE 29668 = CG 6081), Hepet-Hor has a snake head and may be captioned "Lady of the West, may she give offerings." (Régen, 2017).

 
ETA: I found what must be a strikingly beautiful image of Hepet-Hor -- if only I could see it in colour! She appears amidst the forms of Re on the papyrus of Ta-Udja-Re (Cairo Museum, JE34033). The figures are all mummiform, except for her: she is barefoot and ready for action. She holds two knives and has -- this is great -- four snakes where anyone else's head would be, each snake decorated with a feather and a streamer; her belt also ends in or is decorated with streamers. Even from the black-and-white photo you can see that this image must be brightly coloured. Unusually, there's accompanying text, which says: "O great Embrace, Lady of the Mountains, give they two arms to Osiris, Lady of the House, Chantress of Amon Ta-Udja-Re, the justified." (Piankoff, 1964.)
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Dawson, Warren R. A Note on the Egyptian Mummies in the Castle Museum, Norwich. Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 15(3/4) November 1929, pp. 186-190.

 

Lull, José. A Scene from the Book of the Dead Belonging to a Private Twenty-First Dynasty Tomb in Tanis (Tomb of 'nḫ.f-n-Jmnw). Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 87, 2001, pp. 180-186.

Piankoff, Alexandre. The Litany of Re (Egyptian religious texts and representations 4). New York, Bollingen Foundation, 1964.

Régen, Isabelle. "Tradition and Innovation on the Third Intermediate Period Coffins. The Case of an uncommon solar and Osirian scene with Hacking up of the Earth". in Amenta, A. and H. Guichard (eds.), Proceedings of the First Vatican Coffin Conference, 19-22 June 2013, vol. 2, Le Vatican, 2017, p. 439-450.

 
The above illustration is by Léon-Jean-Joseph Dubois, from the 1823 book Panthéon égyptien, written by Jean-François Champollion.