More on the whole cat / moon / left eye thing

[ikhet_sekhmet]

Professor Betsy M. Bryan, Alexander Badawy Professor of Egyptian Art and Archaeology, and Near Eastern Studies Professor at Johns Hopkins University, and currently excavating at Mut's temple in Karnak, wrote in Egypt's Dazzling Sun: Amenhotep III and His World:

"Amenhotep III built Soleb Temple as a cult place for the god Nebmaatra, lord of Nubia, a deified form of the king himself as the moon god Khonsu, the deity embodied by the lion. Mythological texts tell of the left or lunar eye, the feline goddess (Tefnut, Hathor, or Mehit, for example) who ravaged the enemies of Ra until she was appeased. Then she became the full moon, bringing increase and prosperity for the land. The temple of Soleb contains the ritual of the illumination of the dais during which the lunar eye of Horus, which had fled there in a damaged state, is made well and then illuminated as the full moon. An appeased lunar deity is at rest in the Soleb lions, but stays potentially violent once again as the moon wanes to become a dagger-shaped sickle. Amenhotep III's lions encapsulate his identification with the solar (as witness the use of red granite) and lunar cycles, as well as his constant vigilance to keep the cosmos in balance." (p 219)

OK, either this is way off beam, or - and let's be honest, this is rather more likely - there is a bunch of stuff Professor Bryan knows that I don't. A lunar version of the Eye of Re mythology?! This I have to see! (Alas, only the Khonsu as lion bit is sourced, but by heck I'll be following up the rest.)

ETA: lol, I posted about this last year, then apparently forgot all about it! That's what happens when you constantly jump from topic to topic...

Anywho, I'm just going to park a few relevant Google Books links here:

Between two worlds

Temples of Ancient Egypt

Amenhotep III: Perspectives on His Reign

And, thanks to Flickr, here's a snap of Nebmaatre. If I'm reading the hieroglyphs correctly, that's the god's name above his head, with no cartouche - he really is a god, and not just Amenhotep III wearing a Khonsu hat.

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Kozloff, Arielle P., et al. Egypt's dazzling sun: Amenhotep III and his world. Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1992.