The masthead for main gallery pages on this site is a computer
enhanced adaptation
of the scene from a lintel in the tomb of Ramesses X (KV 18.) The scene
depicts
Ramesses X offering the renewed Eye of Horus to a tripartite image of the sun
god.
The solar deity is portrayed in three phases as the kheper beetle (the
morning sun,) the
Solar Disk (representing Re, the powerful midday sun,) and the ram-headed Atum
(the aging evening sun.) To the far left and right stand Isis and Nepthys. Beginning
in the
19'th Dynasty, various versions of this scene start to appear in royal tombs in
the
Valley of the Kings. According to Richard H. Wilkinson, the scene mirrors the
solar orientation embodied in the over-all symbolism of the tombs. The
three-fold
solar symbol at the center reflects the east-west pathway of the sun,
represented by
the tomb's corridors. The two goddesses add the other two cardinal points, with
Isis
standing in the south and Nepthys in the north. These goddesses also
traditionally
stand at the feet and head of the mummified Osiris, and their appearance on the
tomb
lintel combines Osirian and solar symbolism in a pictorial allusion to the
uniting of the
dead king (Osiris) with the sun, an apotheosis which ensures his immortality.
(See
Richard H. Wilkinson, Symbol and Magic in Egyptian Art [Thames and
Hudson,
1994], 78, 142.)