Some Remarks to the Semantics of Image of Deity on the Coffin of Sepi III (Cairo CG 28083).

The problem of the iconography of a unique image of a deity drawn on the Middle Kingdom rectangular coffin of Sepi III (Cairo CG 28083; B1C; Deir el-Bersha; CT VI, 386) is discussed in the article. It is possible that the god is the first known image of the syncretic double god Re-Osiris. The deity (with a head unusually for Egyptian iconography unfolded in full face) is shown sitting on a throne with the inscription “millions (of years)”. The image of this god could be a visual display of the eschatological plot described in Spell 1130 of the Coffin Texts (the union of Atum(-Re) and Osiris after destruction of the Universe) at the end in the Book of Two Ways, that is represented on the bottom of Sepi’s coffin.


Introduction
The wooden rectangular outer coffin of Sepi (%pj) III 2 (B1C; Cairo CG 28083, J.E. 32969; Middle Kingdom, 12 th Dynasty) 3 (Fig. 1), originating from the necropolis of Hermopolis (Deir el-Bersha), is of particular interest for research since it has an unusually valuable and rich pictorial decoration, including a unique image of a deity, the interpretation of which is the subject of this article.
This picture of the god 4 (Figs 2, 3) accompanies the text of Spells 758-760 of the Coffin Texts 5 (Spell 758 represents the text near the image of a deity and inside the ovals) 6 . It is placed on the inside at the head end panel and shows a deity (with a face unusually for Egyptian iconography depicted in full face) wearing an Atf-crown 7 , framed by ram horns and snakes, seated on a throne with the signature HHw "millions (of years)", surrounded by five black and four red concentric ovals associated with the image of the Mehen serpent 8 (Fig. 4). In the right hand of the deity is a wAs-scepter, and in the left is an anx -the sign of life 9 . In the New Kingdom the extracts from the Coffin Texts Spells 758 and 759 10 became a prototype for the Chapter 131 of the Book of the Dead, but this Chapter has no vignette in the Theban Redaction 11 .  6 CT VI,387. 7 According to Piccione it is "a crown reminiscent of an Atf" (Piccione,"Mehen…",44). For the iconography of Atf see in details: Abd el Monem Joussef Abubakr, Untursuchungen über die ägyptischen Kronen (Glückstadt: Augustin, 1937   ities only in maps/guides to the Netherworld 19 . The black ovals described by Zandee and Bolshakov are similarly interpreted as a symbolic image of Mehen, which is very plausible due to the direct link to the text of the corresponding spells 20 . A similar opinion is also expressed by M. Chegodaev, P. Piccione and B. Backes 21 . H. Ranke expressed a special opinion: he saw in the deity of the depiction an anthropomorphic image of the serpent Mehen 22 .
The interpretation of the Russian Egyptologist M. Chegodaev seems to be the most legitimate and I will pay more attention to this original interpretation 23 . Chegodaev personifies the deity on the coffin of Sepi III as Re-Osiris 24 and wittily suggests 25 that the ovals around him are 'mandala' -a kind of "tunnel leading to the Netherworld, and the deity surrounded by it is seen as if through a tunnel, from its other end" 26 .

The image of a strange deity on the coffin of Sepi III: the interpretations
There are several views regarding the identification of the strange deity and the composition surrounding him. The first publisher of the coffin for Catalog Général, P. Lacau, and later U. Luft, Yu. Volokhine, and E. P. Uphill identified Osiris in the depiction 12 . According to Volokhine "la frontalité suggère ici l'éveil du dieu Osiris -si c'est bien de lui qu'il s'agit-, sa renaissance" 13 . In the red ovals surrounding the deity, Luft saw "Channels of Fire": in the text they are designated as wA.wt sD.t "Roads of Fire" 14 , washing, according Luft, the Island of Osiris -"Champs Elysees", i.e. "Fields of Iaru" 15 . They are also referred to below as wA.wt [MH]n "Roads of Meh[en]" 16 . At the same time it is confidently impossible to conclude that the "map" is presented by "Fields of Iaru" since they are not mentioned in Spells 758-760 of the Coffin Texts relating to the image, but that the "Roads of Fire/Mehen" that surround a certain area. I will return to this area below. J. Zandee, P. Piccione, B. Backes, A. Bolshakov, and W. Sherbiny personify the deity of the picture as Re / Sun god 17 . Bolshakov also notes that this is the only example of "images of gods besides maps" of the Netherworld on the Middle Kingdom coffins 18 . However, the composition is definitely represents a kind of map and therefore does not go beyond the general tendency, characteristic of the design of coffins in the Middle Kingdom, to show the de- 12 Lacau, Sarcophages, 175; Luft, "А Different World…", 422, ill. 10; Youri Volokhine, La frontalité dans l'iconographie de l'Égypte ancienne, (Genève: Société d'Égyptologie 2000), 85; Eric P. Uphill, "The Ancient Egyptian View of World History", in 'Never Had the Like Occured': Egypt's view of its past, ed. John Tait (London: UCL Press, Institute of Archaeology, 2003), 20-21. 13 Volokhine, La frontalité..., 85. 14 CT VI, 387b (Spell 758). 15 Luft, "А Different World…", 422, ill.10. 16 CT VI, 389d (Spell 759: iw=i rx.n=i wA.wt [MHn] "I have identified the Roads of [Mehen]"), fn. 1*. 17 Zandee Jan, Death as an Enemy according to Ancient Egyptian Conception (Leiden: Brill, 1960), 164, fn. 10; Piccione, "Mehen…", 44; Backes, Das altägyptische "Zweiwegbuch", 361; Andrei O. Bolshakov, "Izobrazheniye i tekst: dva yazyka drevneyegipetskoy kul'tury," Vestnik Drevnei Istorii 4 (2003): 14; Sherbiny, Through Hermopolitan Lenses, 389. 18 Bolshakov, "Izobrazheniye i tekst", 14.   be the presence of the "Osirian" Atf-crown 30 . But, firstly, as Piссione noted, the crown of the deity here is not necessarily an Atf, but perhaps in stylized form; secondly, in the Middle Kingdom the Atf-crown was also characteristic for Horus and Re 31 ; and, thirdly, what about the wAs-scepter and anx-sign? According to Chegodaev, since Re is only described in the text and Osiris is only depicted, the formation of the figure of "Re-Osiris" occurs exclusively through the "crossing" (synthesis) of two "languages of Egyptian culture" -text and image 32 , what, as we see, is quite controversial. At the same time, one feature of the iconography of the deity on the B1C coffin, noticed by the researcher, suggests the correct way to a general understanding of the essence of this character -this is his full face image. In Egyptian funerary art in a similar depiction are only "the inhabitants of the Netherworld, whose path to our world are closed. They are in the Netherworld... Osiris is the king of Netherworld and it belongs entirely to him" 33 . We can mention in this case 34 a number of the New Kingdom and Third Intermediate Period images, connected with Osirian or infernal context (Figs 5-12). Zivie, "Pharaoh's Man…,' 22. 30 Chegodaev, "Sarkofag Sepi...", 202; Chegodaev, "Iyerotopiya…", 28-29. 31 Abubakr, Untursuchungen…, 20.     "mapped" world of the Book of Two Ways ends with the entrance to the Gates of the Horizon 45 , behind which the Lord of the Universe (Nb-r-Dr) resides and the text of the famous Spell 1130 is represented.
Pointing to the importance of the Book of Two Ways for understanding the image of the deity on the end panel of the coffin, Chegodaev further explains the placement of the image of the throne of Re-Osiris "before the eyes" of the deceased, by the fact that he should have seen it "not from the point of view of an outside observer, namely the dead Sepi, would see the throne of God to where he is going" 46 . The fact that the deceased was included in the microcosm of the coffin decor as a main character is absolutely true, but I should make two clarifications in the general interpretation of the pictorial program of the coffin.
Firstly, the movement of the soul of the deceased along the "world" of the Book of Two Ways occurs in the direction from the head end panel to the back, and not vice versa (see Fig. 4). Thus the image of the deity is placed at the very beginning of the journey and not at its end. In other words, Chegodaev's assertion that the direction of movement of Sepi was the "throne of God" with the figure of Re-Osiris on the head end panel cannot be recognized -on the contrary, the path of the deceased formally started from him.
Secondly, it should be noted that in order to see the throne, the resurrected Sepi still had to direct his gaze a little higher, but directly in front of his eyes, facing east, on the right side panel of the coffin 47 , where another famous image was placed -the map of the Fields of Hetep (Htp) of Spell 465/466 of the Coffin Texts 48 , which became the prototype of Chapter 110 of the Book of the Dead (see Fig. 4). The Fields of Hetep were the place where the deceased finally arrived to, and therefore his look is directed towards their image as the desired final point of the posthumous journey 49 .

The "Roads of Mehen" and the Mehen-game
The dilemma can be explained by Piccione's hypothesis. This scholar, developing the idea expressed by H. Ranke 50 , connects the oval "Roads of Mehen" (wA.wt MHn) of the picture surrounding the deity on the Sepi's coffin with the mHn-game, known from Pre-dynastic times until the First Intermediate Period when the rules (which, as in the case 45 The Doors/Gates of the Horizon (sbx.t Ax.t) is the place of the morning burning of the Sun from the Netherworld on the Eastern horizon. In the Late Period, a real "sacred place" with the same title is known to be located in Heliopolis and associated with the burial ("grave") of Osiris (Susanne Bickel, "Die Jenseitsfahrt des Re nach Zeugen des Sargtexte", in Ein ägyptisches Glasperlenspiel. Ägyptologische Beiträge für Erik Hornung aus seinem Schülerkreis, ed. Andreas Brodbeck (Berlin: Mann, Gebr., 1998), 51). 46 Chegodaev, "Sarkofag Sepi...", 203. Backes, however, adheres to a directly opposite opinion and regards the "frontal" position of the face as a sign of a solar deity, while the Atf is of Osiris 36 . In the iconography of Re I don't find any serious confirmation of this and therefore the ideas of Chegodaev in this matter look to be more fair. Considering that many Egyptologists worldwide may not have access to the Russian text of Chegodaev' researches, I will focus more closely on his hypothesis regarding the image in question.
Thus, I completely agree with Chegodaev in identifying the creature on the B1C coffin as Re-Osiris, but I believe that the formation of his image occurs not only by the text-pictorial synthesis, but also by direct combination of their iconographic attributes in the image.
Chegodaev rightly focuses on the need for an integrated approach to studying the semantics of the pictorial and textual components of the design of the coffin 37 , taking into account the location of certain spells and images, their interconnections, and the position of the mummy in the coffin 38 . The scholar emphasizes that the drawing of the deity on the coffin is located on the head end inner panel (northern), i.e. at the head of deceased, and is slightly shifted to the right, thus being in front of the eyes of Sepi lying on his left side with his head to the north 39 . This is undoubtedly very significant. At the same time, the opinion that the explanation as to why the image of the deity is placed exactly here must be sought "on other boards of the coffin adjacent to the head" 40 and, first of all, on the bottom, where a special and apparently local (Hermopolitan) "section" of the corpus of the Coffin Texts, a so-called Book of Two Ways 41 (that traditionally, but not always 42 , identified as the first pictorial guide to the Netherworld) is located.
The text of the Book of Two Ways is placed in two registers describing the movement of a soul of deceased in the Netherworld by land and by water (which gave the corresponding name) and is read from right to left, i.e. the initial spells of both registers are located at the headboard, and the final spells at the feet. The exception is the coffin of Ikha (Cairo CG 28089; B12C) where the first register is read from right to left and starts at the head, and the second "returns" in the opposite direction -from the legs to the head, from left to right, in a so-called "reverse" direction of writing ("retrograde writing") which first appeared in the Pyramid Texts 43 and was further developed in the Book of the Dead 44 . It is very symptomatic that the way "traversed" by the deceased through the 36 Backes, Das altägyptische "Zweiwegbuch", 361, but cf. 320-321. 37 The examples of such researches are:  Chegodaev,"Sarkofag Sepi...",[194][195]202. 40 Chegodaev,200. 41 The recent researches are Backes, Das altägyptische "Zweiwegbuch"; Sherbiny, Through Hermopolitan Lenses.  Piccione quite reasonably proves that playing mHn (like playing snt) reflected a journey through the Afterlife, i.e. during the game, there was moving along the same "Roads of Mehen" (wA.wt MHn) as in the case of the "channels" on the B1C coffin that explains their relationship. But it is possible to give another parallel suggesting the reason for the depiction of the "Roads of Mehen" on the Sepi's coffin at the "beginning of the journey". This is another Egyptian board game -snt, also known from an early time (from the 1 st Dynasty). Just like mHn, this game depicts the journey of the soul through the roads of the Netherworld (reliably from the New Kingdom) 58 . With the image of the snt-game the illustrative frieze of vignettes of Chapter 17 of the Book of the Dead begins 59 . Moreover, there is no second player opposite the deceased on this initial vignette 60 , which apparently indicates the game with the invisible forces of the Netherworld or, as Piccione believes, with another invisible oppo- of snt game, are not reliably known today) were forgotten 51 . From a later time, objects from the funeral inventory that imitated the mHn playing board were preserved. For example, the blue faience "votive object" Chicago, Field Museum of Nat. History No. 31009 (25 cm in diameter and 1-2 cm in thickness) is dated to the New Kingdom 52 In the Saite Period of a so-called "Saite Renaissance" archaic images of the mHn game imitating the Old Kingdom painting reappear on the walls of the tombs of the nobility (at least two cases are known) 53 , which, however, does not mean that the long-forgotten rules of this game have been restored. Curiously, the imitations of the mHn-table seem to have existed even before the Old Kingdom -for example, a small (diameter 52 mm, thickness 14 mm) lapis lazuli "amulet" from the Flinders Petrie collection (London, Petrie Mus. UC 38655) 54 is "predynastic", but, unfortunately, contextless (Fig. 13). The limestone mHn-table (playing board) 55 from an Early Dynastic Period can be represented by a figure of a Mehen-serpent coiled into spiral rings 56 (London, Petrie Mus. UC 20453, diameter 288 mm, thickness 34 mm) 57 (Fig. 14), and it is really closely resembles the image on the coffin of Sepi.  Piccione, "Mehen," 46-47;Timothy Kendall, "Schlangenspiel," in Lexikon der Ägyptologie, eds Wolfgang Helck and Wolfhart Westendorf (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 1984), 5, 653-654. The first written mention of this game is given in the offerings list in the mastaba of Rahotep at Meidum (Kendall,"Schlangenspiel",653). For a list of the ancient Egyptian tombs of the 5 th -6 th Dynasties in Giza and Saqqara, with the images of the mHn game, see: Kendall,655,fn. 8. 52 Piccione, "Mehen…", 51, fig. 4 Piccione,"Mehen…",51,fig. 4. 56 About 13 copies of the mHn playing boards are known in various museum collections (Piccione,"Mehen…",46). 57 Petrie, Amulets, 25 (no. 96f: "limestone, prehistoric, large amulet to hang in house"), pl. 48.
of the world 68 . The mysterious place of their meeting is not named, but is designated as c.t wa. "Life belongs to me, I am its lord. My scepter will not be taken away from my hand. I have spent millions of years between myself and that Weary of heart 69 , the son of Geb. I will sit with him in One Place, and towns will be mounds 70 and mounds will be towns; mansion will desolate mansion" (CT VII, 467b-468b (after B9C)) 71 .

Conclusions
To sum up, it is possible to assume that the image with the throne of Re-Osiris on the coffin of Sepi III that has the inscription HH.w "millions (of years)" is a visual display of c.t wa.t "One Place", as all scholars translate with rare unanimity 73 . It can be assumed that for Egyptian theologians it was not an easy task to give a special name for a certain area which will be the meeting of Atum(-Re) and Osiris after the total death and the end of the existing world (i.e., in the boundless waters of the primordial ocean of Nun Lit. "One-who-is-weary-of-his-heart", the common epithet of Osiris. nent -the own soul of a man 61 . The mention of snt is also included in the title rubric of Chapter 17 62 -the only such case known in the Book of the Dead. This can be considered as a marker for the beginning of the journey of deceased through the Netherworld 63 that is gradually revealed in subsequent vignettes and text in the 17 th Chapter 64 . The same reasons could explain the placement of the image of the "Roads of Mehens" to Re-Osiris which are identical to the "Roads of Mehen" in the corresponding game at the beginning of the journey of the deceased on Sepi's coffin (B1C). It is extremely important that, judging by the surviving descriptions, in the mHn game, the path of the playing pieces moved from the tail to the head of the snake, i.e. from the periphery to the center 65 . In the case of the channels of the "way of Mehen" on the coffin, Re-Osiris was placed in the center, i.e. his location is the end point of the travel of the deceased along the "Channels of Fire" / the "Roads of Mehen". The same journey in the microcosm of the coffin "world" is unfolded under the feet of Sepi III and in the Book of Two Ways. So, in this case the meaning and scenes on the picture with Re-Osiris and in the Book of Two Ways had to be identical. And here it is interesting to see how the Book of Two Ways ends. This is Spell 1130 of the Coffin Texts, which begins (as a monologue of the Demiurge) with the mention of Mehen in the cosmogonic context of the planning four "good deeds" of the Creator: wHm=i n=Tn sp.wi nfr.wi irj.n n=i ib=i Ds=i m-Xnw MHn n mrw.t sgr.t isf.t "I will relate to you the two good deeds which my own heart did for me within the Coiled One (i.e. Mehen) in order that falsehood be silenced" (CT VII, 462b-c) 66 . Below the plot that became the prototype for Chapter 175 of the Book of the Dead 67 is given: after the passage of "millions of years" (HH.w m rnp.wt) separating Atum(-Re) from Osiris (literally: "this Weary of heart, the son of Geb" -WrD-ib=f pf sA Gb), their meeting will take place, marking the end 61 postmortem journey, ends with the description of the essence of this image at the end of the path -in Spell 1130 of the Coffin Texts. In this case, the image of Re-Osiris on Sepi's coffin displays the eschatological representations 77 disclosed in the Spell 1130. They are not related with the cyclical figure of Re-Osiris of the New Kingdom and Third Intermediate Period when the essence and existence of this deity, manifested as a result of the infernal meeting and union of the ba-souls of solar Re and chthonic Osiris 78 , were clearly limited by the borders of the Netherworld and the night.

Acknowledgments
I'm deeply thankful to Glenn James (Manchester) for his kind help with revising my English and to Wael Sherbiny (Leuven) for various useful remarks and suggestions during discussion on this article. cus "One Place" was used in the text. Chegodaev offers another reading for m c.t wa.t as "on the one throne" 74 , apparently proceeding from the ideographic meaning of sign (GSL Q1) as "seat" 75 , "Sitz" 76 . But even in this case, "throne" or "seat" of a cosmic dual deity, as we see, is directly represented in the image (besides being noted as "millions (of years)"), only proving the close interconnection of the written and visual descriptions of the given eschatological plot, which, quite obviously, not only complement but "duplicate" each other.
Let's emphasize that the meeting with the dual image of (Atum-)Re and Osiris completes both the wanderings of Sepi III along the "Roads of Mehen" in the image on the head end panel and the journey by "two ways" along the bottom of the coffin at the feet of the mummy. Obviously, the initial image of Re-Osiris inside the "Roads of Mehen", the task to reach which is set by the textual and program of the coffin at the beginning of the 74