Below, the watery-sky-cow-goddess Meht-urt (Mehet-weret) is being adored by a kneeling Egyptian. Her face is golden, she wears a menat necklace about her neck and a flail rises from her back. She sits on a rectangular dais representing the heavenly floodwaters that carry the solar bark of Ra. Between her horns is the sun disc representative of the sun-god Ra. (cf. p.152. Adel Mahmoud. "The Sarchopagus of Khonsu" [19th Dynasty, 1295-1186 BCE]. Eric Hornung & Betsy M. Bryan. Editors. The Quest for Immortality, Treasures of Ancient Egypt. Washington, D.C. National Gallery of Art. 2002)
Below, Meht-urt (Mehet-weret) seated with the hawk-head of Horus before her, on a watery dais representing the heavenly flood-water. Before her are two lions flanking a dawning sun disk rising between two mountain peaks. An Ankh symbolic of "life" is beneath the sun disk. (cf. p.152.
Adel Mahmoud. "The Sarchopagus of Khonsu" [19th Dynasty, 1295-1186 BCE]. Eric Hornung & Betsy M. Bryan. Editors. The Quest for Immortality, Treasures of Ancient Egypt. Washington, D.C. National Gallery of Art. 2002). In Egyptian myths Horus was identified with the sun. Perhaps Horus' head rising out of the floodwater dais recalls his birth at dawn as the Golden Calf born of the heavenly watery-cow-sky-goddess ?
Below, Hathor seated with paraphanalia associated with Meht-urt in the above scenes. 19th Dynasty. Theban necropolis at Deir el-Medina, tomb no. 265 of Amenemipet. Hathor is ready to receive the dead into the underworld at the mountain of the west where the sun sets. One of Hathor's titles was nubt "the golden [one]." (cf. p.185. fig. 237 "The Cow of the West." Philippe Germond & Jacques Livet. An Egyptian Bestiary, Animals in Life and Religion in the Land of the Pharaohs. London. Thames & Hudson. 2001)
Below, the golden body of the sky-goddess Nut in human form, with the sun-god as a red disk, moving within her body to be given birth at dawn. Near her vagina the Sun bursts forth at sunrise as a golden disk or orb, held by a winged scarab beetle (the rising sun being called khepri the beetle at dawn). Below the scarab beetle a goddess holds the golden sun disk at her waist. The heavenly Nile appears as a white river with several solar barks or boats. Sometimes Nut appears as a golden sky-cow with stars on her body (note the stars on human form of Nut in this mural) with the solar bark sailing along her body. E.A. Wallis Budge understood that Nut was the feminine form of the god Nu or Nuu who was the primeval waters from which arose all life including the gods. He thus argued that Nut's name implied she was a goddess of the heavenly waters. This mural is from the ceiling in a tomb of Pharaoh Rameses VI, 20th Dynasty No. 9 in the Valley of the Kings (cf. p.158. fig. 197. Philippe Germond & Jacques Livet. An Egyptian Bestiary, Animals in Life and Religion in the Land of the Pharaohs. London. Thames & Hudson. 2001)
Below, Pharaoh Rameses II making an offering to the sacred Mnevis bull, rendered in gold paint with dark blue background. The golden bull stands on a pedestal. The bull wears the sundisk and double feathers associated with the sun-god Amon-Ra. In some myths the sun was conceived of as being born at sunrise in the form of a Golden Calf, who, during the course of the day became a Golden Bull. At sunset he mounted his mother, the sky-cow-goddess who gave him birth, impregnating her in order to be be reborn of her the next day. Above the bull flys Horus as a hawk. Horus was understood to be the sun at sunrise in the form of a bull calf (cf. p. 185. fig. 236. Philippe Germond & Jacques Livet. An Egyptian Bestiary, Animals in Life and Religion in the Land of the Pharaohs. London. Thames & Hudson. 2001). As a sun-god Horus can appear as a sundisk with hawk's wings and is called Horus of Bedehety, he taking this form to destroy his enemies.
Mercante :
"Mnevis (Bull). Greek name for the Egyptian sacred bull wer-mer worshipped at Heliopolis. He was believed to be the incarnation of the sun and was often portrayed as a bull with a disk and the uraeus between his horns." (p. 96. "Mnevis." Anthony S. Mercante. Who's Who is Egyptian Mythology. New York. Clarkson N. Potter Inc. 1978)
Kessler :
"The ancient Egyptian pantheon included bull, cow and calf divinities...The figures reflect the theological role of the bull-shaped god as a form of the sun god...the living Mnevis bull became the son and representative of Re." (pp. 209-213. Vol. 1. Dieter Kessler. "Bull Gods." Donald B. Redford. Editor. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt. New York. Oxford University Press. 2001)
Below, the red disc of the sun rising from between two turquoise sycamore trees at Heliopolis (biblical On) with a white bull calf passing between the trees. In some Egyptian myths the sun rose at dawn between two turquoise trees at On in the form of a bull-calf, which in the course of the day became a mature virile solar bull (sun-god). Hathor was identified as being a sycamore tree goddess who fed the righteous dead with cakes and drink. She was also called the goddess of turquoise and copper and a shrine to her existed at Serabit el Khadim in the southern Sinai erected by the miners. I understand that Israel's worship of the Golden Calf is recalling aspects of the Egyptian solar cult of the birth of the sun as a bull-calf, born of a watery-sky-cow-goddess, Hathor, Nut or Meht-urt. The mural is of the Ramesside era, Deir el-Medina, tomb of Irynfer, no. 290 (cf. p. 185. fig. 239. Philippe Germond & Jacques Livet. An Egyptian Bestiary, Animals in Life and Religion in the Land of the Pharaohs. London. Thames & Hudson. 2001)
