Just as there are indications for movement in the triad figures themselves (shifted glances, turned bodies, advanced gaits), there may also be similar cues in the triads’ inscriptions.
He titles of Menkaure also move. On the heban Triad, his Horus name, ks Bull of the corporation (of the gods) is orientated right, and his nswt-bity dual king name, Menkaure, faces left (Fig. 28a). Moving north, on the Diospolis Parva triad, Upper Egyptian nome 7 (Fig. 28b), the titles switch places, into the same arrangement assumed in the Type 2 triad. But in the Cynopolis triad, Upper Egyptian nome 17 (Fig. 28c), something unusual happens: it omits the king’s Horus name. It is not a question of there being too little space; there is room for it. What is not here is perhaps as important as what is. he Horus name is the oldest in the royal titulary and is rarely omitted. In fact, this is the only time I know of its absence in any inscribed Menkaure sculpture. he omission, as noted above, may signal something more substantive than a performance cue; it may signal that Menkaure was dead at the time of the statue’s manufacture, suggesting that the plans for not only the architecture but also the sculpture of the valley temple were in lux between the reigns of Menkaure and Shepseskaf, with both sculptural as well as architectural plans finished by the latter. And the lack of the Horus name may suggest that an existential change in the king had taken, or was taking place — from living to dead to reborn — that would have been relevant to his ritual rejuvenation in the heb sed performance played out through the triads.
World History
