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In addition to their title wb} nswt ‘royal wb3’, Neferrenpet (I) and Sarenenutet Tjaui share another common factor in their official careers, namely that both of them held the title jhjj ‘sistrum player’ of Hathor, which function they emphasized on their sistophor statues. The sandstone statue of Neferrenpet (I) found in the Theban necropolis,” is now located in Paris (E 14241), and once might have stood in the temple of Hathor in Deir el-Bahari. The point of interest of this intermediary statue is that it depicts the owner sitting on a cushion in scribal posture with a small basin before him, holding a menat in his right hand, while once a sistrum was presumably held in his left hand, however, it is missing. This latter feature, as Clére noted,‘ makes the statue extraordinary, since sistophor statues are usually completed with the symbol of Hathor in a naos or the symbol is depicted on the body of the statue itself, but in this case, the instrument itself was attached to it. Neferrenpet (I) addresses himself as jhjj ‘sistrum player’ of his mistress, a herald of the lady of truth, who mediates the petitions addressed to the goddess to her inside her sanctuary, as he says. Furthermore, he states that his hands were pure to offer the menat before the Ennead. According to these statements, Neferrenpet (1) indeed had access to the sanctuary of Hathor, and the basin before him on his statue might refer to his additional duty of making a libation before the goddess.#1 This religious function might refer to a Theban function place of his, although it also can be considered that he was appointed in this office only after his retirement as a reward for his useful service in the royal court. According to his function titles on his statue, he served in the royal household as wb3 nswt ‘royal wb3’ — he also bore the title wb3 nswt wb “wj ‘royal wb3 clean of hands’ — and 3 n “.tn nb 3.wj ‘chief of the chamber of the lord of the Two Lands’, as well as in the royal administration as jmj-r3 pr ‘steward’. Contrary to Gessler-Léhr’s suggestion,*” according to which being of clean of hands as a priest derives from his being of wb3 nswt wb ‘.wj ‘royal wb3 clean of hands’, this pure feature of Neferrenpet (1) has two separate aspects, his religious duty towards the goddess Hathor, on the one hand, and on the other hand, his duty as a ‘royal wb?’ to his lord who was a living manifestation of a god. Neferrenpet (I) is also depicted on the relief block of his brother, Sarenenutet Tjaui (Boston, MFA 1972.651), in an offering scene together with his wife, [...]ia, and the sister of his mother, Taweret. A sem-priest presents an offering before them, who is labelled 4° Boreux, 1933, 12-13. 4% Clère, 1970, 1-3. For the sistophor statues of ‘royal wh3s’, see also note 481. in the discussion on Sennefer above. 44 Boreux, 1933, 16. #5 Gessler-Löhr, 1990, 58.
