Egyptian Chronology. 465 



it, not in a given year of a former cycle, but in the 345th year 

 before the Sothic period ; precisely as we cite events of ancient 

 history, as happening a given number of years before the 

 Christian era. And, in conformity, the extract cited by Biot 

 from a manuscript of Theon of Alexandria, in the Royal 

 Library of Paris, takes, as the epoch of his calculations, the 

 reign of Menophres, in which the cycle was renewed, or the 

 year 1322 B.C. 



Thus, then, I conceive, I am warranted in my conclusion, 

 that the heliacal rising of Sirius was actually observed in 

 Egypt in the year 2782 B.C. ; and that, on the other hand, 

 this was the first year of 365 days reckoned in that country. 



To whom this mode of computation, so different from that 

 of other nations, is due, is a matter of curious inquiry. Strabo 

 informs us, in the sequel to the passage that we have already 

 cited, that the Egyptians attributed their knowledge of the year 

 to Mercury. In the first dynasty of Manetho, the second 

 personage is Attothes ; the Thoyth of the Egyptians, the Thoth 

 of the Alexandrians, the Hermes of the Greeks. This Mer- 

 cury, therefore, was the son of Menes, and the second king of 

 Egypt. Cicero enumerates five Mercuries *. ( The fourth 

 was the son of Nilus, whom the Egyptians consider it impiety 

 to name ; the fifth, whom the Phenicians worship, who is said 

 to have slain Argus, and was for that reason appointed to rule 

 over Egypt, and to have given the Egyptians laws and letters, 

 him the Egyptians call Thoyth ; and the first month of the 

 year is by them called by the same name.' We find no other 

 ascription of the introduction of the year to this celebrated 

 personage ; but the other benefits that he conferred on man- 

 kind are the subjects of frequent allusion. Sanconiatho directly 

 names him as the inventor of letters f ; the same is done by 

 Philo J. ' I have heard/ says Socrates, in Plato's Phsedo, ' at 

 Naucratis in Egypt, that there was an ancient god, to whom 

 the bird they call the Ibis was sacred ; the name of this god is 

 Theuth ; he first invented numbers and the art of reckoning, 

 geometry and astronomy, and the games of draughts and dice.' 



* Nat. Deor., lib. iii. 

 t Eusebii Prep. Evangel., lib. i. J Ibidem. 



