Egyptian Chronology. 471 



composition may be inferred from a passage when the true 

 epoch of the author discovers itself.' ( The Egyptians,' says 

 he, * distinguish this phenomenon by the emblem of a lion ; 

 because, when the sun enters into the Lion, the swelling of the 

 Nile becomes very considerable ; and while it remains in this 

 constellation (& /w), the inundation often attains two-thirds 

 of its total height.' Now, according to the testimony of all 

 voyagers, from Herodotus to our own days, the Nile begins to 

 swell below the last cataract, immediately after the summer 

 solstice. Forty or fifty days elapse before it attains the half 

 of its greatest height, and it does not reach its last limit of its 

 increase until about one hundred days after the solstice. Con- 

 sequently, at this first phase of the swelling of the Nile, 

 which the passage cited marks as being already considerable, 

 the solstice must already be past a considerable number of 

 days ; it would have been at a distance of thirty days, if, for 

 instance, this place be supposed to correspond to one-third of 

 the total height. Now, since, according to our author, the sun 

 ought to be, then, in the commencement of the Lion, if we 

 suppose he cites this emblem as a sign, that is to say, a twelfth 

 part of Zodiac, it would be necessary that the solstice, falling 

 thirty days earlier, should take place in a point of the ecliptic, 

 that is, 30 more to the west, this carries it to the beginning of 

 the sign Cancer : * and as this disposition, which places the 

 two equinoxes, and the two solstices at the commencement of 

 the signs, was not generally adopted until after Hipparchus, it 

 follows that the work which employs it as such, must have been 



written after the time of this astronomer.' 



***** 



Having determined by this physical indication the low 

 antiquity of the work of Horus Apollo, we shall examine here- 

 after what he says of the relations of Syrius with the Egyptian 

 year ; but I prefer, first, to discuss a passage of the Scholiast 

 of Aratus, which seems much more proper to enlighten us on 

 the real nature of these relations. This scholiast, who is 

 believed to be Theon of Alexandria, expresses himself in the 

 following manner * : ' The Etesian winds,' says he, * invade 



Arat. Phen, Schol. on verse 153, ed Lips. p. 45. 



2 I 2 



