472 Professor Renwick on 



' the sea, when the Sun is the sign of the Lion ; and among the 

 ' Egyptians, the keys of the temples bear the figures of a lion, 

 ' from which hang chains, to which a heart is attached. They 

 < have consecrated the whole of this constellation (aarov) to the 

 ' Sun. For then the Nile spreads beyond its banks, and the 

 ' heliacal rising of the Dogstar takes place towards the twelfth 

 ' hour*. They place at this instant the commencement of the 

 * year ; and consider the Dogstar, as well as its rising, as con- 

 ' secrated to Isis.' 



' The word employed by the author (aurgov) seems to indicate 

 that he wishes to consider the Lion as a constellation, and not 

 as a sign ; but the heliacal rising of Sirius in Egypt, of which 

 he makes a circumstance co-existing with the presence of the 

 Sun in the Lion, finally confirms this sense, by showing that it 

 is of the constellation that he speaks. In fact, the author of 

 the Scholia lived towards the fourth century of the Christian 

 era, and he cites the rising of Sirius as present, and taking 

 place in his own time. Now, at this epoch, when Sirius rose 

 heliacally in Egypt, which happened about twenty-seven days 

 after the solstice, the Sun was no longer in Leo considered as 

 a sign, but he had the same longitude with the stars of the 

 head of the Lion. For, by an astronomical circumstance that 

 has not hitherto been remarked, but of which I shall presently 

 give the demonstration, from more than 3000 years before the 

 Christian era, until more than 1000 years after that era, the 

 Sun has always been in the same constellation, Leo, but in 

 very different parts, at the time of the year in which the helia- 

 cal rising of Sirius takes place in Egypt.' At an epoch prior 

 to thirty centuries before the Christian era, the Sun would 

 have been in the groupe of Virgo at the time of the rising of 

 Sirius ; and hence the use of the hieroglyphic, or rather ana- 

 glyph, explained by Horus Apollo, could not have arisen at 

 an earlier date, and the claims set up to a much more remote 

 antiquity fall to the ground. 



Biot also cites the passage of Porphyry, that has already 

 been quoted ; and in which, if we conceive that he has, as is 

 probable, united the traditions of the ancient Egyptians with 



* An hour before sun-rise. 



