496 



TRANS. ST. LOUIS ACAD. SCIENCE. 



Hence the name of King Menes was syllabically expressed by the 

 figure of the crescent, e.g. in Burton's u Excerpta hieroglyphica." 

 PI. XV. representing the planetary configuration of Menes in 

 — 2780, July 16, the day of the summer solstice. The mythical 

 description of a lunar eclipse by the devouring of the moon by a 

 crocodile, is analogous to that of the Chinese, according to whom, 

 the sun and the moon, at the time of eclipse, are being devoured 

 by a dragon. 



The time of Menes' eclipse is astronomically fixed ; for the Vetus 

 Chronicon, preserved by Syncellus, expressly reports that Menes 

 and the following dynasties reigned " since the beginning of the 

 Canicular period" in — 27S0, and, accordingly, that the first fif- 

 teen dynasties ruled simultaneously in different provinces of Egypt. 

 The Table of Abydos, furthermore, specifies 38 kings succes- 

 sively reigning from Menes to the last king of the 18th dynasty, 

 viz. Ramses, who ruled, according to the nativities of several 

 kings of the same dynasty, about —1647 B.C., and Eratosthenes 

 counted from Menes down to the end of the same dynasty 1076 

 (_|_57) years. The Table of Karnak, in accordance therewith, 

 enumerates in juxtaposition, on one side, the kings from Menes 

 to the middle of the 18th dynasty who ruled successively, and on 

 the other side it specifies the coetaneous dynasties. All these 

 ancient reports concur in demonstrating that Menes settled in 

 Egypt in the course of the year — 27S0. The matter has been 

 discussed in extenso in the author's "Theologische Schriften der 

 aiten ./Egypter," Leipzig, 1855, p. 102. This result, finally, is 

 mathematically confirmed by the so often mentioned astronomical 

 monuments referring Menes' arrival in Egypt to the 16th day of 

 July, in the year — 27S0. According to these monuments, one of 

 which is represented in the author's "Berichtigungen," PI. I., and 

 another in Burton's "Excerpta hieroglyphica," PI. XV., the places 

 of the planets were on that day as follows : the sun in Cancer o°, 

 Saturn in Sagittarius 4 , Mars in Sagittarius 6°, Jupiter in Aries 

 1 3 , Venus in Cancer 15 , Mercury in Cancer 2 , the moon in 

 Scorpio 3 . The said day was, therefore, the day of the summer 

 solstice, and it is odd only that Menes commenced the Egyptian 

 year not with the summer solstice, a cardinal day, but, three or 

 four days later, with the 19th or 20th day of July. The prevail- 

 ing opinion is that the Canicular periods commenced with July 



