426 TRANS. ST. LOUIS ACAD. SCIENCE. 



red must again be a Decuria of her. Since, however, the ancient 

 Zodiac from e^ 0° to n^ 0° does not contain any Decuria of $ ex- 

 cept that in Til io°-20°, it is self-evident that Venus on that day 

 must have stood in Til io°-20°, i.e. east of the sun. 



Finally, ? being posted in the house of Mercury (L. iv. i, v. i, 

 vi. I, vii. i), and his distance from the sun never exceeding 29°, 

 and from SI 0° to "K 30° no house of ^ existing, it is again clear 

 that the longitude of ^ must refer to a part of the signs SI or r^ 

 presided over by Mercury. See my Astron. JEg. PI. I. Here it is 

 to be remembered, that, in case a planet occupied both a sign and 

 a Decuria presided over by the same planet, the Egyptians recur- 

 red to a smaller division of the same sign. Hence Mercury, stand- 

 ing together with the Sun in the same sign and the same Decuria 

 of the Sun (^i^ o°-io°), was to be referred to a Horion contained 

 by that Decuria of the Sun. The aforesaid Plate shows that in 

 '")l, Dec. ©, only one Horion of ^ existed, comprising the first 

 7 degrees of "^. Consequently Mercury must on that day have 

 stood in W o°-f. 



The result of this simple disquisition is that on the solstitial day 

 of a certain year the places of the 7 planets in the Zodiac were 

 these: © between SI and up, J) in IcJ, b in :^ i°-io°, Jupiter in n, 

 % together with b in - i°-io°, ? in irj! io°-20°, ? in iip o°-'j°. 

 This planetary configuration, which could occur but once during 

 a period of 2146 Julian years (p. 423), and which has been pre- 

 served on 14 Egyptian monuments, in what year may it have 

 taken place? The question is easily answered. 



The inscription L. iv. and several others have been found on 

 temples of Osimandyas in Thebes, who ruled since the year 1730 

 B.C. See the writer's "Berichtigungen der alten Geschichte," p. 

 179. Consequently the planetary configuration under considera- 

 tion must refer to an earlier year. 



Further, in front of the 14 planetary and zodiacal deities (L. vi.) 

 king Menes is represented receiving the benediction of the former. 

 For the crescent A\.A.n, Mijv, ""jt^ (meni), &c., expresses syllabically 

 the name of Menes ; and the person itself, standing upon the cres- 

 cent, bears the royal insignia, the usual royal crown with the 

 uraeus (e».R6L>pi, i.e. Roirpo, king), the sceptre, and the crux ansata 

 (an^, i.e. dva^). Moreover, instead of the crescent opposed to 

 the planets, we find several times the figure of a poppy-head (L. 



