January 5, 1893J 



NATURE 



229 



There is also, as I have indicated, temple evidence that 

 Sirius was not the first star utilized as a herald of sun- 

 rise. We have then this possibility to explain the varia- 

 tion from the true meaning of the signs in Ramessid times. 



Pre-Sirian. 

 Texi 



Sirian, 

 3192 B.C. 





- O &,.2 -- 



•SIS 



r^-^ *-.C .^ Ji _c £ lA rt'S., 



And it may be gathered from this that the Calendar was 

 reorganized ^ when the Sirius worship came in and that 

 the change effected in 619 B.C. brought the hieroglyphic 

 signs back to their natural meaning and first use. 



Before I pass on it may be convenient in connection 

 with the above month-tables to refer in the briefest way 

 to the mythology relating to the yearly movement of the 

 sun, in order to show that when this question is considered 

 at all, if it helps us with regard to the mythology con- 

 nected with the rising and setting of stars, it will as 

 assuredly help us with regard to the mythology of the 

 various changes which occur throughout the year. 



We have, as we have seen, in the Egyptian year really 

 the prototype of our own. The Egyptians, thousands of 

 years ago, had an almost perfect year containing twelve 

 months, but instead of four seasons they had three, the 

 time of the sowing, the time of the harvest, and the time of 

 the inundation. Unfortunately, at various times in 

 Egyptian history, the symbols for the tetramenes seem to 

 have got changed. 



The above-given inscriptions show that they had a 

 distinct symbolism for each of the months. Gods or 

 goddesses are given for ten months out of the twelve, and 

 where we have not these, we have the hippopotamus (or 

 the pig) and the jackal, two circumpolar constellations. I 

 think there is no question that we are dealing here with 

 these constellations, though the figures have been sup- 

 posed to represent something quite different. 



There are also myths and symbols of the twelve 

 changes during the twelve hours of the day ; the sun 

 being figured as a child at rising, as an old man when 

 setting in the evening. These ideas were also transferred 

 to the annual motion of the sun. In Macrobius,as quoted 

 by Krall, we find the statement that the Egyptians com- 

 pared the yearly course of the sun also with the phases 

 of human life. 



Little child = Winter solstice. 

 Young man = Spring equinox. 

 Bearded man = Summer solstice. 

 Old man = Autumnal equinox. 



With the day of the summer solstice the sun reaches 

 the greatest northern rifling amplitude, and at the winter 

 solstice its greatest southern amplitude. By the solstices 

 the year is divided into two approximately equal parts ; 

 during the one the points of rising move southwards, 

 during the other northwards. 



This phenomenon, it is stated, was symbolized by the 

 two e)es of Ra, the so-called Utchats, which look in dif- 

 ferent directions. They appear as representing the sun 

 in the two halves of the year. 



We have next to discuss the fixed year, to which the 

 Egyptian chronologists were finally driven in later 

 Egyptian times. 



The decree of Tanis was the true precursor of the 



' Goodw.n has already asked, " Ooes the Smith Papyrus refer to some 

 rectification of the Calendar made in the 4th Dynasty, similar to that made 

 in Europe irom the old to the new style," quoied by Riel, ''Sonnen-und 

 Sirius-Jahr," p. 361. 



NO. 1 2 to, VOL. 47] 



Julian correction of the calendar. In consequence of this 

 correction we now add a day every four years to the end 

 of February. The decree regulated the addition, by the 

 Egyptians, of a day every four years by adding a day to 

 the epacts, which were thus 6 every four years instead of 

 being always 5 as they had been before. 



In fact it replaced the vague year by the sacred year 

 long known to the priests. 



But if everything had gone on then as the priests of 

 Tanis imagined, the Egyptian new year's day, // deter- 

 mined by the heliacal rising of Sirius, would not always 

 afterwards have been the ist of Payni, although the 

 solstice and Nile flood would have been due at Memphis 

 about the ist of Pachons ; and this is, perhaps, one 

 among the reasons why the decree was to a large extent 

 ignored. 



Hence, for some years after the date of the decree of 

 Tanis there were at least three years in force : the new 

 fixed year, the new vague year, reckoning from Pachons, 

 and the old vague year, reckoning from Thoth. 



But after some years another attempt was made to get 

 rid of all this confusion. The time was 23 B.C., 216 years 

 after the decree of Tanis, and the place was Alexandria. 

 Hence the new fixed year introduced is termed the 

 Alexandrine year. 



This new attempt obviously implied that the first one 

 had failed ; and the fact that the vague year was continued 

 in the interval is sufificiently demonstrated by the fact that 

 the new year was -J^ = 54 days en retard. In the year of 

 Tanis it is stated that the ist Pachons, the new New Year's 

 Day, the real beginning of the flood, fell on the 19th of June 

 (Gregorian), the summer solstice, and hence the ist of 

 Thoth fell on the 22nd of October (Gregorian). In the 

 Alexandrine year the 22nd of October is represented 

 by the 29th of August, and the 19th of June by the 20th 

 of April. 



It is noteworthy that in the Alexandrine year the 

 heliacal rising of Sirius on the 23rd of July (Julian) 

 falls on the 29th of Epiphi, nearly the same date as that 

 to which I first drew attention in the inscriptions of the 

 date of Thotmes and Pepi. This, however, it is now 

 clearly seen, is a pure accident, due to the break of con- 

 tinuity before the Tanis year, and the slip between that 

 and the Alexandrine one. It is important to mention this, 

 because it has been thought that somehow the "Alexan- 

 drine year" was in use in Pepi's time ! 



It would seem that the Alexandrine revision was final, 

 and that the year was truly fixed, and from that time 

 to this it has remained so, and must in the future forever 

 remain so. It must never be forgotten that we owe this 

 perfection to the Egyptians. 



One of the chief uses of the Egyptian calendar that 

 has come down to us was the arrangement and dating of 

 the chief feasts throughout the year in the different 

 temples. 



The fact that the two great complete feast calendars of 

 Edfu and Esne refer to the only fixed years evidenced by 

 records, those of Tanis and Alexandria, one of which was 

 established over 200 years after the other, is of inesti- 

 mable value for the investigation of the calendar and 

 chronology of ancient Egypt. 



In an excellent work of Brugsch, " Three Festival 

 Calendars from the Temple of Apollinopolis Magna (Edfu) 

 in Upper Egypt," we have two calendars which we 

 can refer to fixed years, and can date with the greatest 

 accuracy. In the case of one of these, that of Esne, this 

 is universally recognized ; as to the other, that of Apol- 

 linopolis Magna, we are indebted to the researches of 

 Krall, who points out, however, that "it is only when the 

 province of Egyptian mythology has been dealt with in 

 all directions, that we can undertake a successful ex- 

 planation of the festival catalogues. Even externally they 

 show the greatest eccentricities, which are not diminished 

 but increased on a closer investigation." 



