2 30 



NATURE 



[January 5, 1893 



About some points, however, there is no question. The 

 summer solstice is attached in the Edfu calendar to the 

 6th Pachons, according to Krall, while the beginning of 

 the flood is noted on the ist of that month. In the Esne 

 calendar, the 26th Payni is New Year's Day. We read : — 

 " 26th Payni, New Year's Day, Feast of the Revelation 

 of Kahi in the Temple. To dress the crocodiles, as in 

 the month of Mechir, day 8." 



Peculiar to the Esne calendar, according to Krall, is 

 the mentioning of the " New Year's Festival of the An- 

 cestors " on the 9th of Thoth ; to the Edfu calendar, 

 publication No. i of Brugsch, the festival "of the offer- 

 ing of the first of the harvested fruits, after the precept of 

 King Amenemha 1.," on the ist Epiphi, and " the cele- 

 bration of the feast of the great conflagration " on the 9th 

 of Mechir. In feast calendar No. i, the reference to 

 the peculiar Feast of Set, is also remarkable, this was 

 celebrated twice, first in the first days of Thoth (?9th.?), 

 then, as it appears, in Pachons (loth). This feast is 

 well known to have been first mentioned under the old 

 Pharaoh Pepi Merinra. 



It is a question whether in the new year of the ancestors 

 and the feasts of Set, all occurring about the 9th Thoth 

 and Pachons, we have not Memphis Festivals which gave 

 way to Theban ones, for so far as I can make out the 

 flood takes about nine days to pass from Thebes to 

 Memphis, so that in Theban time the arrival of the flood 

 at Memphis would occur on gth or loth Thoth. There is 

 no difficulty about the second dating in Pachons, for.as we 

 have seen this followed on the reconstruction of the 

 calendar. 



It is also worthy of note that the feast of the " Great 

 Conflagration " took place very near the Spring Equinox. 

 It is well to dwell for a moment on the Edfu inscrip- 

 tions to see if we can learn from them whether they bear 

 out or not the views brought forward with regard to this 

 reconstruction. 



As we have seen it is now acknowledged that 

 the temple inscriptions at Edfu (which are stated 

 to have been cut between 117 and 81 B.C.) are 

 based upon the fixed year of Tanis ; hence we should 

 expect that the rising of Sirius would be referred to 

 on I Payni, and this is so. But here, as in the other 

 temples, we get double dates referring to the old calen- 

 dars, and we find the " wounding of Set " referred to on 

 the 1st Epiphi and the rising of Sirius referred to under 

 I Mesori. Now this means, if the old vague year is re- 

 ferred to, as it most probably is, that 

 S Epacts 

 30 Mesori 



35x4= 140 years 

 had elapsed since the beginning of a Sothic cycle, when 

 the calendar coincidences were determined, which were 

 afterwards inscribed on the temple walls. We have, 

 then, 140 years to subtract from the beginning of the 

 cycle in 270 B.C. This gives us 130 B.C., and it will be 

 seen that this agrees as closely as can be expected with 

 my view, whereas the inscription has no meaning at all 

 if we take the date given by Censorinus. 



I quote from Krall - another inscription common to 

 Edfu and Esne, which seems to have astronomical 

 significance. 



" I. Phamenot. Festival of the suspension of the sky 

 by Ptah, by the side of the god Harschaf, the master of 

 Heracleopolis Magna (Ai). Festival of Ptah. Feast of 

 the suspension of the sky (Es). 



" Under the ist Phamenot, Plutarch, de Iside ac 

 Osiride c. 43, b, notices the enJSaa-is 'OcripiSos fts rfjv 

 (TiKr'ivqv. These are festivals connected with the cele- 

 bration of the winter solstice, and the filling of the Uza- 



1 Oil the 7th Epiphi of the loth year of Ptolemy III. the ceremony of 

 the stretching of thec^rd took place, Uiunichen, ACig. Z. 2, 1872, p. 41. 



2 O^. cit., p. 37. 



NO. 1216, VOL. 47] 



eye on the 30th Mechir. Perhaps the old year, which the 

 Egyptians introduced into the Nile valley at the time of 

 their immigration, and which had only 360 days, com- 

 menced with the winter solstice. Thus we should have 

 in the ' festival of the suspension of the sky,' by the 

 ancient god Ptah — venerated as creator of the world — a 

 remnant of the time when the winter solstice .... 

 marked the beginning of the year, and also the creation." 



The reconstruction of the calendar naturally enhanced 

 the importance of the month Pachons; this comes out 

 very clearly from the inscriptions translated by Brugsch. 

 On this point Krall remarks :— 



" It is therefore quite right that the month Pachons, 

 which took the place of the old Thoth by the decree of Tanis ^ 

 should play a prominent part in the feast calendars of the 

 days of the Ptolemies, and the first period of the Empire 

 in general, but especially in the Edfu calendar, which 

 refers to the Tanitic year. The first five days of Pachons 

 are dedicated in our calendar to the celebration of the- 

 subjection of the enemies by Horus ; we at once re- 

 member the above mentioned (p. 7) record of Edfu of 

 the nature of a mythological calendar, describing the 

 advent of the Nile flood. On the 6th of Pachons — re- 

 member the great importance of the sixes in the Ptole- 

 maean records — the solstice is then celebrated. The 

 Uza-eye is then filled, a mythical act which we have in 

 another place referred to the celebration of the solstice,, 

 and "everything is performed which is ordained" in the 

 book "on the Divine Birth." 



Next let us turn to Esne. The inscriptions here are 

 stated to be based on the Alexandrian year, but we not 

 only find ist Thoth given as New Year's Day, but 

 26 Payni given as the beginning of the Nile flood. 



Now I have already stated that the Alexandrine year 

 was practically a fixing of the vague Tanis year ; that is, 

 a year beginning on 1st Pachons in 239 B.C. 



If we assume the date of the calendar coincidences 

 recorded at Esne to have been 15 B.C. (we know it 

 was after 23 B.C. and at the end of the Roman do- 

 minion), we have as before, seeing that, if the vague Tanis 

 year had really continued, it would have swept forward, 

 with regard to the Nile flood, 

 Pachons 30 

 Payni 26 



56 X 4 = 224 years after 239 B.C. 

 This double dating, then, proves the continuation of the 

 vague year of Tanis if the date 15 B.C. of the inscription 

 is about right. 



Can we go further and find a trace of the old cycle 

 beginning 270 B.C. .? In this case we should have the 

 rising of Sirius 



270 

 - 15 



4)255 years 



64 = say 5 Epacts and 2 months. 

 This would give us i Epiphi. Is this mentioned in the 

 Esne calendar .' Yes, it is, " i Epiphi. To perform the 

 precepts of the book on the second divine birth of the 

 child Kahi." 



Now the 26th Payni, the new New's Year Day, is asso- 

 ciated with the " revelation of Kahi," so it is not impos- 

 sible that " the second divine birth " may have some 

 dim reference to the feast. 



It is not necessary to pursue this intricate subject 

 further in this place ; so intricate is it that, although the 

 suggestions I have ventured to make on astronomical 

 grounds seem consistent with the available facts, they 

 are suggestions only, and a long labour on the part of 

 Egyptologists will be needed before we can be said to 

 be on firm ground. 



J. Norman Lockyer. 



