374 



NATURE 



[February i8, 1892 



Here, howe-v-er, it is necessary to proceed with caution, 

 for the last word may not yet have been said when we 

 accept y Draconis. 



I have elsewhere pointed out that it is not impossible 

 that a temple once oriented to a certain star, and long out 

 of use on account of the precessional movement, may be 

 utilized for anoiher, and be rehabilitated in consequence, 

 when that same movement brings another conspicuous 

 star into the proper rising amplitude. 



In the present case, the orientation fits y Draconis in 

 the historic period, but it also fits a Lyrse in the times of 

 the Hor-schesu, the dimly seen followers of Horus, or 

 sun-worshippers, before the dawn of the historic period. 

 If we assume that the record is absolutely true (and I 

 for one believe in these old records more and more), and 

 that Cheops only described a shrine founded by the 

 Hor-schesu, then we are carried back to circ. 7000 B.C. 

 1 am indebted to my friend Dr. Wallis Budge, for the 

 suggestion that the position of Denderah on the highway 

 from the Red Sea— which may soon be reached by a 

 railway from Keneh to Kosseir ! — would make it one of 

 the most important places in Ancient Egypt. 



In any case the consideration has to be borne in mind 

 that the series of temples with high northern and southern 

 amplitudes at Denderah, Abydos, Thebes, Philoe, Edfu, 

 were nearly certainly founded before the time at which 

 the heliacal rising of Sirius, near the time of the summer 

 solstice, was the chief event of the year, watched by 

 priests, astronomers — if the astronomers were not the 

 only priests — and agriculturalists alike. Now we know 

 from Biot's calculations that this first took place circ. 

 3285 B.C., and that Sirius— though, as I am informed by 

 Prof. Maspdro, not iis heliacal rising — is referred to on 

 inscriptions in pyramid times. The Sirius temples at 

 Thebes, Philoe, and Denderah, are in all probability of 

 much later foundation than those to which I have re- 

 ferred, and that at Denderah seems from its orientation 

 to be the latest of all.^ 



I will, however, leave for a future occasion the question 

 of the. original Hor-schesu shrine, and consider at present 

 an important relation between the chief temple at Den- 

 derah and one of the chief temples at Karnak. I am not 

 aware that the relation has been pointed out before. 



The amplitude of the temple at Denderah, dedicated to 

 Hathor, is 73° N. of E. The amplitude of the temple 

 dedicated to Mut or Maut at Karnak is 71'' N. of E., 

 which, assuming the same star to have been used, 

 corresponds to a date (according to the height of the 

 horizon) of circ. 3000 to 3500 B.C. This is therefore later 

 than the Hathor temple of Denderah. 



Now, we have it from Plutarch {Isis and Osiris, Parthey, 

 cap. 56) that Isis = Maut = Hathor = Methuer, and this is 

 sufficiently clear from the symbols of these goddesses, 

 without his authority. 



It is fundamental for the orientation theory that the 

 cult shall follow the star. But we have here the same 

 cult. Hathor and Maut are merely local names associated 

 with local totems. Isis is a generic name simply, 

 meaning an accompaniment of sun-rise, whether that 

 light be the dawn, or a heliacally rising star, or even the 

 moon. The generic symbol for Isis is the sun's disk and 

 horns, which I think may not impossibly be a poetic deve- 



Dendirah, est vral d'Esn^h, d'Ombos, d'Assouan, de Philse, &c. Or, si les 

 premiers constructeurs d'un tsmple — ou chez nous d'une 6glise — peuvent 

 choisir presque a leur gr6 I'emplacement et par suite I'orientation, la plus 

 convenable, il en est bien rarement de meme des reconstructeuys. ^ Les 

 maisoiis accumul^es autour du temple les g^naient, d'ailieurs les habitudes 

 du culte et de la population itaient prises : on rebatissait le temple — 

 cjmme d'ordinaire chez nous on rebatit r<5glise — sur la meme orientation et 

 sur les raemes fondations. J'ai constat^ le fait a Kom-Ombo, oil les dAris 

 du temple d6cor6 par Amenh )tpou I. et Thoutmosis III. sont orient^s 

 exactement com ne ceux du temple ptol^maiqui actuel, bati sur les ruines 

 du pr^c^dent. Vous avez done le droit de dire, non seulement pour 

 Denderah, mais pour beaucoup d'autres temples, qu'ils ont 6t6 reconstruits 

 sur I'orientation du temple qu'ils remplagaient, quand meme cette orientation 

 ne r^pondait plus k la rdalit^ des choses. " 



' I have not yet reduced my own observations of this temple, but Nissen 

 refers to previous measures, Rheinisches Museum fur Philologie, 1885, p. 44. 



NO. I 1 64, VOL. 45] 



lopment of the sign for sunrise. The local totem of the 

 special warning star in use at any time or place may be 

 anytlnng : hippopotamus, crocodile, hawk, vulture, lion, or 

 even some other common living thing into which the 

 totem degraded when the supply of the original fell 

 short.^ Hence, as the number of warning stars was 

 certainly very restricted, they, or rather the goddesses 

 which typified them, had different names in almost every 

 nome. Hence Egyptian mythology should be, as it is in 

 fact, full of synonyms ; each local name being liable to 

 be brought into prominence at some time or another 

 owing to adventitious circumstances, relating either to 

 dynasties or the popularity of some particular shrine. 



Let us concede, then, that we had the same cult. Now 

 about the star. For Denderah we have already found 

 y Draconis. What about Thebes ? As I have elsewhere 

 pointed out, the temple at Karnak, the date of the build- 

 ing of which is the most certain, undoubtedly pointed to 

 y Draconis.^ Its amplitude is d-f N. of E. This was in 

 1200 B.C. Nor is this all ; as I have also shown, it forms 

 the second of a series with the following amplitudes :— 

 61°^ 



esJN.ofE. 



71°; 



Now the last in this series, directed on this view to 

 y Draconis at Karnak, is precisely the temple of Maut ! 



So that here we have a very concrete case of the cult 

 following the star, not only in the same place, but at 

 different places, and we are driven to the conclusion that 

 Hathor at Denderah and Maut at Thebes, exoterically 

 different goddesses, were esoterically the same star y 

 Draconis. 



Although it carries us still further into the region of 

 mythology, there is more evidence to be gathered from a 

 consideration of the old constellations. 1 do not think it 

 saying too much to remark that among these the atten- 

 tion of the early Egyptians was almost exclusively con- 

 fined to the circumpoiar ones. Further, the mean lati- 

 tude being, say, 25"", the circumpoiar region was a re- 

 stricted one, 50° in diameter, instead of over 100°, as 

 with us. But not quite exclusively, for to them then, as 

 to us now, the Great Bear and Orion were the two most 

 prominent constellations in the heavens ; for them, as for 

 us they typified the northern and southern regions of the 

 sky 



There can be no question that the chief ancient con- 

 stellation in the north was the Great Bear, or, as it was 

 then pictured, the Thigh (Mes;teO- After this came the 

 Hippopotamus. I had come to the conclusion that this 

 has been replaced on our maps by part of Draco before 

 I found that Brugsch and Parthey were of the same 

 opinion. 



The female hippopotamus typified Taurt, the wife of 

 Set (represented by a jackal with erected tail, or hippo- 

 potamus), and one of the most ordinary forms of Hathor 

 presents us with the horns and disk surmounting a hippo- 

 potamus. There is evidence that the star we are con- 

 sidering, y Draconis, occupied the place of the head or 

 the mythical headgear. 



So far, then, mythology is with me ; but there is a diffi- 

 culty. According to the theory the cult must follow the 

 star : this must be held to as far as possible. But 

 suppose the precessional movement causes the initial 

 function of a star to become inoperative, must not the 

 cult — which, as we assume, had chiefly to do with the 

 heralding of sunrise at one time of the year or other — 

 change ? And if the same cult is conducted in connec- 

 tion with another star, will not the old name probably be 

 retained ? 



There is another temple of Hathor at Thebes— the 



' Have we such instances of degradation in the cat replacing the lion and 

 the black pig the hippopotamus, to give two instances ? 



^ I refer to the Temple M of Lepsius, built by Ramses III. 



