CHAP. XIII. RETURN OF THE PHCENIX. 307 



about 780 years; that from Amasis to Ptolemy III. 

 about 330. 



Some have thought that, by tlie Phoenix, tlie 

 Egyptians intended to indicate the appearance of 

 Comets ; and I have seen a ])aper written to prove 

 that the average * number of years assigned to the 

 return of the Phoenix corresponded to tlie great 

 Comet of 1680. Without however assenting to the 

 opinion of Seneca t (who thinks, "because Eudoxus, 

 having studied in Egypt, and thence introduced 

 into Greece the knowledge of the motions of the 

 planets, took no notice of comets, that the Egyp- 

 tians, the greatest observers of celestial phgeno- 

 mena, had not attended to this part of the sub- 

 ject,") I must confess that the reappearance of 

 the Phoenix appears rather to indicate, as Pliny, 

 on the authority of Manilius, supposes, the re- 

 turn of a certain period. And the mention of 

 the number 1461 argues strongly in favour of 

 the opinion that the Sothic period was the real 

 Phoenix of Egypt. This, as I have elsewhere 

 shown t, was the number of years that elapsed be- 

 fore the Solar year of 365 days coincided with the 

 Sothic or fixed year of 365^ days. It was also 

 called the Great Year of the Egyptians, at the 

 end of which all the planets returned to the same 

 place they occupied at its commencement. 



* The average of 600 and 5-tO years is taken ljy the writer, being 

 575. 



f Sen. Nat. Qua;st. lib. vii. c. 3. 



j Vide supra, p. 87.; and infra, on Isis. 



X 2 



