OF THE ORIENTATION'S OF A NUMBER OF GREEK TEMPLES. 
821 
temple now extant, however, would probably have been a rebuilding on the same 
lines, and 100 years or thereabouts would not have rendered the same star unfit for 
use as a time warner. 
As respects the amount of solar depression in the above given list, I have used 
even with the brightest stars a minimum of 10° as the proper measure for heliacal 
observation.* I have ranked the Pleiades amongst the brightest stars on account of 
the brilliant effect upon the eye produced by concentration : but in all cases of 
secondary or smaller magnitudes they will be found to be combined with a greater 
degree of solar depression. This does not come from arbitrary assumption in the 
calculation. The computer has no choice in the matter beyond some slight liberty 
that may be taken with the amplitudes. The Sun’s right ascension and the place of 
the star govern the solution. 
Up to this point the connection has been in great measure assumed between the 
orientation of the temple, the sunrise, and the heliacal star. It is proposed in the 
remarks which follow to endeavour to justify this'confidence. 
I may consider it as sufficiently shown by M. Burnouf (‘ Legende Athenienne’), and 
by Herr Nissen in various articles published in the ‘ Pdieinisches Museum,’ and by 
Mr. Lockyee, in ‘ Nature,’ that with the ancients the most approved time for 
adoration was the moment of sunrise. The principle prevailed not only with the 
Egyptians and the Greeks but also with the Homans. ‘ Vitruvius,’ IV., 5, is very 
precise on the point; and it may also be gathered from the following passages :— 
Siirgit, et oethei’ii spectans orieutia solis 
Liimina, rite cavis undam de fliTmine palmis 
Sustnlit, &c. ViRG. ‘ Hill.,’ VTII. 
Antequam stantes repetafc paiudes 
Imbrium divina avis imminentum, 
Oscinem corvum prece suscitabo 
Solis ab oi’tu. Hob. ‘ Od.,’ HI., 27. 
It is obvious that the priests would desire to have warning of the Sun’s approach 
in time to make preparations for special functions on the great festival of the year 
belonging to any particular temple. Before the invention of the water-clock, or other 
artificial way of measuring time, the heavenly bodies at their rising or settmg—the 
only points in their course when their positions could be accurately observed—were 
the only reliable time markers. The heliacal rising or setting of particular stars is 
referred to in many passages of ancient writers—meaning the time when the star 
could just be seen as it rose or set before the light of the rising Sun should be too 
powerful. And different periods of the year are referred to by the mention of these 
* Ptolemy appears to bave adopted 11° of solar depi’ession for Egyptian heliacal observation. But in 
Greece there are almost always mountains obstructing the true horizon—a circumstance greatly in fa^vour 
of the observer as already noticed. (See Biot, ‘ Recherches sur I’Annee Vague des Egyptiens,’ p. 58.) 
