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Astronomical worship
The Egyptian gods and goddesses were numerous and were pictured in many
reliefs. Certain gods were seen in the constellations, and others were
represented by actual astronomical bodies. The constellation Orion, for
instance, represented Osiris, who was the god of death, rebirth, and the
afterlife. The Milky Way represented the sky goddess Nut giving birth to
the sun god Re. The stars in Egyptian mythology were represented by the
goddess of writing, Seshat, whilst the Moon was either Thoth, the god of
wisdom and writing, or Khons.
The horizon had great significance to the
Egyptians, since it was here that the sun would both appear and disappear
daily. The sun itself was represented by several gods, depending on its
position within the sky. A rising morning sun was associated with Horus,
the divine child of Osiris and Isis. The noon sun was Re because of its
incredible strength. The evening sun became Atum, the creator god who
lifted pharaohs from their tombs to the stars. The redness of the setting
sun was considered to be the blood from the sun god as he "died" and
became associated with Osiris, god of death and rebirth. In this way,
night became to be associated with death, and the daytime with life or
rebirth. This reflects the typical Egyptian idea of immortality.
Astronomy for use in daily life
The centre of Egyptian civilisation was the Nile. Flooding every year at
the same time, it provided rich soil for agriculture. The Egyptian
astronomers, who were actually priests, recognised that the flooding
always occurred at the summer solstice, which also just happened to be
when the bright star Sirius rose before the sun. By interpreting and using
this information, the priests were subsequently able to predict the annual
flooding, a skill which in turn rendered them considerable power. The year
was divided into twelve 30 day months, followed by a five day feast
period. Because the Egyptian calendar did not have leap years, it cycled
through the seasons completely every 1460 years. The period
that elapsed between these risings is known as the "sothic cycle".
Over ancient Egypt's history, the months completely rotated through the
seasons at least twice due to this quarter day discrepancy.
Although the Egyptians knew of this
quarter-day error, they still maintained their 365 day calendar for
ceremonial reasons.
Many Egyptian buildings were built with an
astronomical orientation. The temples and pyramids were constructed in
relation to the stars, and in different towns throughout the country,
buildings would have a different orientation based on the specific
religion of the place. Temples were often built so that sunlight entered a
room at only one precise time of the year.
Astronomy for use in dating
One
of the hardest tasks of the modern Egyptologist is to attempt to tie
together, in some sort of chronological order, the pieces of evidence from
burials, tombs, temples, archaeological excavations and a range of other
sources. The surviving records of observations of the "heliacal
rising" of the dog star Sirius serve as the lynchpin of the Egyptian
calendar and its essential link with Ancient Egyptian chronology as a
whole.
The
"Sothic rising" of Sirius coincided with the beginning of the
solar year only once every 1456 - 1460 years (because of precession
of the equinoxes and proper motion of Sirius it was usually a few days
earlier than the 1460 years that the ancients had predicted). This rare event took place in
AD 139 during the reign of the Roman emperor Antonius Pius, and was
commemorated by the issue of a special coin at Alexandria. Earlier
heliacal risings would have taken place in around 1321-1317 BC and
2781-2777 BC.
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| Relief showing the use
of the "merkhet" to determine a true north-south line |
Astrological terms and beliefs in
ancient Egypt
| Heliacal Rising |
The term used to refer to the annual ten day
period when Sirius the "dog star" would rise above the horizon at dawn. |
| Sopdet (Sirius) |
The goddess Sopdet was the
personification of the "dog star", known to the Greeks as
Seirios (Sirius). Sopdet was the most important star to the Ancient
Egyptians, and was known as a decon. Together with her husband Sah
(Orion), and her son Soped, Sopdet formed part of a divine triad which
paralleled that of Osiris, Isis and Horus. |
| Sah (Orion) |
The god Sah was the personification of
the constellation later known as Orion. Sah was described as "the
glorious soul of Osiris" and formed a divine triad with the dog star
Sopdet and their son Soped, god of the "eastern border". |
| Soped |
The son of Sopdet and Sah, Soped was a
hawk-god and personification of the eastern frontier of Egypt. |
| Imperishable Ones |
Ancient Egyptian star-gods. Deities
known as the "imperishable ones" personified the ever visible
circumpolar stars in the north of the sky. |
| Decons |
The Ancient Egyptians would divide night
sky into 36 groups of star-gods or constellations. These groups were known as decons, and each
specific decan rose above the horizon at dawn for a period of ten days
every year. The brightest and most important of these was the dog star Sirius, otherwise known as
the goddess Sopdet. The ceilings of many royal tombs depict the night sky
as groups of star-gods or decons, moving across the sky in boats. |
| Star Clocks |
The earliest detailed texts relating to
astronomy are the "diagonal calendars" or star clocks. These
were painted on the wooden coffin lids of the early Middle Kingdom, and
also the Late Period. These calendars consisted of 36 columns which listed
the 36 decons and detailed the rising period of each. This calendar
system was flawed by its failure to take into account that the Egyptian
year was always approximately six hours short. This would add up to a shortcoming
of around ten days every 40 years. |
| Planets |
From as early as the Middle Kingdom, the
Egyptians recognised five of the planets: Jupiter ("Horus who limits
two lands"), Mars ("Horus of the horizon", or "Horus
the red"), Mercury (Sebegu, a god associated with Seth), Saturn
("Horus, bull of the sky") and Venus ("the one who
crosses", or "god of the morning"). The Egyptians portrayed
the planets as deities sailing across the heavens in barques, and they
were known as the "stars that know no rest". |
| Horoscope |
The belief that the stars could
influence human destiny does not appear to have reached Egypt until the
Ptolemaic period. By the 1st century AD the Babylonian zodiac had been
adopted. This zodiac can be seen represented on the ceiling of the chapel
of Osiris on the roof of the temple of Hathor at Dendera. |
| Merkhet |
The "instrument of knowing"
was a sighting tool made from the central rib of a palm leaf and was
similar in function to an astrolobe. The merkhet was used for aligning the
foundations of the pyramids and sun temples with the cardinal points, and
was usually correct to within less than half a degree. It was developed
around 600 BC. and uses a string with a weight on the end to accurately
measure a straight vertical line, much like a plumb bob. A pair of
merkhets were used to establish a north-south line by lining them up with
the pole star. This allowed for the measurement of night-time hours as it
measured when certain stars crossed a marked meridian on the sundial. |
| Pedj Shes |
Literally meaning "the stretching
of the cord", the Pedj Shes was a ceremony performed to work out the
correct alignment for the building of temples and pyramids. It relied on
the sightings of the constellations of Orion and Ursa Major (the great
bear) and used the sighting instrument called a "merkhet"
("instrument of knowing"). |
Discover why "sothic dating" has such importance in ancient Egypt's modern day
chronology >>
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