THE EGYPTIAN HEAVENS--THE ZODIACS OF DENDERAH.
We can readily understand that in the very beginning of observations
in all countries, the moment man began to observe anything, he took
note of the stars, and as soon as he began to talk about them he must
have started by defining, in some way or other, the particular stars he
meant.
Observers would first consider the brightest stars, and separate them
from the dimmer ones; they would then discuss the stars which never
set, and separate them from those which did rise and set; then they
would take the most striking configurations, whether large or small.
They would naturally, in a Northern clime, choose out the constellation
the Great Bear, or Orion, and for small groups the Pleiades. These
would attract attention, and be named before anything else. Then, later
on, it would be imperative, in order to connect their solar with their
stellar observations, that they should name the stars which lay along
the sun's path in the heavens, or those the rising of which heralded
the sunrise at their festivals. They would confine their attention
to a belt round the equator rather than consider the configuration
of stars half-way between the equator and the north pole. In all
countries--India, China, Babylonia, Egypt--they had eventually such
a girdle round the heavens, called by different names in different
countries, and the use of this girdle of stars, which sometimes
consisted of twenty-eight stations, sometimes of twenty-seven, and
sometimes of less, was to enable them to define the place of the sun,
moon, or of any of the planets in relation to any of these stars.
Not very many years ago, when the literature of China and India was
as a sealed book, and the hieroglyphics of Egypt and the wedges of
Babylonia were still unread, we had to depend for the earliest traces
of astronomical observation upon the literatures of Greece and Syria,
and according to these sources the asterisms first specialised and
named were as follows:--
The Great Bear Job (xxxviii. 31), Homer.
Orion Job (ix. 9), Homer, Hesiod.
Pleiades, Hyades Job (xxxviii. 31), Homer, Hesiod.
Sirius and the Great Dog Hesiod (viii.), the name; Homer called it
the Star of Autumn.
Aldebaran, the Bull Homer, Hesiod.
Arcturus Job (ix. 9; xxxviii. 32), Homer, Hesiod.
The Little Bear Thales, Eudoxus, Aratus.
The Dragon Eudoxus, Aratus.
In the Book of Job we read, "Canst thou bind the sweet influences of
Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth
in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons?"
Here we have the difficulty which has met everybody in going back into
these old records, because there was no absolute necessity for a common
language at the time; it was open to everyone to call the stars any
name they chose in any country, therefore it is difficult for scholars
to find out what particular stars or constellations were meant by any
particular words. In the Revised Version, Arcturus has given place to
"the Bear with its train," and even our most distinguished scholars do
not know what Mazzaroth means. I wrote to Professor Robertson Smith to
ask him to give me the benefit of his great knowledge, and he tells me
that Mazzaroth is probably that band of stars round the ecliptic or
round the equator to which I have referred, but he will only commit
himself to the statement that it is a probable enough conjecture; other
people believe that it was a reference to the Milky Way.
I mention this to show how very difficult this inquiry really is. The
"seven stars" are held by many to mean the Pleiades, and not the Great
Bear; but this, I think, is very improbable.
Much is to be hoped from the study of the Babylonian records in
relation to the Egyptian ones. This is a point I shall return to in the
sequel.
In observing stars nowadays, we use a transit circle which is carried
round by the earth so as to pick up the stars in different circles
round the axis of the earth prolonged, and by altering the inclination
of the telescope of this instrument we can first get a circle of one
declination and then a circle of another.
The Egyptians did not usually employ meridian observations. Did the
Egyptians make star maps? They certainly did, as we shall see.
The first bit of solid information specially bearing upon ancient
Egyptian constellations was gained at the temple of Denderah, a place
which the traveller up the Nile reaches before he arrives so far as
Thebes. Perhaps among the reasons why so great attention was given to
the so-called zodiacs of Denderah was the fact that one of them, having
been rudely wrenched from its resting-place in the platform of one of
the temples, had been carried to the museum in Paris, so that the thing
itself was _en évidence_ and capable of being examined by experts whose
opinions were of value, and by all the world besides.
The chief temple, when explored by the French expedition, was
deeply buried in the sand. In the front part of it, covering the
ceiling, before one enters the temple itself, there is displayed the
square zodiac, so called, to which I shall have to refer briefly.
The temple was pointed within a few degrees of north; at the
north-east corner of the zodiac is a device, since found to represent
the sunlight falling upon a statue of the Goddess of the Shrine.
Investigations have shown that the zodiac includes a reference to a
great many celestial phenomena of the utmost importance. There is no
difficulty in recognising some of the zodiacal signs, but there the
resemblance to the modern zodiac ends, for the reason that each of the
strange processions of mythological personages represents not only
constellations, with some of which we may be familiar, but a great
deal more. It is noteworthy that the illustration of the very first
astronomical point which we have to consider brings out the fact that
it is impossible to disconnect Egyptian mythology from astronomy.
In the southern half of the zodiac, the lower part is occupied by
stars represented in the guise of different mythological personages,
sailing along in boats; and above them we get half of the zodiac with
the signs of the Fish, the Ram, the Bull and the Twins represented. In
the middle section the sun's course in different parts of the day, and
different parts of the year, is given: whilst, outermost of all, we get
the twelve solar positions, occupied by the sun each hour from rising
to setting, represented by twelve boats. It may be here mentioned that
in ancient Egypt, as in the modern Eastern world, both day and night
always consisted of twelve hours; unequal, of course, the length of the
hours varying according to the time of the year.
[Illustration: NORTHERN HALF OF THE SO-CALLED SQUARE ZODIAC OF
DENDERAH.]
Now, if we take the opposite side, that is the north-west corner, we
find that we have to do chiefly with the opposite part of the sky,
including the signs of the Lion, the Scales, and Sagittarius, and below
them other stars are represented as mythological personages in boats.
The courses of the sun and moon are next given, and some of the lunar
mythology is revealed to us. We see Osiris represented by the moon, and
by an eye at the top of fourteen steps, which symbolise the fourteen
days of the waxing moon.
In the square zodiac, then, there is an immense amount of astronomy.
In the round zodiac, found in another temple (_see_ p. 18), there
are some points which at once claim our attention. There is, first,
a mythological figure of a cow in a boat, and, near it, another
mythological figure, which the subsequent reading of inscriptions
has proved to represent the constellation Orion. In the centre of
the zodiac we have a jackal, and there is very little doubt that it
represents the constellation which we now call the Little Bear, which
then, as now, was near the pole. Not far away, we get the leg of an
animal; this, we now know, was a constellation called the Thigh,
and there seems to be absolutely no question that it represents the
constellation which we now call the Great Bear. Again, close by is
another mythological form, which we know represents the Hippopotamus.
This was made up out of some of the group of stars which forms the
present constellation Draco. There are also two hieroglyphs which
subsequent research has proved to represent setting stars and rising
stars, so that, whatever may have been the date of this round zodiac of
Denderah, it is clear that we are dealing with a time when the stars
had been classed in constellations, one of which, the constellation
Orion, even survives to our own day.
It is little to be wondered at that, when these revelations first burst
upon the scientific world, great excitement was produced. It was
obvious that we had to do with a nation which had very definite ideas
of astronomy, and that the astronomy was very closely connected with
worship. It was also certainly suggested by so many animal forms, that
we had to do with a people whose condition was not unlike that of the
American Indians--to take a well-known instance--at the beginning of
this century, one in which each tribe, or clan, had chosen a special
animal _totem_.
It so happened that, while these things were revealing themselves, the
discussions concerning them, which took place among the scientific
world of France, were partly influenced by the writings of a man
of very brilliant imagination and of great erudition. I refer to
Dupuis, according to whose views an almost fabulous antiquity might be
assigned to ancient traditions in general and astronomical traditions
in particular. It is needless to say, however, that there were others
to take the extreme opposite view--who held the opinion that his
imagination had run away with his learning.
With all this new work before them, and with a genius like
Champollion's among them, it was not long before the French _savans_
compelled the hieroglyphs to give up some of their secrets. First one
word gave two or three letters, then another two or three more, and
finally an alphabet and syllabary were constructed. So it was not long
before some of the inscriptions at Denderah were read. Then it was
found that the temple, as it then stood, had certainly been, partly
at all events, embellished so late as the time of the Roman Emperors.
Naturally there was then a tremendous reaction from the idea of
fabulous antiquity which had been urged by the school of Dupuis. There
were two radically opposed camps, led by Letronne, a distinguished
archæologist, and Biot, one of the most eminent astronomers of his
day, and both of these _savans_ brought papers before the Academy of
Inscriptions. Biot's first paper was read in 1822, and was replied to
by Letronne in 1824; Biot wrote his next paper in 1844, in which he
held to everything that he had stated in his first memoir; and this was
replied to, the next year, by Letronne.
[Illustration: SIRIUS AND ORION (18TH DYNASTY). (_From Brugsch._)]
Biot had no difficulty whatever in arriving at the conclusion that,
precisely as in the case of the sphere of Eudoxus, a prior bone of
contention, however true it might be that, the circular zodiac had
been sculptured in the time of the Roman emperors, still it certainly
referred to a time far anterior; and he suggested that we have in it
sculptures reproducing very old drawings, which had been made long
before on parchment or on stone. He pointed out that in the condition
of astronomy one would expect to be extant in ancient times, it was
far easier to reproduce old drawings than to calculate back what the
positions of the stars had been at some prior date, so that in his
magnificent summing-up of the case in his last paper, he rested his
scientific reputation on the statement that the sculptures of Denderah
represent the celestial sphere on a plane round the north pole of
the equator at a year not far removed from 700 B.C. More than this, he
stated that the time of the year was the time of the summer solstice,
and the hour was midnight. He also showed that, calculating back what
the position of the stars would have been at midnight on the 20th of
June (Gregorian), 700 B.C., the constellations, and even many of the
separate stars shown in the medallion, would occupy exactly the places
they did occupy in the projection employed.
[Illustration: ASTRONOMICAL DRAWINGS FROM BIBÂN EL-MULÛK (18TH
DYNASTY). (_From "Description de l'Égypte."_)]
Let us then, for the moment, assume this to be true. What does it tell
us? That 700 years B.C. in Egypt the solstice was recognised; a means
of determining the instant of midnight with more or less precision was
known; observations of the stars were regularly made; the risings of
some of them were associated with the rising of the sun, and many of
them had been collected into groups or constellations.
This is a wonderful result. I suppose that Biot is universally held
to have proved his case; in fact, Brugsch, who is now regarded as one
of the highest authorities in Egyptian history, has shown that almost
every detail seen in the zodiac of Denderah reproduces inscriptions
or astronomical figures, unearthed since the date of Biot's memoir,
which, without doubt, must be referred to the time of the Eighteenth
Dynasty--that is, 1700 B.C. or thereabouts; so that practically the
Egyptologist has now chapter and verse for many things in the zodiac of
Denderah dating 1,000 years before the period assigned to it by Biot.
The next point to notice is connected with the astronomical drawings
which have been found in the Ramesseum at Thebes--drawings which also
have very obvious connections with the zodiac of Denderah. On these we
find the hieroglyphics for the different months--the constellations
Orion, Hippopotamus, and Jackal, as we saw them at Denderah, and
another form of the constellation of the Thigh. There is certainly the
closest connection between the two sets of delineations.
[Illustration: RUINS OF THE RAMESSEUM, WHERE THE MONTH-TABLES WERE
FOUND.]
Biot set himself to investigate what was the probable date to which
the inscriptions in the Ramesseum referred. When we have the months
arranged in a certain relationship to certain constellations we have
an opening for the discussion of the precessional movements; in other
words, for the consideration of the various changes brought about by
the swinging of the pole of the equator round the pole of the ecliptic.
Here, again, there was no uncertain sound given out by the research.
Biot pointed out that we are here in presence of records, no longer of
a summer solstice, as in the case of Denderah, but of a spring equinox,
the date being 3285 B.C. He further suggested that, in all probability,
one of the mythological figures might be a representation of the
intersection of the ecliptic and the equator in the constellation
Taurus at the date mentioned. This undoubtedly, to a large extent,
justifies what Dupuis had long before pointed out--that the perpetual
reference to the Bull found in ancient records and mythologies arose
from the fact that this constellation occupied an important position at
a critical time in the year, which would indicate a very considerable
lapse of time. This idea was justified by the researches of Biot,
because we are driven back by them to a date preceding 3000 years B.C.
We find in the table at the Ramesseum distinct references to the Bull,
the Lion and the Scorpion, and it is also clearly indicated that at
that time the star Sirius rose heliacally at the beginning of the
Nile-rise.
The month-table at Thebes tells us that the sun's journey in relation
to some of the zodiacal constellations was perfectly familiar 5000
years ago.