THE CIRCUMPOLAR CONSTELLATIONS: THE MYTH OF HORUS.
There was to all early peoples all the difference in the world, of
course, between day and night, while we, with our firm knowledge,
closely associate them. There was no artificial illumination such as we
have, and the dark night did not so much typify rest as death; so that
the coming of the glorious morning of tropical or sub-tropical climates
seemed to be a re-awakening to all the joys and delights and activities
of life; thus the difference between night and day was to the ancient
Egyptians almost the difference between death and life. We can imagine
that darkness thus considered by a mythologically-thinking people was
regarded as the work of an enemy, and hence, in time, their natural
enemies were represented as being the friends of darkness.
[Illustration: THE GOD OF DARKNESS--SET.]
Here a very interesting astronomical point comes in. With these views,
there must have been a very considerable difference in the way the
Egyptians regarded those stars which were always visible and those
which rose and set.
The region occupied by the stars always visible depends, of course,
upon the latitude of the place. Taking Thebes, with its latitude of
26°, as representing Egypt, the area of stars always visible was about
one-fourth of that visible to us, so that there would be a very sharp
distinction between the stars constantly seen at night, and those
which rose and set, the rising stars being regarded as heralds of
the sunrise. It seems very probable that the circumpolar stars were
quite early regarded as representing the powers of darkness, because
they were there, visible in the dark, always disappearing and never
appearing at sunrise. If that were so, no doubt prayers would be
as necessary to propitiate them as those powers or gods which were
more beneficent; and, as a matter of fact, one finds that the god
Set--identified sometimes with Typhon, Anubis, and Tebha--was amongst
the greatest gods of ancient Egypt.
[Illustration: VARIOUS FORMS OF ANUBIS.]
The female form of Typhon--his wife--was called Taurt or Thoueris,
represented generally as a hippopotamus.
[Illustration: FORMS OF TYPHON.]
It is probable that the crocodile was a variant of the hippopotamus in
some nomes, both having reference to our modern constellation Draco.
If we return for a moment to the zodiac of Denderah, we find that the
constellations which I indicated--the Thigh, the Hippopotamus and the
Jackal--represent our present constellations of the Great Bear, Draco,
and the Little Bear, which were all of them circumpolar; that is, they
neither rose nor set at the time of the inscription of the zodiac of
Denderah. It therefore will not surprise us, with the above suggested
explanation in mind, to hear that the Hippopotamus was called the Wife
of Set, the Thigh the Thigh of Set, and the Jackal the Jackal of Set.
In the Book of the Dead, Chapter XVII., we read the following
reference to some of the northern stars and constellations:
"The gods Mestha, Hāpi, Tuamāutef, and Qebhsennuf are those, namely,
which find themselves behind the constellation of the Thigh in the
northern heavens."
[Illustration: MESTHA. HĀPI. TUAMĀUTEF. QEBHSENNUF.]
Again, inscribed in the kings' graves at Thebes we read:
"The four Northern Genii are the four gods of the follower [some
constellation]. They keep back the conflict of the terrible one
[Typhon]. He is a great quarreller. They trim the foresail and look
after the mizen in the bark of Rā, in company with the sailors, who
are the four constellations[41] [aχemu-sek], which are found in the
northern heavens. The constellation of the Thigh appears at the late
rising. When this constellation is in the middle of the heavens,
having come to the south, where Orion lies [Orion typifying the
southern part of the skies], the other stars are wending their way
to the western horizon. Regarding the Thigh; it is the Thigh of Set,
so long as it is seen in the northern heavens there is a band [of
stars?] to the two [sword handles?] in the shape of a great bronze
chain. It is the place of Isis in the shape of a Hippopotamus to
guard."
In the square zodiac at Denderah we find an illustration of the
Hippopotamus and the Thigh, and the chain referred to in the
inscription is there also. It will be quite worth while to see whether
this chain is not justified by some line of stars between the chief
stars in Draco and those in the Great Bear.
Let us now turn to the associated mythology. We see that the
astronomical ideas have a most definite character; we learn also from
the inscriptions dating from the Eighteenth Dynasty, that the Egyptians
at that time recognised three different risings. There was the rising
at sunset, the rising at midnight, and the rising at dawn. Plutarch
says that the Hippopotamus was certainly one of the forms of Typhon,
and a reference to the myth of Horus, so beautifully told twenty years
ago and illustrated by Naville by the help of inscriptions at Edfû,
will show how important this identification is.
Naville rightly pointed out how vital the study of mythology becomes
with regard to the advancement of any kind of knowledge of the thoughts
and actions of the ancient Egyptians. Mythology, as Bunsen said, is
one of the poles of the existence of every nation; hence it will be
well not to neglect the opportunity thus afforded of studying the
astronomical basis of one of the best-known myths.
First a word about the mythology of Horus. Generally we begin with the
statement usually made that Horus meant the young (or rising) sun. But
inquiry shows that Horus was something more than this; the Egyptians
were great generalisers.
If we put the facts already known into diagrammatic form, we find that
the condition of things is something like the following:--
HORUS = SUN, PLANET, OR CONSTELLATION RISING.
SUN. PLANETS. CONSTELLATIONS.
┌──────────────┴─────────────────┐
Horus Mars as Orion Northern constellations
Hor-χuti Sah-Horus Set-Horus.
(Laughing Horus)
(Red Horus)
The table shows that, although the Egyptians undoubtedly called the
rising sun Horus, the planets and constellations when rising were in
certain cases called Horus too. We do not get any individual star
rising referred to as Horus; they were always considered as goddesses.
Hence, Horus seems to include constellations--that is, groups of stars
rising--but not single stars.
Since the northern constellations were symbolised by the name of Set,
the god of darkness, we should take Set-Horus to mean that the stars
in the Dragon were rising at sunrise. This may explain the meaning of
a remarkable figure which has set Egyptologists thinking a great deal.
It is the combination of Horus and Set--a body of Horus with two heads,
those of the hawk and jackal.
[Illustration: SET-HORUS.]
Now then for the myth. The reason why Naville went to the temple of
Edfû for his facts is that in the later-time temples--and this is one
of them--the inscriptions on the walls have chiefly to do with myth
and ritual, whereas in the period covered by the earlier dynasties
the temple inscriptions related chiefly to the doings of the kings.
When we come to read the story which Naville brings before us, it
looks as though the greatest antiquity must be conceded to it from
the fact that the god Horus--the rising sun--is accompanied by the
Hor-shesu, the followers or worshippers of Horus. These people are
almost prehistoric, even in Egyptian history. De Rougé says of them, as
I have previously pointed out, _C'est le type de l'antiquité la plus
reculée_. They represent, possibly, the old sun-worshippers at a time
when as yet there was no temple of the sun. Now, in this famous myth
of Horus, Horus, accompanied and aided by the Hor-shesu, does battle
with Typhon, the god of darkness, who had killed his father Osiris,
and Horus avenges his father in the manner indicated in the various
inscriptions and illustrative drawings given in the temple of Edfû.
How does he do it? We find that in this conflict to revenge his father
Osiris, he is represented in a boat killing a hippopotamus with ten
darts, the beast being ultimately cut up into eight pieces. In some
drawings it is a hippopotamus that he is slaying; in others, possibly
for some totemic reason, a crocodile has been selected, but we can only
see that it has been a crocodile by the fact that a little piece of the
tail remains. Doubtless the reference had been found objectionable by
some crocodile-worshipping people.
In very many inscriptions the constellation which, as I have stated,
represents the hippopotamus, is really represented as a crocodile,
or as a crocodile resting on the shoulders of a hippopotamus, so
that there is no doubt that the crocodile and the hippopotamus were
variants; and we can quite understand, further, that the hippopotamus
must have been brought into Egypt by a tribe with that totem, who must
have come from a very long way up the Nile, since the hippopotamus was
never indigenous in the lower reaches of the river; so that we have in
the myth to do with a hippopotamus-worshipping tribe, which, for that
reason, probably came from a region very far to the south. There is
evidence of local tribes in Egypt among which the crocodile was sacred.
[Illustration:
ILLUSTRATION FROM A THEBAN TOMB, SHOWING THE ASSOCIATION OF THE
CROCODILE AND HIPPOPOTAMUS, AND HORUS SLAYING THE CROCODILE, AND THE
CONSTELLATION OF THE THIGH.]
The astronomical explanation of this myth is, I think, very clear. The
inscriptions relating to one of the very earliest of the illustrations
refers to Horus, "the great god, the light of the heavens, the lord
of Edfû, _the bright ray which appears on the horizon_." The myth,
therefore, I take it, simply means that _the rising sun destroys the
circumpolar stars_. These stars are represented in the earliest forms
of the myth either by the crocodile or the hippopotamus; of course
they disappeared (or were killed) at sunrise. Horus, the bright ray
on the horizon, is victorious by destroying the crocodile and the
hippopotamus, which represent the powers of darkness.
[Illustration: HORUS AND CROCODILES.]
This is a general statement. I should not make it if I could not go
a little further. There is an astronomical test of its validity, to
which I must call attention. The effect of precession is extremely
striking on the constellations near the pole, for the reason that the
pole is constantly changing, and the changes in the apparent position
of the stars there soon become very obvious. The stars in Draco were
circumpolar, and could, therefore, have been destroyed (or rendered
invisible), as the hippopotami were destroyed in the myth by the rising
sun, about 5000 years B.C.; and be it noted that at that time there was
only one star in the Great Bear (or the Thigh) which was circumpolar.
But at 2000 years B.C. the stars in Ursa Major were the circumpolar
ones, and the chief stars in the constellation Draco, which formed
the ancient constellation of the Hippopotamus, rose and set; so that,
if there is anything at all in the explanation of the myth which I
have given, and if there is anything at all in the idea that the myth
is very ancient and refers to the time when the constellation of the
Hippopotamus was really circumpolar--a time 7000 years ago--we ought to
find that as the myth existed in more recent times, we should no longer
be dealing with Draco or the Hippopotamus, because Draco was no longer
circumpolar.
As a matter of fact, in later times we get Horus destroying no longer
the Hippopotamus or the Crocodile, but _the Thigh of Set_; and, as I
have said, 2000 years B.C. the Thigh occupied exactly the same position
in the heavens with regard to the pole as the Hippopotamus or the
Crocodile did 3000 years before.
[Illustration: HORUS AND CROCODILES.]
Thus, I think, we may claim that this myth is astronomical from top
to bottom; it is as old as, and probably rather older than, Naville
thought, because it must certainly have originated in a period
somewhere about 5000 years B. C., otherwise the constellation of the
Hippopotamus would not have figured in it.
The various illustrations of Horus on the crocodiles are a reference to
the myth we have just discussed.
It is easy to understand that if the myth were astronomical in origin
there was no reason why it should be limited to Horus representing the
rising sun; we accordingly find it extended to the god Ptah.
[Illustration: PTAH AND CROCODILES.]
But although I hold that the _astronomical_ meaning of the myth is that
the rising sun kills the circumpolar stars, I do not think that is the
last word. A conflict is suggested between a people who worship the
rising sun and another who worship the circumpolar stars. I shall show
in the sequel that there is an astronomical suggestion of the existence
of two such distinct races, and that the companions of the sun-god of
Edfû must probably be distinguished from the northern Hor-shesu.
* * * * *
Here we may conclude our reference to the stars which, in the latitude
of Egypt, do not rise and set--or, rather, did not rise and set at the
epochs of time we have been considering.