The dawn of astronomy / A study of the temple-worship and mythology of the ancient Egyptians

by Sir Norman Lockyer

The Equinoctial School—The Worship of the Spring-Sun.

The East and West orientation, as we have seen, is chiefly remarkable at the pyramids of Gîzeh and the associated temples, but it is not confined to them.

The argument in favour of these structures being the work of intruders is that a perfectly new astronomical idea comes in, one not represented at Annu and quite out of place in Egypt, with the solstitial rising river, as the autumnal equinox was at Eridu, with the river rising at the spring equinox.

We are justified from what is known regarding the rise of the Nile as dominating and defining the commencement of the Egyptian year at the solstice, in concluding that other ancient peoples placed under like conditions would act in the same way; and if these conditions were such that spring would mean sowing-time and autumn harvest-time, their year would begin at an equinox.

Now what the valley of the Nile was to Egypt those of the Tigris and the Euphrates were to the Babylonian empire. Like the Nile, these valleys were subject to annual inundations, and their fertility depended, as in Egypt, upon the manner in which the irrigation was looked after.

But unlike the Nile, the commencement of the inundation of these rivers took place near the vernal equinox; hence the year, we may assume, began then, and, reasoning by analogy, the worship in all probability was equinoctial.

A people entering Egypt from this region, then, would satisfy one condition of the problem. But is there any evidence that this people built their solar temples and temple walls east and west, and that they also built pyramids?

There is ample evidence (referred to in Chapter IX.)—although, alas! the structures in Babylonia, being generally built in brick and not in stone, no longer remain, as do those erected in Egypt. Still, in spite of the absence of the possibility of a comparative study, research has shown that in the whole region to the north-east of Egypt the temenos walls of temples and the walls of towns run east and west; and though at present actual dates cannot be given, a high antiquity is suggested in the case of some of them. Further, as has been already pointed out, the temples which remain in that region where stone was procurable, as at Palmyra, Baalbek, Jerusalem, all lie east and west.

But more than this, it is well known that from the very earliest times pyramidal structures, called ziggurats, some 150 feet high, were erected in each important city. These were really observatories; they were pyramids built in steps, as is clearly shown from pictures found on contemporary tablets; and one with seven steps and of great antiquity, it is known, was restored by Nebuchadnezzar II. about 600 B.C. at Babylon.

STATUE OF CHEPHREN, FOUND IN THE TEMPLE NEAR THE SPHINX.

A careful study of the historical references to the various pyramids built in Egypt, leaves it beyond doubt that the step pyramids are the oldest. They could, then, most easily have been constructed on the Babylonian model, and in this fact we have an additional argument for the intrusion of the pyramid builders into Egypt from Babylonia.

But did this equinox-worshipping, pyramid-building race live at anything like the time required?

There is no doubt now in the minds of scholars that the evidence is conclusive that among the kings of Babylonia were the following:—[151]

	B.C.
Entenna	4200
Naram-Sin	3800
Sargon I.	3750

The date of the earliest known pyramid in Egypt may perhaps be put down as about 3700 B.C. (Brugsch), or 4200 B.C. (Mariette).

Hence it seems that a third line of evidence is in favour of the Babylonian intrusion. There was undoubtedly an equinox-worshipping, pyramid-building race existing in Babylonia at the time the Egyptian pyramids are supposed to have been built.

Another connecting link is found in the statues of Chephren discovered in the temple at the pyramids, and at Tel-loh (ancient Lagash) by M. de Sarzec in 1881. This last find consisted of some large statues of diorite, and the attitude is nearly identical with that of Chephren himself as represented in the statues in the museum of Gîzeh.

This indicates equality in the arts, and the possession of similar tools, in Chaldæa and Egypt about the time in question. Further it is supposed that the diorite out of which both series of statues were fashioned came out of the same quarry in Sinai. The characters in which the inscriptions are written are in what is termed "line" Babylonian—i.e., they resemble pictures more than cuneiform characters; and the standard of measurement marked upon the plan of the city, which one of the figures of Tel-loh holds upon his knees, is the same as the standard of measurement of the Egyptian pyramid builders—the cubit of 20·63, not the Assyro-Babylonian cubit of 21·6.[152]

Now, although with regard to the cult of the northern stars it was impossible to decide whether the Egyptian school of astronomers came from Babylonia or from a source common to both countries, it is clear that with regard to the equinoctial cult we are limited absolutely to Babylonia as the special source. The coincidence in time of the same kind of buildings and the same art in the two countries puts a common origin out of the question.

To sum up, then, so far as we have gone, both the north-star worship and the equinoctial worship were imported into Egypt.

CHAPTER XXXV.
THE ORIGIN OF EGYPTIAN ASTRONOMY (CONTINUED)—THE THEBES SCHOOL.

The next question which arises now that we have considered the facts relating to the astronomy of Northern Egypt is one connected with the cults which we have proved to come down the Nile. Were they indigenous or imported?

Although I have put it forward with all reserve, there is evidence which suggests that the temples so far traced sacred to the southern cult are of earlier foundation than those to the north; and they are associated with Edfû and Philæ, which are known to be of high antiquity. This is one point of difference. Another is that the almost entire absence of Set temples and east and west pyramids up the river indicates that, so far as these structures go, we lack the links which astronomically and mythologically connect the Delta with Babylonia either directly or by common origin.

From Prof. Sayce it is to be gathered that the most ancient people yet glimpsed there inhabited the region at the head of the Persian Gulf, one of the chief cities being Eridu, now represented by the mounds of Abu Shahrên on the eastern bank of the Euphrates. It was founded as a maritime city, but is now far inland, owing to the formation of the delta, the alluvium of which at the present time advances about sixty-six feet a year.[153] This alone is an argument in favour of its high antiquity.

Along with the culture of Eridu went the worship of the god of Eridu, the primal god of Babylonia, Ea, Ía, or Oannes, symbolised as a goat-fish, and connected in some way with the sun when in Capricornus.

This, Jensen, by his wonderful analysis (would that I could completely follow it in its marvellous philological twistings, pages 73-81) puts beyond question; and he clinches the argument by showing that our "tropic of Capricorn" of to-day—the goat still represented on our globes of to-day with a fish's tail!—was called by the Babylonians "the path followed by Ía" or in relation to Ía.

This Ía was such a great god that to him was assigned the functions of Maker of Men; he was also a great potter and art workman (p. 293), a point I shall return to presently. He eventually formed a triad with Anu and Bīl, that is, the poles of the heavens and the equator.[154]

The God of Eridu.

Let us assume that the earliest sun-god traced at Eridu was the sun-god of those early argonauts who founded the colony.

We are told that this god was the son of Ía, and that his name was Tammuz; he was in some way associated with Asari (? Osiris) (Sayce, p. 144), who, according to Jensen, represented the Earth (p. 195); of the Moon we apparently hear nothing.

This Tammuz (Dumuzi), we find, ultimately became "the Nergal of Southern Chaldæa, the sun-god of winter and night, who rules, like Rhadamanthos, in the lower world" (Sayce, p. 245), and as lord of Hades he was made son of Mul-lil (Sayce, p. 197).

This was at first. But what do we find afterwards?

Nergal is changed into the Midsummer Sun! (Jensen, p. 484). And finally he is changed into the Spring Sun Marduk at Babylon (Sayce, p. 144)[155] where he is recognised as the son of Ía and Duazag, that is the Eastern Mountain (Jensen, p. 237).

Now, however difficult it may be to follow these changes from the religious point of view, from the astronomical side they are not only easily explained, but might have been predicted, provided one hypothesis be permitted, namely, that the colony who founded Eridu were originally inhabitants of some country where the chief agricultural operations were carried on about the time of the Autumnal Equinox in the northern hemisphere.[156]

This country might lie south of the equator, and indeed we find one which answers the requirements in the region of the great lakes and on the coast opposite Zanzibar.

Such an hypothesis may at first sight appear strange, but the view that Eridu was colonised from Cush has been supported by no less an authority than Lepsius.[157] The boundaries of Cush are not defined, but they may possibly include the Land of Pun-t, from which certainly part of the Egyptian culture was derived.

Among all early peoples the most important times of the year must necessarily have been those connected with seed-time and harvest in each locality. Now the spring equinox and summer solstice south of the equator are represented by the autumnal equinox and the winter solstice to the north of it. If the colonists who came to Eridu came from a region south of the equator, they would naturally have brought not only their southern stars, but their southern seasons with them; but their springtime was the northern autumn, their summer solstice the northern winter. This could have gone on for a time, and we see that their sun-god was the god of the winter solstice, Tammuz-Nergal.

But it could only have gone on for a time; the climatic facts were against such an unnatural system,[158] and the old condition could have been brought back by calling the new winter summer, or in other words making the winter-god into the summer sun-god—in short, changing Nergal into a midsummer sun-god. This it seems they did.[159]

But why the further change of Nergal to Marduk? Because the northern races were always tending southwards, being pushed from behind, while the supply of Eridu culture was not being replenished. The religion and astronomy of the north were continually being strengthened, and among this astronomy was the cult of the sun at the vernal equinox, the springtime of the northern hemisphere, sacred to Marduk. Nergal, therefore, makes another stage onward, and is changed into Marduk!

It is also interesting to find that in Ninib, another sun-god, we have almost the exact counterpart of the Egyptian Horus. He is the eastern morning sun, the son of Asari (? Osiris), and the god of agriculture.[160]

I append here the most recent translation of the hymn to the sun-god, referred to in the Introduction:—

"O Sun (god)! on the horizon of heaven thou dawnest,

The bolt of the pure heaven thou openest,

The door of heaven thou openest.

O Sun (god)! thou liftest up thy head to the world;

O Sun (god)! thou coverest the earth with the majestic brightness of heaven."

Marduk, then, the son of Ea, or Ía, was finally as definite a spring equinox sun-god as Amen-Rā in Egyptian mythology was a summer solstice sun-god.

We have, then, the undoubted facts that in Southern Babylonia, to start with, the sun-worship had to do with the winter half of the year. As the Babylonian culture advanced northward from Eridu and met the Semitic culture, the winter season was changed for the spring equinox—that is, a worship identical with that of the pyramid builders who intruded into Northern Egypt.

The Myths of Horus and Marduk.

In my references to the myth of Horus in Chapter XIV. I have shown that in all probability an astronomical meaning is that the rising sun puts out the northern stars. It was also indicated that the myth was one of great antiquity, as it was formulated when Draco was circumpolar; was not simple in its nature, and probably had reference to a sun-worshipping race abolishing the cult of Set representing the northern stars.

The facts brought together in subsequent chapters show that if there were not such a myth, there should have been; for the temple evidence alone showing the antithesis between Osiris-worship and the worship of Set is overwhelming.

I have also indicated that temples built to northern stars are geographically separated from those built to southern ones, and that the former have had their axes blocked to prevent the worship.

The Horus of Edfû, who is represented as leading the victorious hosts who revenge the killing of Osiris by Set, is the ally of the southern-star worshippers whom we have traced from Thebes, possibly to Central Africa (see page [350]); and if we associate the myth with the records on the walls of the temple of Edfû, and agree to the possibility of that temple having been founded in 6400 B.C. (see page [311]), then there must have been an invasion of the southern peoples about that date—an invasion which reached Northern Egypt, where eventually they were conquered by the Set-worshipping race, who came, as I think I have proved, from a country to the N.E. of the Delta. The question is: Did this first colony represent the original Hor-Shesu, so-called specially because perhaps as a novelty they had added the worship of the sun to the worship of the moon? and was the moon the first Osiris brought in by moon-worshippers with a year of 360 days?

In Accad and Sumer, where also, according to Hommel and others, the word Osiris (Asari) has been traced, the sun-god was the daughter of the moon-god. An eye forms part both of the hieroglyphic and of the cuneiform name, and the eye was one of the symbols in the name of Osiris in Egypt. Be this as it may, we have temple evidence to show that in Egypt the worship of Set was the worship of a northern race, and that it was finally abolished by a southern one.

Now in Babylonia exactly the opposite happened. The proto-Chaldæan south-star and winter-sun cult of Eridu was ultimately changed, absorbed, and buried in the Semitic cult of the northern stars Anu and Bīl and the spring sun, first Marduk and afterwards Šamaš.

Had there been then myth-makers in Babylonia, the myth would have been the converse of the Egyptian one. There were myth makers, and precisely such a myth! It is called the Myth of Marduk and Tiāmat.

The chief change had been in the sun-god. When the northern cult conquered, the exotic worship of the autumn and winter constellations was abolished, and they were pictured as destroyed under the form of Tiāmat, although the worship was once as prominent as that of Set in Egypt. We have the later developed northern spring-sun Marduk destroying the evil gods or spirits of winter; and chief among them, of course, the Goat-fish, which, from its central position, would represent the winter solstice.

The myth, then, has to do with the fact that the autumn-and winter-sun-worship of Eridu was conquered by the spring-sun-worship of the north.

If we accept this, we can compare the Egyptian and Babylonian myths from the astronomical point of view in the following manner; and a wonderful difference in the astronomical observations made, as well as in the form, though not in the basis, of astronomical mythology in Egypt and in Babylonia is before our eyes. Astronomically in both countries we are dealing with the dawn preceding sunrise on New Year's Day, and the accompanying extinction of the stars.

But which stars? In Egypt there is no question that the stars thus fading were thought of as being chiefly represented by the stars which never set—that is, the circumpolar ones, and among them the Hippopotamus chiefly. In Babylonia we have to do with the ecliptic constellations.

Now I believe that it is generally recognised that Marduk was relatively a late intruder into the Babylonian pantheon. If he were a god brought from the north by a conquering race (whether conquering by craft or kraft does not matter), and his worship replaced that of ['I]a, have we not, mutatis mutandis, the exact counterpart of the Egyptian myth of Horus? In the one case we have a southern star-worshipping race ousting north-star worshippers, in the other a northern equinoctial sun-worshipping race ousting the cult of the moon and solstitial sun. In the one case we have Horus, the rising sun of every day, slaying the Hippopotamus (that is, the modern Draco), the regent of night; in the other, Marduk, the spring-sun-god, slaying the animals of Tiāmat—that is apparently the origin of the Scorpion, Capricornus, and Pisces, the constellations of the winter months, which formed a belt across the sky from east to west at the vernal equinox.

The above suggested basis of the Babylonian mythology regarding the demons of Tiāmat, established when the sun was in Taurus at the spring equinox, enables us to understand clearly the much later (though similar) imagery employed when the sun at the equinox had passed from Taurus to Aries—when the Zend Avesta was written, and after the twelve zodiacal constellations had been established. We find them divided equally into the kingdoms of Ormazd and Ahriman. Here I quote Dupuis:—

"L'agneau est aux portes de l'empire du bien et de la lumière, et la balance à celles du mal et des ténèbres; l'un est le premier des signes supérieurs, et l'autre des signes inférieurs.

"Les six signes supérieurs comprennent les six mille de Dieu, et les six signes inférieurs les six mille du diable. Le bonheur de l'homme dure sous les premiers signes, et son malheur commence au septième, et dure sous les six signes affectés à Ahriman, ou au chef des ténèbres.

"Sous les six signes du règne du bien et la lumière, qui sont agneau, taureau gémeaux, cancer, lion et vierge ou épi, nous avons marqué les états variés de l'air et de la terre, qui sont le résultat de l'action du bon principe. Ainsi on lit sous l'agneau ou sous le premier mille ces mots, printemps, zephyr, verdure; sous le taureau, sève et fleur; sous les gémeaux, chaleurs et longs jours; sous le cancer, été, beaux temps; sous le lion, épis et moissons; et sous la vierge, vendanges.

"En passant à la balance, on trouve les fruits; la commence le règne du ma aussitôt que l'homme vient à cueillir les pommes. La nature quitte sa parure; aussi nous avons écrit ces mots, dépouillement de la nature; sous le scorpion on lit froid; sous le sagittaire, neiges; sous le capricorne, glace et brouillard, siège des ténèbres et de longs nuits; sous le verseau, pluies et frimas; sous les poissons, vents impétueux."

Since the great pyramids were built in the time of the fourth dynasty, it is quite clear that Eridu must have been founded long before if the transitions were anything like those I have stated.

The Argument touching η Argus.

But there is not only evidence that at Eridu the sun-worship was at first connected with the winter solstice. It is known that there was star-worship as well; and there must have been moon-worship too, judging by the moon-god of the adjacent town of Ur.

Associated with Ía was an Ía-star, which Jensen concludes may be η Argûs. This we must consider.

Jensen concludes that the Ía-star is η Argûs on the ground that many of the texts suggest a darkening of it now and again; he very properly points out that a variability in the star is the only point worth considering in this connection, and by this argument he is driven to η, which is one of the most striking variables in the heavens, outshining Canopus at its maximum. Speaking generally, everybody would agree that obscuration by clouds, etc., would not be recorded; but if the star were observed just rising above the southern horizon only, then its absence, due to such causes, would, I should fancy, be chronicled, and it must not be forgotten that this is precisely the region where the Ía star would be observed, if all of the inscriptions referred to by Jensen are to be satisfied; its place was in "äussersten Süden" (page 153). It was "das Pendant des im Nordpol des Aequators sitzenden Himmels-Bi'l" (page 148); "Ía's 'Ort' am Himmel liegt im Süden" (page 26).

There is another argument. Professor Sayce in his lectures reproduces (page 437) Mr. George Smith's account of the Temple of Bel derived from a Babylonian text. The temple was oriented east and west. In a description of one of the enclosures we read that on the northern side was a temple of Ía, while on the southern side there was a temple of Bīl and Anu. This not only shows that Ía was regarded as sacred to the true south, but that the temple buildings were planned like the Egyptian ones, the light either from sun or star passing over the heads of the worshippers in the courts into the temples. (Compare temple M in the temple of Amen-Rā, page 118 ante.)

But η Argûs never rose or set anywhere near the south. I have ascertained that its declination was approximately 32° S. in 5000 B.C., and increased to 42° S. by about 2000 B.C. Hence between these dates at Eridu its amplitude varied between 38° and 51° S. of E. or W. Now here we are far away from the S. point, though very near the S.E. or S.W. point, to which it is stated some of the Babylonian structures had their sides oriented.

The question arises whether there was a star which answers the other conditions. There was a series of such stars.

It may be here mentioned generally that the precessional movement must, after certain intervals, cause this phenomenon to be repeated constantly with one star after another.

Beginning with perhaps a sufficiently remote period, we have:—

Achernar	8000 B.C.
Phact	5400 B.C.
Canopus	4700 B.C.

These stars would appear very near the south point of the horizon at Eridu at the dates stated, and describe a very small arc above it between rising and setting at certain times of the year.

Now to go a stage further in the study of the Ía—Ea or Eridu—star, it is desirable to quote the legend concerning Ía or Oannes derived from Bêrôssos through Alexander Polyhistôr.[161]

"In the first year there appeared in that part of the Erythraean sea which borders upon Babylonia a creature endowed with reason, by name Oannes, whose whole body (according to the account of Apollodôros) was that of a fish; under the fish's head he had another head, with feet also below similar to those of a man subjoined to the fish's tail. His voice, too, and language were articulate and human; and a representation of him is preserved even to this day.

"This being was accustomed to pass the day among men, but took no food at that season; and he gave them an insight into letters and sciences and arts of every kind. He taught them to construct houses, to found temples,[162] to compile laws, and explained to them the principles of geometrical knowledge. He made them distinguish the seeds of the earth, and showed them how to collect the fruits; in short, he instructed them in everything which could tend to soften manners and humanise their lives. From that time nothing material has been added by way of improvement to his instructions. Now, when the sun had set, this being Oannes used to retire again into the sea, and pass the night in the deep, for he was amphibious. After this there appeared other animals like Oannes."

THE TEMPLES AT PHILÆ.

It is not necessary to give the string of "other animals" enumerated by Eusebius, but one of them is important. A companion of Anôdaphas and Odakôn shows the true reading to have been Anâdakôn—that is, Anu and Dagon. This other animal, then, clearly refers to the introduction of the northern Semitic cult, and hence the suggestion is strengthened that some of the earlier "other animals" who subsequently appeared, like Ía (? Oannes), may really have been new southern stars making their appearance in the manner I have shown, and perhaps varying the cult.

The whole legend is, I think, clearly one relating to men coming from the south (?) to Eridu in ships. The boat is turned into a "fish-man," and the star to which they pointed to show whence they came is made a god.

THE TEMPLE AT AMADA.

It is evident the intrusion was from the south, because otherwise extreme south stars would not have been in question. We have, then, got so far. The worshippers of the southern star and of the winter months, including the solstice, were certainly not indigenous at Eridu. They were probably introduced from the south, and they were sea-borne.

The next question which concerns us is, was this worship in any way connected with Egypt?

One of the most definite and striking conclusions to which the study of temples has led, is that in Southern Egypt the temple worship was limited to southern stars, and, further, that there is a chain of temples, possibly dating from 6400 B.C., and oriented to Canopus. This certainly is an argument in favour of a worship similar to that traced at Eridu.

But is there any trace of Ía or of his son, the sun-god?

This god was, as we have seen, associated in some way with Asari. I am told that students will probably agree that the connection between this word and the Egyptian Osiris is absolute. Professor Sayce informs me that the cuneiform ideograms and the hieroglyphs have the same meaning, and indicate the same root-words.[163]

Ía was represented as a goat-fish, and was a potter and "maker of men." This being so, I confess the facts relating to the southern Egyptian god Chnemu strike me as very suggestive. He is represented goat-headed, and not ram-headed, as generally stated; he is not only the creator of mankind, but he is a potter, and he is actually represented at Philæ as combining these attributes in making man out of clay on a potter's wheel. Nay, according to Bunsen, he is stated to have formed on his wheel the divine limbs of Osiris, and is styled the "sculptor of all men."[164]

I give the following extracts from Lanzoni (p. 956):—

"χ^{NUM.}—χ^{num} [Chnemu] significa 'fabbricatore, modellatore.' ... Questo demiurgo apparisce come una delle più it antiche divinità dell' Egitto, ed aveva un culto speziale nello Nubia nell' isola di File di Beghe e di Elephantina.... Esso era il dio delle cataratte, identificato al dio Nun, il Padre degli dei, il principio Umido. Il grande testo geografico di Edfu parlando di Elephantina, quale metropoli del primo Nomo dell' Alto Egitto, ne ricorda la divinità, come una personificazione dell' Acqua dell' inondazione."

CHNEMU.

He is also Hormaχu, the god of the universe: The father of the father of the gods: Creator of heaven, earth, water, and mountains; a local form of Osiris. His wife was the frog-goddess, Hekt (? Serk-t).

Further, he was also regarded as presiding in some special way over water,[165] and, unlike Amen-Rā, though like Ía, he has a position among the gods of the lower world.

A sun-god, with uræus and disk, he is closely associated with Amen-Rā, and if he were one of the earliest of the South Egyptian gods this could only be by Amen-Rā being an emanation from him; the temples in any case do not afford us traces of Amen-Rā before 3700 B.C., and Chnemu is recognised as one of the oldest gods in Egypt, on the same platform as Ptah in the North. If we assume a connection with Eridu, then we are driven to the conclusion that the Eridu culture came either from Egypt or from a common source.

Here for the present the question must be left. I must be content to remark that many of the facts point to a common origin south of the equator. It is clear that if Chnemu were a sun-god of the Winter, brought into Egypt from without, the change to Amen-Rā is precisely what would have been certain to happen, for in Egypt the Summer Solstice, over which Amen-Rā presided, was all-important.

Anthropological Evidence.

It will be seen, then, that a general survey of Egyptian history does suggest conflicts between two races, and this of course goes to strengthen the view that the temple-building phenomena suggest two different worships, depending upon race distinctions.

We have next to ask if there is any anthropological evidence at our disposal. It so happens that Virchow has directed his attention to this very point.

Premising that a strong race distinction is recognised between peoples having brachycephalic or short, and dolichocephalic or long, skulls, and that the African races belong to the latter group, I may give the following extract from his paper:—

"The craniological type in the Ancient Empire was different from that in the middle and new. The skulls from the Ancient Empire are brachycephalic, those from the new and of the present day are either dolichocephalic or mesaticephalic; the difference is therefore at least as great as that between the dolichocephalic skulls of the Frankish graves and the predominantly brachycephalic skulls of the present population of South Germany. I do not deny that we have hitherto had at our disposal only a very limited number of skulls from the Ancient Empire which have been certainly determined; that therefore the question whether the brachycephalic skull-type deduced from these was the general or a least the predominant one cannot yet be answered with certainty; but I may appeal to the fact that the sculptors of the Ancient Empire made the brachycephalic type the basis of their works of art too."

It will be seen, then, that the anthropological as well as the historical evidence runs on all fours with the results to be obtained from such a study of the old astronomy as the temples afford us.

CHAPTER XXXVI.
GENERAL CONCLUSIONS AS TO THE NORTH AND SOUTH RACES.

It is now time to summarise the evidence concerning the north and south temple builders, including those who built pyramids as well.

To do this we must deal not only with the buildings, but with the associated mythology, or, rather, with the astronomical part of the mythology, for there seems to be very little doubt that in the earliest times, before knowledge replaced or controlled imagination, everything was mythologically everything else in turn. It is for this reason that trusting to genealogies especially seems like building on sand. That Father-ship and Son-ship in the earliest days were mythologically something quite different from what the words in their strict sense imply to-day will be agreed to by everybody; and there is evidence that many of the absolute contradictions met with, and statements which it is impossible to reconcile, may all depend upon the point of view from which the mythological statements were made.

But when astronomy helps us to the point of view, the mythological statements, and even the genealogies, become much clearer and unmistakable, and contradiction vanishes to a great extent; and it would seem as if genealogies en bloc were never propounded, hence it was a commonplace either that a god should be the father of his mother, or that he should have no father.

Thus, in one sense, Rā is father of all the gods; but in another Ptah is the creator of the egg of the sun because Capella setting heralded sunrise at a particular time of the year; and Isis is the mother of Horus because Phact = α Columbæ, Serk-t = α Centauri, Mut = γ Draconis, and other stars (Isis) did precisely the same; while in another connection Isis is the sister of Osiris, and therefore the mother of Horus. But here the relationship depends upon the association of the moon and warning star in the morning sky. I only offer these as suggestions; similar variations might be multiplied ad nauseam.

But while all this proves that genealogies may be manufactured without either end or utility, we gather that the association of mythological personages with definite astronomical bodies may in time be of great help in such inquiries, and ultimately enable us to raise the veil of mystery by which these old ideas have of set purpose, and partly by these means, been hidden.

There seems no doubt that we have got definite evidence that the very oldest mythological personages were closely connected either with the sun at some special time of the year, with the moon, or with the rising and setting of some star or another. Hence we ought to be able from the temple evidence to classify the northern and southern gods.

Northern Gods and Goddesses.

GOD.	GODDESS.
Ptah = Capella, April sun (1)	Bast-Isis =	α Ursæ Majoris.
Anubis = Northern constellations.	Taurt-Isis =	α Ursæ Majoris. γ Draconis.
Min: Khem = May Sun (2).	Menat-Isis	Spica.
Autumn Sun	Serk-t-Isis	Antares.
Spring Sun	Nit-Isis	Pleiades.

Southern Gods and Goddesses.

Osiris = Moon-god.
Chnemu = Sun-god, autumnal equinox.
Khonsu = Canopus, autumnal equinox, warner.
West horizon
followed by Serk-t = α Centauri
east horizon.

Amen-Rā	A combined north and south god, established about 3700B.C.		Teχi-Isis	Phact (1) Sirius (2)
			Amen-t-Isis
			Hathor-Isis

The establishment of Amen-Rā gives us a fair indication of the changes which must have taken place among the early civilisations when the beginning of the year was altered. There can be no doubt, I think, that Chnemu was the first Sun-god of Southern Egypt; the cryosphinxes at Thebes are alone sufficient to prove it;[166] and if so, then the southern people must have come from a region where the autumnal equinox marked the most important time of the year for their agricultural operations. And this year had eventually to give way, as we know it did, about 3700 B.C., for one beginning at the summer solstice.

In the above list I have indicated Osiris as a Moon-god. Many inscriptions might be quoted similar to the following one:—

"Salute a te, Hesiri, il signore dell' eternità. Quando tu sei in Cielo, tu apparisci come sole, et tu rinnuovi la tua forma comme Luna."[167]

It has also to be borne in mind that the complicated head-dress, including the goat's horns, is represented in connection with Thoth Chnemu and Osiris.[168]

Later he was unquestionably a sun-god, but this would be certain to happen if the southern intruders worshipped the moon in the first line.

Further, if in later times he represented both sun and moon, as he certainly did, it is not probable that he did so from the beginning. All the special symbolism refers to him as a Moon-god; he is certainly a Moon-god in the myth of Isis and Osiris, for he was cut into fourteen pieces, the number of days of the waning moon.

Now, we can easily understand an evolution beginning with a Moon-god and ending with a Sun-god. But the contrary is almost unthinkable; besides, we know that in Egypt it did not happen; the solar attributes got hardened as time went on. The calendar evidence, as we have seen, in relation to the original year of 360 days is in favour of Moon-worship, and therefore of a Moon-god in the earliest times.

Further, if we accept this, the myth of Horus becomes a complete historical statement, of which parts have already been shown to refer to astronomical facts past all dispute. It is well here to give Naville's remarks upon it. It will be seen that they strengthen my view.[169]

"La 363^{me} année de son règne, le dieu part avec son fils pour l'Égypte. Voilà donc une date précise de l'un de ces rois qui, selon les traditions égyptiennes, avaient occupé le trône de l'Égypte avant les souverains indigènes. Cette année-là, Horhut chassé Typhon de l'Égypte, et s'établit en roi sur tout le pays. Cela concorderait donc avec ce que nous disent Manéthon et Eusèbe, que, dans la première dynastie des dieux, Typhon précéda immédiatement Horus. La succession se serait faite par droit de conquête.

"Horus a avec lui des compagnons qui sont nommés partout ses suivants: les Schesou Hor. M. de Rougé a déjà fait remarquer que, dans plusieurs inscriptions, ces hommes sont considérés comme les habitants primitifs de l'Égypte, les contemporains des dynasties divines. Ce sont ces Mesennou dont il a déjà été question dans la série précédente. Le rôle qu'ils jouent dans ce récit montre, plus clairement encore, que l'époque dont il s'agit est la fin des temps mythologiques auxquels Ména devait succéder. C'est une tradition relative aux événements qui ne doivent avoir précédé que de peu les temps historiques.

"Horhut monte dans la barque de son père, qui le suit pendant toute l'expédition, et lui donné son appui et ses conseils. Les dieux poursuivent Typhon tout le long du fleuve; Horhut livre plusieurs batailles dans des lieux qui recevront des noms propres à rappeler ses exploits, et qui seront plus particulièrement voués à son culte. C'est à Edfon qu'ont lieu les premiers combats, puis dans le 16^me nome de la Haute-Égypte. Le nome de Mert, celui du Fayoum et du lac Moeris, est le théâtre de plusieurs épisodes de la lutte. C'est dans la ville de Sutenchenen, appelée ici Nanrutef, un sanctuaire important d'Osiris, que s'établissent les Schesou Hor. Enfin, lorsque Set a été chassé du nome de Chent-ab, le 14^me de la Basse-Égypte, le pays est délivré, et la royauté est assurée à Horhut. Son père, qui, à chaque nouvelle victoire, lui a décerné quelque honneur special, lui accorde d'être représenté sous la formé du disque ailé, ou du scarabée, sur tous les temples de la Haute et de la Basse-Égypte. Horus devient le seigneur des deux régions, s'assied dans un sanctuaire ou il est adoré comme Horchuti, avec qui il finit par se confondre.

"Telle est cette seconde légende, bien mieux caractérisée que la première, car elle est rattachée à des localités connues et à une époque déterminée. Elle me semble même assez claire pour qu'on puisse y voir une tradition, qui aurait à sa base un fait historique. Set est un dieu bien connu dans l'histoire d'Égypte; c'est le dieu des ennemis, et particulièrement des populations sémitiques, qui conquirent une fois le pays et le mirent souvent en danger. Si nous considérons qu'il est chassé par Horus, le dieu qui lui a succédé dans la royauté, et par les habitants primitifs du pays à un moment donné des annales divines, n'est-il pas naturel d'expliquer ce mythe par une guerre entre les Égyptiens venus de Nubie, et les Sémites qui auraient été chassés du pays; soit que cette guerre soit plus ancienne que les temps historiques, soit que, venue plus tard, elle ait passé dans le domaine de l'histoire légendaire? Les textes relatifs aux dynasties divines sont encore trop rares pour que nous puissions pousser très-loin ces recherches. Le temple d'Edfou nous fournira peut-être un jour de nouvelles indications sur ces époques préhistoriques, et sur l'origine si mysterieuse de la civilisation de l'Égypte."

THE WINGED SOLAR DISK.

In another passage Naville remarks:

"Typhon n'est pas simplement le dieu du mal, l'adversaire personnel d'Osiris, c'est un souverain qui occupe avec ses alliés la plus grande partie de l'Égypte depuis Edfou jusqu'a l'Orient du Delta."[170]

It was suggested (page 154) that Horus slaying Set represented by a hippopotamus was a reference to a time antecedent to 5000 B.C., when the constellation of Draco was circumpolar; and we now learn from Chapter XXXII. that Set represented the Northern-Star worship brought in from the N.E.

Horus, then, represented a conquering force coming from the South.

He was recognised as a Southern god. Naville remarks:

"Horchuti est par excellence le dieu de la Nubie; c'est à lui que sont consacrés plusieurs des temples pharaoniques qui existent le long du Nil entre Ouadi-Halfa et Philæ."[171]

But this is not all. The sequence of the Divine Dynasties is as follows, according to Maspero:—[172]

• Atmu.
• Rā
• Shou
• Sibou [Seb]
• Osiris
• Set
• Horus

Neglecting the first four, we find Osiris preceding Set, and are driven to the conclusion that in Osiris, in this connection, we are dealing with the Moon, for the Sun-gods Atmu and Rā head the list. Besides, the worship of Set did not kill the worship of the Sun, for the power of Rā finally became paramount.

We must hold, then, that the Southern Sun-god Horus, the son of Osiris, was the son of a Moon-god, and it becomes necessary to inquire if such an idea occurred to other early peoples. Professor Sayce[173] tells us—

"According to the official religion of Chaldæa, the Sun-god was the offspring of the Moon-god," and he adds, "Such a belief could have arisen only where the Moon-god was the supreme object of worship.... To the Semite the Sun-god was the lord and father of the gods."[174]

If we, then, with this precedent, are prepared to take Osiris as the Moon-god of the Southern race, there is no doubt that the first Sun-god was Chnemu, and the first Southern Star-god—the star which heralded sunrise at the Autumnal Equinox—Khonsu (Canopus). Thoth also must be named, for it is certain that the Calendar which he leads was of Southern origin, because New Year's Day at the Summer Solstice was heralded first by Phact and afterwards by Sirius, both Southern stars.

There is likewise ample temple evidence to show that the Autumnal Equinoctial Sun was also heralded, and in even earlier times, first by Canopus and next by α Centauri, and it becomes a question whether the original moon-calendar of Thoth did not refer to a year beginning at the Autumnal Equinox. This is a suggestion resulting from later inquiries, and hence I have not referred to it in the chapters on the year.

And here, perhaps, in their dependence upon the Moon-god Osiris, we find the real reason that Khonsu and Thoth have lunar instead of solar emblems; Thoth led the initial lunar year, Khonsu only heralded the advent of the son of the Moon.

If this be so, before the foundation of the temple of Annu by "la grande tribu des Anou,"[175] the Southern (originally Moon-worshipping) race had already made its appearance in force in Northern Egypt, otherwise the divine dynasties would not have included Osiris; we need not be astonished that the temple evidence has disappeared there. The most northern ancient temple of Osiris was at Abydos; that also has gone, while those at Philæ and Edfû remain, the latter, at some time subsequent to its original foundation, dedicated to a female Horus.

These things being presumed, we can now bring together in a working hypothesis the temple evidence so far as it bears upon the mythology and interaction of the North-and South-Star worshippers.

Date B.C.
6400	A swarm from the south with Osiris, Thoth, Khonsu (Moon Gods), Chnemu(Sun God) come down the River.
	They find a population worshipping Rā and Atmu. Possibly they were merely worshippers of the dawn and twilight.
	The Moon worship is accepted as an addition, and the divine dynasty of Osiris begins.
	The swarm brings a lunar year of 360 days with it, and the Egyptian Calendar beginning I. Thoth commences.
	They build temples at Amada, Semneh, Philæ, Edfû, and probably Abydos. All these were probably Osiris temples, so called because Osiris, the Moon-god, was the chief deity, and they were used for the determination of the Sun's place at the Autumnal Equinox, at which time their lunar year probably began.
5400	A swarm, or swarms, from the N.E. One certainly comes by the Red Sea, and founds temples at Redisieh and Denderah; another may have come over the isthmus and founded Annu. They bring the worship of Anu.[176]
	The Divine dynasty of Set is founded, and we can imagine religious strifes between the partisans of the new northern cult and the southern moon-worshippers.
	These people might have come either from North Babylonia, or other swarms of the same race may have invaded North Babylonia at the same time.
±5000	[This date is fixed by Hippopotamus not being circumpolar after it. It might have been much earlier, but not much later.]
	Horus with his "blacksmiths" comes down the river to revenge his "father Osiris" by killing his murderer Set (the Hippopotamus). The 6400 B.C. people, who came from the South, had been worsted by the last (5400 B.C.) swarm from the N.E., and have sent for southern assistance.
	The South people by this time had become Sun-worshippers, and "Osiris" now means Sun as well as Moon.
	The N.E. people are beaten, and there is an amalgamation of the Original and Southern cults. The N.E. people are reduced to second place, but Set is retained, and Anubis looks after sepulchres, soon to be replaced by Osiris as Southern priestcraft prevails. The priestly headquarters now are at Annu and Abydos. At the former place we have an amalgamated cult representing Sun and N. Star gods. At Abydos Osiris (changed into a Sun-God) is supreme.
Pyramid Times [Mariette 4200, Brugsch 3700.]	Another Swarm from N.E., certainly from Babylonia this time, and apparently by isthmus only, since no E.-W. temples are found on Red Sea roads.
	They no longer bring Anu alone. There is a Spring Equinox Sun-God.
3700	Southern people at Barkal and Thebes in force; temple-building on a large scale. Chnemu begins to give place to Amen-Rā. Still more blending between original and Southern peoples.
3500	Final blending of North and South cults at Thebes. Temples founded there to Set and Min, on the lines of Annu and An.
3200	Establishment of worship of Amen-Rā at Thebes. Supremacy of Theban priests.

CHAPTER XXXVII.
THE EGYPTIAN AND BABYLONIAN ECLIPTIC CONSTELLATIONS.

I have already, in Chapter XXXII., pointed out that at Annu we seemed limited to Set as a stellar divinity; so soon as pyramid times are reached, however, this was changed, and we found the list of the gods increased, and the worship of the sun and of stars in the constellations of the Bull and Scorpion went on, if it was not begun, in Egypt, in pyramid times. These constellations were connected with the equinoxes; and associated with the introduction of these new worships in pyramid times was the worship of the bull Apis.

The first question which now arises is, When were any ecliptic constellations established in Babylonia? and next, Which were they?

Jensen, in his "Kosmologie der Babylonier," tells us that there is some very definite information relating not only to Taurus and Scorpio, but to Capricornus and other winter constellations; and, as in Egypt so in Babylonia, for the first references to the constellations we have to refer to the religion and the mythology.

So far as I have been able to gather, any myth like the Egyptian myth of Horus, involving combats between the sun and circumpolar star gods, is entirely lacking in Babylonia, but a similar myth in relation to some of the ecliptic constellations is among the best known. Jensen shows that the first notions of the Babylonian constellations are to be got by studying the sun-gods, and especially the mythic war between the later sun-god Marduk and the monster Tiāmat.

I have already referred to Marduk; he is the Spring Sun-God, and it has also been stated that the greatest god of ancient Babylonia, Ía of Eridu, was connected with the constellation of Capricornus.

Marduk represented the constellation of the Bull. Here I quote Jensen:—[177]

"It has already been suggested that the Bull is a symbol of the Spring-Sun Marduk; that he was originally complete; that he at one time extended as far as the Fish of Ía, i.e. the western Fish; that the Fish of Ía, out of which the sun emerged at the end of the year in ancient times to enter Taurus, is to represent Ía, the God of the Ocean, out of which his son Marduk, the early sun, rises daily; finally, that a series of constellations west of the Fish(es) is intended to represent symbolically this same ocean. Marduk is on the one hand, as early sun of the day (and the year), the son of Ía, the god of the world-water."

As to the sun-god Marduk, then, he represents the sun at the vernal equinox, when the sunrise was heralded by the stars in the Bull.

But what, then, are the fish of Ía and the other constellations referred to? They are all revealed to us by the myth. They are the Southern ecliptic constellations.

Tiāmat.

Tiāmat, according to Jensen, means initially the Eastern Sea (p. 307). This was expanded to mean the "Weltwasser" (p. 315), which may be taken to mean, I suppose, the origin of the Greek ὠκεανὸς, and possibly the overlying firmament of waters. These firmamental waters contain the southerly ecliptic constellations, the winter and bad-weather signs—the Scorpion, the Goat-fish, and the Fish among them.

It must be pointed out that these southerly constellations were associated with the God of Eridu in his first stage.

The Constellations referred to in the Myth of Marduk and Tiāmat.

We are indebted to the myth, then, for the knowledge that when it was invented, not only the constellations Bull and Scorpion, but also the Goat and Fishes had been established in Babylonia.

This argument is strengthened by the following considerations suggested by Jensen:—

"We look in vain among the retinue of Tiāmat for an animal corresponding to the constellations of the zodiac to the east of the vernal equinox. This cannot be accidental. If, therefore, we contended that the cosmogonic legends of the Babylonians stood in close relationship to the phenomena of sunrise on the one hand and the entrance of the sun into the vernal equinox on the other—that, in fact, the creation legends in general reflect these events—there could not be a more convincing proof of our view than the fact just mentioned. The three monsters of Tiāmat, which Marduk overcomes, are located in the 'water-region' of the heavens, which the Spring-Sun Marduk 'overcomes' before entering the (ancient) Bull. If, as cannot be doubted, the signs of the zodiac are to be regarded as symbols, and especially if a monster like the goat-fish, whose form it is difficult to recognise in the corresponding constellation, can only be regarded as a symbol, then we may assume without hesitation that at the time when the Scorpion, the Goat-Fish, and the Fish were located as signs of the zodiac in the water-region of the sky, they already played their parts as the animals of Tiāmat in the creation legends. Of course they were not taken out of a complete story and placed in the sky, but conceptions of a more general kind gave the first occasion. It does not follow that all the ancient myths now known to us must have been available, but certainly the root-stock of them, perhaps in the form of unsystematic and unconnected single stories and concepts."

There is still further evidence for the constellation of the Scorpion.

"A Scorpion-Man plays also another part in the cosmology of the Babylonians. The Scorpion-Man and his wife guard the gate leading to the Māšu mountain(s), and watch the sun at rising and setting. Their upper part reaches to the sky, and their irtu (breast?) to the lower regions (Epic of Gistubar 60, 9). After Gistubar has traversed the Māšu Mountain, he reaches the sea. This sea lies to the east or south-east. However obscure these conceptions may be, and however they may render a general idea impossible, one thing is clear, that the Scorpion-Men are to be imagined at the boundary between land and sea, upper and lower world, and in such a way that the upper or human portion belongs to the upper region, and the lower, the Scorpion body, to the lower. Hence the Scorpion-Man represents the boundary between light and darkness, between the firm land and the water region of the world. Marduk, the god of light, and vanquisher of Tiāmat, i.e. the ocean, has for a symbol the Bull = Taurus, into which he entered in spring. This leads almost necessarily to the supposition that both the Bull and the Scorpion were located in the heavens at a time when the sun had its vernal equinox in Taurus and its autumnal equinox in Scorpio, and that in their principal parts or most conspicuous star groups; hence probably in the vicinity of Aldebaran and Antares, or at an epoch when the principal parts of Taurus and Scorpio appeared before the sun at the equinoxes."

If my suggestion be admitted that the Babylonians dealt not with the daily fight but with the yearly fight between light and darkness—that is, the antithesis between day and night was expanded into the antithesis between the summer and the winter halves of the year—then it is clear that at the vernal equinox Scorpio setting in the west would be watching the sunrise; at the autumnal equinox rising in the east, it would be watching the sunset; one part would be visible in the sky, the other would be below the horizon in the celestial waters. If this be so, all obscurity disappears, and we have merely a very beautiful statement of a fact, from which we learn that the time to which the fact applied was about 3000 B.C., if the sun were then near the Pleiades.

Jensen, in the above-quoted passage by implication, and in a subsequent one directly, suggests that not all the zodiacal constellations were established at the same time. The Babylonians apparently began with the easier problem of having six constellations instead of twelve. For instance, we have already found that to complete the present number, between

Scorpio Capricornus Pisces

we must interpolate

Sagittarius Aquarius.

Aries and Libra seem also to be late additions according to Jensen, who writes:—

"We have already above (p. 90) attempted to explain the striking phenomenon that the Bull and Pegasus, both with half-bodies only, ἡμίτομοι, enclose the Ram between them, by the assumption that the latter was interposed later, when the sun at the time of the vernal equinox was in the hind parts of the Bull, so that this point was no longer sufficiently marked in the sky. Another matter susceptible of a like explanation may be noted in the region of the sky opposite to the Ram and the Bull. Although we cannot doubt the existence of an eastern balance, still, as already remarked (p. 68), the Greeks have often called it χηλαὶ 'claws' (of the Scorpion), and according to what has been said above (p. 312), the sign for a constellation in the neighbourhood of our Libra reads in the Arsacid inscription 'claw(s)' of the Scorpion. These facts are very simply explained on the supposition that the Scorpion originally extended into the region of the Balance, and that originally α and β Libræ represented the 'horns' of the Scorpion, but later on, when the autumnal equinox coincided with them, the term Balance was applied to them. Although this was used as an additional name, it was only natural that the old term should still be used as an equivalent. But it also indicates the great age of a portion of the zodiac."

Let us suppose that what happened in the case of Aries and Libra happened with six constellations out of the twelve: in other words, that the original zodiac consisted only of six constellations.

Taurus
	Gemini
Crab (or Tortoise)
	Lion
Virgin or ear of corn)
	Libra
Scorpion
	Sagittarius
Capricornus
	Aquarius
Pisces
	Aries

The left-hand list not only classifies in an unbroken manner the Fish-Man, the Goat-Fish, the Scorpion-Man, and Marduk of the Babylonians, but we pick up all or nearly all of the ecliptic stars or constellations met with in early Egyptian mythology, Apis, The Tortoise,[178] Min, Serk-t, Chnemu, as represented by appropriate symbols.

Further, the remarkable suppression or small representation of the Lion in both the more ancient Babylonian and Egyptian mythology is explained. I have shown before how the Babylonians with an equinoctial year would take slight account of the solstice, while it also follows that the Egyptians, who were wise enough not to use zodiacal stars for their warnings of sunrise, for the reason that stars in the brighter light of dawn near the sun are more difficult to see, might easily neglect the constellation of the Lion, as first Phact and then Sirius, both southern stars, marked for them the advent of the summer solstice; on different grounds, then, the Lion might well have been at first omitted in both countries.

Since there is a doubt as to the existence of the Lion among the first Babylonian constellations, the argument in the following paragraph would appear to refer to observations made at a later time, when totemism was less prevalent:—

"The Lion in the heavens must represent the heat of the summer. He does this most effectually when the summer solstice coincides with the constellation—that is, when its principal stars appear before the sun at the summer solstice. This happened at the time when the vernal equinox lay in Taurus, and when the principal star-group of the Bull appeared before the sun at the time of the vernal equinox. The Water-jug (Amphora), Aquarius, must represent symbolically the watery season of winter. It does this most effectually when the winter solstice coincides with it, or its principal star-group appears before the sun at the winter solstice. This happened about the time when the vernal equinox lay in Taurus, and its principal star-group rose before the sun at the time of the vernal equinox."

Thanks to Jensen's researches, then, we have the important conclusion before us that the Babylonians, as well as the Egyptians, in early times symbolised the following constellations:—

Taurus	Bull.
Cancer	Tortoise.
Virgo	Ear of corn or other product representing fertility.
Scorpio	Scorpion.
Capricornus	Goat-man or goat-fish.
Pisces	Fish-man.

But what time was this?

We have seen that in Egypt the Bull constellation had been established possibly in the time of Mena, and that certainly both the Bull and the Scorpion had been established in pyramid times.

I have also given evidence to show that the E. and W. pyramid worship was brought from Babylonia. Now, about this date we know that Sargon I. was king of that country, and reigned at Accad or Agade, lat. 33° N., on the right bank of the Euphrates, Sippara being across the river. Here it may be mentioned that the latitudes of Eridu and Babylon are 31° N. and 32½° N. respectively, so that Agade was to the north of both.

Although the worship of Marduk—that is, the vernal equinox Sun-god—in Babylon was much intensified when Khammurabi reigned about 2200 B.C., it is known that it existed long before; how long I cannot find. It is also very remarkable that the deities of Eridu, whenever that city was pre-eminent, were guarded by sacred bulls. We must leave it undetermined, therefore, at what date the Bull sun-god was established; but it seems certain, on the above grounds, that it must have been before pyramid times.

But we are not limited to the above line of evidence. There are astronomical considerations which will help us. For the purpose of noting the validity of the argument based upon them, a slight reference is necessary to the change of the equinoctial point along the ecliptic.

By the processional movement, the position of the sun in the ecliptic at an equinox or solstice sweeps round the ecliptic in about 25,000 years. Now if we suppose twelve ecliptic constellations of equal size—that is, 30° long (30° × 12 = 360°)—the time it would take the sun's place at the vernal equinox to pass through one constellation would be (25000∕12 =) 2083 years. If the constellation of the Bull were twice as long formerly as it is now (when the constellations are twice as numerous), of course this period would be doubled.

So that the statement that the sun at the equinox was in the Bull does not help us very much to an actual date, and the constellation of the Lion could have been established 2000 years after the Bull, and yet have marked the summer solstice.

Further, if all the stars of the Bull (speaking generally) are seen at dawn—that is, before the sun rises—the sun has not yet reached the Bull. We can then, at all events, fix a minimum of time. The sun's longitude at the vernal equinox being always 0, the longitude of the most easterly part of the constellation, assuming this part not to have been changed, will give us the number of years that have elapsed.

I now go on to state Jensen's view as to the date of the introduction of the god Marduk into Babylonian mythology, or, in other words, of the worship of the spring-tide sun.

Jensen remarks:—

"It may safely be assumed that the constellations of the Scorpion and the Bull actually originated at the latest at a time when the autumnal and vernal equinoctial points respectively coincided with their principal stars. But this was the case more than 4900 years ago. But if we assume that Taurus and Scorpio were given their names at a time when their main stars rose before the sun at the time of the vernal and autumnal equinoxes respectively, we should obtain as the date of the establishment of the constellations of Taurus and Scorpio in the skies about the year-5000.[179] According to Dr. Tetens, the sun stood at the tips of the horns of the Bull at the commencement of spring 6000 years ago. At this time, therefore, Taurus had completely risen above the eastern horizon at sunrise.

"Since it is not inconceivable that in the delineation of the first signs of the zodiac a name was attached to a constellation of the ecliptic emerging from behind the sun, and apparently more or less connected, the name being such as to indicate symbolically the beginning of the spring then occurring, the time, about 1400 B.C., might also be that of the introduction of the Bull (and the Scorpion). But it is, of course, not necessary that this should have occurred at one of the three epochs mentioned; this is, indeed, highly improbable, and the process must be regarded as follows: When the idea was conceived of indicating symbolically the beginning of spring in the sky—whether the idea originated in the brains of the masses or in that of a learned scholar, whether it had a mythological or a more scientific basis—a name was given in the first instance to the region in which the sun was at the beginning of spring, or to that west of it, the name denoting symbolically the beginning of spring. This, of course, does not exclude the possibility that more eastward portions of the ecliptic, whose stars were less prominent, were included in this name. From this we may conclude that Taurus did not originate later than-3000, for at that time Aldebaran, its principal star, stood east of the sun at the beginning of spring. Hence it would follow that our creation legends are, at least in part, just as old."[180]

It may, then, be gathered from the above that the constellations of the Bull and the Scorpion were recognised as such at the same early date both in Babylonia and Egypt; and to these we may add the Tortoise (our present Cancer) and some of the southern constellations. Further, that the date of their establishment was certainly not later than, say, 4000 B.C., and probably much earlier.

With regard to the complete ecliptic, the information seems meagre both from Babylonia and from Egypt in early times. I have already referred to the Egyptian decans, that is, the lists of stars rising at intervals of ten days. The lists will be found in Lepsius and in Brugsch's "Astronomische und Astrologische Inschriften," but the stars have not been made out. In later times in Babylonia—say 1000 B.C.—the following list represents the results of Jensen's investigations:—

• (1) Perhaps Aries (= "leading sheep").
• (2) A "Bull (of the Heavens)" = Aldebaran or (and) = our Taurus.
• (3) Gemini.
• (4)?
• (5) Perhaps Leo.
• (6) The constellation of the "Corn in Ears" = the Ear of Corn. [Spica.]
• (7) Probably Libra, whose stars are, however, at least in general, called "The Claw(s)" (i.e., of the Scorpion).
• (8) The Scorpion.
• (9) Perhaps Sagittarius.
• (10) The "Goat-fish" = Caper.
• (11)?
• (12) The "Fish" with the "Fish band."

A few hundred years later, we learn from the works of Strassmeyer and Epping, a complete chain of twenty-eight stars along the ecliptic had been established, and most careful observations made of the paths of the moon and planets, and of all attendant phenomena. The ecliptic stars then used in Babylonia were as follows:—[181]

• 1. η Piscium.
• 2. β Arietis.
• 3. α Arietis.
• 4. η Tauri.
• 5. α Tauri.
• 6. β Tauri.
• 7. ζ Tauri.
• 8. η Geminorum.
• 9. μ Geminorum.
• 10. γ Geminorum.
• 11. α Geminorum.
• 12. β Geminorum.
• 13. δ Cancri.
• 14. η Leonis.
• 15. α Leonis.
• 16. ρ Leonis.
• 17. β Leonis.
• 18. β Virginis.
• 19. γ Virginis.
• 20. α Virginis.
• 21. α Libræ.
• 22. β Libræ
• 23. δ Scorpionis.
• 24. α Scorpionis.
• 25. δ Ophiuchi.
• 26. α Capricorni.
• 27. γ Capricorni.
• 28. η Capricorni.

In Egypt, dating from the twentieth dynasty (1100 B.C.), is a series of star tables which have puzzled Egyptologists from Champollion and Biot downwards. These observations are recorded in several manuscripts found in tombs; they seem to have been given as a sort of charm to the people who were buried, in order to enable them to get through the difficulties of the way in the nether world.

The hieroglyphs state that a particular star of a particular Egyptian constellation is seen at a particular hour of the night. We have twelve lines representing the twelve hours of the night, and it is stated that we have in these vertical lines the equivalent of the lines in our transit instruments, and that the reference "in the middle," "over the right eye," "over the right shoulder," or "over the left ear," as the case may be, is simply a reference to the position of the star.

Were this confirmed, one of the remarkable things about the inquiry would be that the Egyptians did not hesitate in those days to make a constellation cover very nearly 90° of right ascension, showing that they wished to have as few constellations, including as many stars, as possible. But the best authorities all agree that these are tables of stars rising at different hours of the night, and a small constellation near the pole might have taken many hours to rise.

The observations were made on the 1st and 16th of every month. The chief stars seem to be twenty-four in number, and it looked at first as if we had really here a list of priceless value of twenty-four either ecliptic or equatorial stars, similar to the decans to which reference has already been made.

Unfortunately, however, the list has resisted all efforts to completely understand it. Whether it is a list of risings or meridian passages even is still in dispute. Quite recently, indeed, one of the investigators, Herr Gustav Bilfinger,[182] has not hesitated to consider it not a list of observations at all, but a compilation for a special purpose.

"The star-table is intended to carry the principle of time into the rigid world of the grave, and represents over the sepulchral vault 'the eternal horizon,' as the ancient Egyptians so aptly styled the grave, an imitation of the sky, a compensation for the sky of the upper world with its time-measuring motion; yet the idea here is bolder, the execution is more artificial and complicated, since the sculptor endeavoured to combine the daily and the annual motion of the celestial vault in one picture; wanted to transfer into the grave the temporal frames in which all human life is enacted. This endeavour to represent by one configuration both motions and both chronological units explains all the peculiarities and imperfections of our star-table.

"The simplest means of representing both motions was found in the stars, which circle the earth in the course of a day, and indicate the year by the successive appearance of new stars in the morning twilight. If the same stars were to serve both purposes in one representation, it was necessary to take twenty-four stars which rose at intervals of fifteen days, since only such followed each other at an average distance of 15°, and were therefore useful for showing the hours.

"If the calendar-maker really possessed a list of the twenty-four principal (zodiacal) stars, the course of the year was indicated thereby; but since he also wanted to represent the daily motion, he might with some justice have composed each night out of eleven of these stars, since the stars' risings are only visible during the ten middle hours of the night. But ten hours would not have adequately represented the night, since this was thought of as a twelve hours' interval.

"There was a way out of it—viz., to call hora 0 'sunset,' hora 12 'sunrise,' which would have been a simple and correct solution if the division of the night into twelve parts for practical purposes had been aimed at. But this expedient he could not adopt, because he could or would only operate with stars, and the notions of sunrise and sunset found no place in his tables. Thus he was forced to falsify the customary division of the hours, by squeezing the twelve hours of the night into the time during which star risings are visible—viz., the dark night exclusive of twilight. On the other hand, he could not, with his principal stars at intervals of 15°, divide his night, shortened as it was by two hours, into twelve parts, and thus he was obliged to make use of two or three auxiliary stars, as we have proved in detail above, and thus yet more to disfigure the hour-division, since thereby the lengths of the hours were made very variable. These are then two things which we must not regard as peculiarities of ancient Egyptian reckoning, but as a consequence of the leading idea of our table, which did not intend to facilitate the division of the night into twelve parts by star observations, but was calculated, by the connection of thirteen stars with thirteen successive moments, to create the idea of the circling host of stars and thence the course of the night."

I give an abstract of the list of the twenty-four principal stars and the Egyptian constellations in which they occur:—

1.		Sahu = Orion.
2.		Sothis = Sirius.
3.		The two stars.
4.		The stars of the water.
5.		The lion.
6.		The many stars.
7.		Mena's herald.
8.		Mena.
9.		Mena's followers.
10.
11.
12.		Hippopotamus.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.		Necht.
18.
19.
20.
21.		Ari.
22.		Goose.
23.
24.		Sahu = Head of Orion.

It will be seen that even this Egyptian star-list is very indeterminate. It is known that Sahu is the name for the constellation of Orion. The hippopotamus represents Draco, and probably Necht another northern constellation. There are indications, too, that Mena may symbolise Spica, with which star we have seen Min-worship associated. Further than this the authorities do not venture at present to go.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.
THE INFLUENCE OF EGYPT UPON TEMPLE-ORIENTATION IN GREECE.

In the final pages of this book I have to show that recent investigations have put beyond all doubt the fact that the astronomical observations and temple-worship of the Egyptians formed the basis first of Greek and later of Latin temple-building.

I have indicated in a former chapter that in our own days, and in our own land, the idea of orientation which I have endeavoured to work out for Egypt still holds its own. It was more than probable, therefore, that we should find the intermediate stages in those countries whither by universal consent Egyptian ideas percolated. Among these, Greece holds the first place, as it was the nearest point of Europe to the Nile Valley.

Before we study the orientation of the Greek temples, let us endeavour to realise the conditions of those Greek colonists who, filled with the Egyptian learning; impressed with the massive and glorious temples in which they had worshipped; favoured, perchance, moreover, with glimpses of the esoteric ideas of the priesthood; and finally, fired with Greek ideals of the beautiful, determined that their new land should not remain altarless.

What would they do? They would naturally adapt the Egyptian temple to the new surroundings, climatic among others. The open courts and flat roofs of Egyptian temples would give way to covered courts and sloping roofs to deal with a more copious rainfall; and it is curious to note that the chief architectural differences have this simple origin. The small financial resources of a colony would be reason good enough for a cella not far from the entrance, with courts surrounding it under the now necessary roof. The instinctive love of beauty would do the rest, and make it a sine quâ non that the rosy-fingered dawn should be observable, and that the coloured light of the rising sun in the more boreal clime should render glorious a stately statue of the divinity.

A GREEK TEMPLE RESTORED—THE TEMPLE OF POSEIDON AT PÆSTUM.

It is well to take this opportunity of emphasising the transition from the Egyptian form of temple to the Greek one, in order to show how completely among many apparent changes the astronomical conditions were retained. The entrance door and the cella are always in the axis of the temple; the number of columns in the front is always even; the door is never blocked.

THE TEMPLE OF THESEUS AT ATHENS: THE ACROPOLIS, WITH THE PARTHENON, IN THE BACKGROUND.

I have already pointed out that in both groups of Egyptian temples, whether furnished with a pylon or not, one goes from the entrance to the other end, which held the sanctuary, through various halls of different styles of architecture and different stages of magnificence. But in the Greek temple this is entirely changed; the approach to the temple was outside—witness the glorious propylæum of the Parthenon at Athens—the temple representing, so to speak, only the core, the Holy of Holies, of the Egyptian temple; and any magnificent approach to it which could be given was given from the outside. Be it further remarked that the propylæum was never in the fair-way of the light entering the temple.

THE EAST FRONT OF THE PARTHENON, FACING THE RISING OF THE PLEIADES.

The massive pylons of some of the Egyptian temples were useful for shading the roofless outer courts. In Greece these were no longer useful.

The east front of the Parthenon very much more resembles the temple of Denderah than it does the early Egyptian temple—that is to say, the eastern front is open; it is not closed by pylons.

The view as to the possibility of temple-orientation being dominated by astronomical ideas first struck me at Athens and Eleusis, and when I found that the same idea had been held by Nissen, and that the validity of it seemed to be beyond all question, I consulted my friend Mr. F. C. Penrose specially with regard to Greece, as I knew he had made a special study of some of the temples, and that, he being an astronomer as well as an archæologist (for, alas! they are not, as I think they should be, convertible terms), it was possible that his observations with regard to them included the requisite data.

I was fortunate enough to find that he had already determined the orientation of the Parthenon with sufficient accuracy to enable him to agree in my conclusion that that temple had been directed to the rising of the Pleiades. He has subsequently taken up the whole subject with regard to Greece in a most admirable and complete way,[183] and has communicated papers to the Society of Antiquaries (February 18, 1892), and more recently to the Royal Society (April 27, 1893) on his results.[184]

These results are so numerous and complete that it is now quite possible to trace the transition from Egyptian to Greek temple-worship, and this, with Mr. Penrose's full permission, I propose to do in this chapter.

But, in the first instance, I am anxious to state that Mr. Penrose was soon convinced that in Greece, as in Egypt, the stars were used for heralding sunrise. He writes:—

"The object the ancients had in using the stars was to employ their rising and setting as a clock to give warning of the sunrise, so that on the special feast days the priests should have timely notice for preparing the sacrifice or ceremonial, whatever it may have been:

"'Spectans orientia solis
Lumina rite cavis undam de flumine palmis
Sustulit,' etc."

I may further give an extract from a letter received from him in which he deals with the demonstration of the orientation hypothesis furnished by the Greek temples alone.

"In my paper sent to the Royal Society there was a passage which seems to make it practically certain that heliacal stars were connected with the intra-solstitial temples as derived from Greek sources alone, independent of the powerful aid of the Egyptian cases.

"'That the first beam of sunrise should fall upon the statue centrally placed in the adytum of a temple or on the incense altar in front of it on a particular day, it would be requisite that the orientation of the temple should coincide with the amplitude of the sun as it rose above the visible horizon, be it mountain or plain.

"'That a star should act as time-warner it was necessary that it should have so nearly the same amplitude as the sun that it could be seen from the adytum through the eastern door, if it was to give warning at its rising, or to have a similar but reversed amplitude towards the west, if its heliacal setting was to be observed; and it follows that in the choice of the festival day and the corresponding orientation, on these principles, both the amplitude of the sun at its rising and that of the star eastwards or westwards, as the case might be, would have to be considered in connection with one another.

"'From what has been said it is obvious that in the intra-solstitial temples the list of available bright stars and constellations is in the first instance limited to those which lie within a few degrees of the ecliptic, and it will be found that in the list above given and those which follow, if we omit Eleusis, where the conditions were exceptional, all but one of the stars are found in the zodiacal constellations. A very great limit is imposed, in the second place, by one of the conditions being the heliacal rising or setting of those stars from which the selection has to be made. So that, when both these combined limitations are taken into account, it becomes improbable to the greatest degree that in every instance of intra-solstitial temples of early foundation of which I have accurate particulars, being twenty-eight in number and varying in their orientation from 21° N. to 18° 25′ S. of the true east, there should be found a bright heliacal star or constellation in the right position at dates not in themselves improbable unless the temples had been so oriented as to secure this combination.'

"I have just been looking into the number of possible stars which could have been used, i.e. within the limits of the greatest distance from the ecliptic that could have been utilised.

"The stars which could have been utilised in addition to the seven which serve for nearly thirty temples are ten only, viz.:—

• Aldebaran.
• Pollux.
• β Arietis.
• β Tauri.
• α and β Capricorni as a group.
• β Libræ.
• α Libræ.
• α Leonis.
• γ Leonis.
• β Leonis.

"If the orientations had been placed at random, would not our thirty temples have made many misses in aiming at these seventeen stars, it being necessary also to hit exactly the heliacal margin? And would they have secured anything like a due archæological sequence?

---

"Another point is this:—

"Whenever a star less than first magnitude is used (Pleiades only excepted) it has been necessary, to secure coincidence, to give it several more degrees of sun depression than in the cases of Spica and Antares."

The problem in Greece was slightly different from that in Egypt. We had not such a great antiquity almost without records to deal with, and moreover the feast-calendars of the various temples presented less difficulty. There was no vague year to contend with, and in some cases the actual dates of building were known within a very few years.

In Greece, not dominated by the rise of the Nile, we should not expect the year to begin at a solstice, but rather at the vernal equinox. I have shown that even in pyramid times in Egypt the risings of the Pleiades and Antares were watched to herald the equinoctial sun; it is not surprising, therefore, to find the earliest temples in Greece to be so oriented. Mr. Penrose has found the following:—

		B.C.
η Tauri (The Pleiades)	Archaic temple of Minerva	Athens	R[185] 1530
	Asclepieion	Epidaurus	R 1275
	The Hecatompedon (site of Parthenon)	Athens	R 1150
	Temple of Bacchus	Athens	R 1030
	Temple of Minerva	Sunium	S 845
Antares	Heræum	Argos	R 1760
	Earlier Erechtheum	Athens	S 1070
	Temple at	Corinth	S 770
	Temple on the Mountain Jupiter Panhellenius	Ægina	S 630

Here we find the oldest temple in a spot which by common consent is the very cradle of Greek civilisation.

It has also been shown that in Khu-en-Aten's time the sun-temple at Tell el-Amarna was oriented to Spica. Spica, too, we find so used in Greece in the following temples:—

				B.C.
Spica	The Heræum at	Olympia	R	1445
	Nike Apteros	Athens	S	1130
	Themis	Rhamnus	R	1092
	Nemesis	Rhamnus	R	747
	Apollo	Bassæ	R	728	Eastern doorway.
	Diana	Ephesus	R	715

When the sun at the spring equinox had left Taurus and entered Aries, owing to precession, in Egypt the equinoxes were no longer in question, since the solstitial year was thoroughly established, and consequently we find no temples to the new warning star α Arietis.

In Greece, however, where the vernal equinox had now been established as the beginning of the year, we find a different state of things. No less than seven temples oriented to α Arietis are already known:—

B.C.
α Arietis	Minerva	Tegea	R	1580
	Jupiter Olympius	Athens	R	1202
	Jupiter	Olympia	R	790
	Temple (perhaps Juno)	Platea	S	650
	Jupiter	Megalopolis	S	605
	Temple at the Harbour	Ægina	S	580
	Temple on Acropolis of	Mycenæ	R	540	Eastern doorway.
	The Metroum	Olympia	S	360

THE TEMPLE OF JUPITER OLYMPIUS BELOW THE ACROPOLIS, AT ATHENS, ORIENTED TO α ARIETIS.

The above are all intra-solstitial temples—that is, the sunlight as well as the light of the star can enter them—and this enables us to note a certain change of thought brought about in all probability by the artistic spirit of the Greeks. The Egyptian temples were all dark, often with a statue of a god or a reptile obscure in the naos, and many were oriented so that sunlight never entered them. Mr. Penrose points out that almost all the Greek temples are oriented so that sunlight can enter them. Of such temples we have the following twenty-nine:—

7	examples	from	Athens.
3	"	"	Olympia.
2	"	"	Epidaurus.
2	"	"	Rhamnus.
2	"	"	Ægina.
2	"	"	Tegea.
1	"	"	Nemea.
1	"	"	Corcyra.
1	"	"	Sunium.
1	"	"	Corinth.
1	"	"	Bassæ.
1	"	"	Ephesus.
1	"	"	Platæa.
1	"	"	Lycosura.
1	"	"	Megalopolis.
2	"	"	Argos.

Now in all these Greek temples, instead of the dark naos of the Egyptian building, we find the cella fully illumined and facing the entrance. Frequently, too, there was a chryselephantine statue to be rendered glorious by the coloured morning sunlight falling upon it, or, if any temple had the westerly aspect, by the sunset glow.

It was perhaps this, combined eventually with the much later invention of water-clocks for telling the hours of the night, which led to the non-building of temples resembling those at Thebes and Denderah facing nearly north; of these, however, there are scattered examples; one of very remarkable importance, as it is a temple oriented to γ Draconis 1130 B.C., built therefore not very long after the temple M at Karnak, and this temple is at Bœotian Thebes! A better proof of the influence exerted by the Egyptians over the temple-building in Greece could scarcely be imagined. As Mr. Penrose remarks:—

"Thebes was called the City of the Dragon, and tradition records that Cadmus introduced both Phœnician and Egyptian worship."

It would be very surprising, if we assume, as we are bound to do, that these temples to stars were built under Egyptian influence, that Sirius should not be represented among them, that being the paramount star in Egypt at a time when we should expect to find her influence most important in Greece. Still, I have shown already that, as the Greek year ignored the solstice, the use of Sirius as a warning star for all purposes of utility would not come in. Mr. Penrose finds, however, that, in spite of this, Sirius was used for temple-worship.

"Leaving the solar temples, we find that the star which was observed at the great temple of Ceres must have been Sirius, not used, however, heliacally—although this temple is not extra-solstitial—but for its own refulgence at midnight. The date so determined is quite consistent with the probable time of the foundation of the Eleusinian Mysteries, and the time of the year when at its rising it would have crossed the axis at midnight agrees exactly with that of the celebration of the Great Mysteries."

"It is reasonable to suppose that when, as in the case of Sirius at Eleusis, brilliant stars were observed at night, the effect was enhanced by the priests by means of polished surfaces."

Another question. Does the star follow the cult in Greece as it does in Egypt?

In Greece we find the following:—

"The star α Arietis is the brightest star of the first sign of the Zodiac, and would therefore be peculiarly appropriate to the temple of Jupiter. The heliacal rising of this star agrees both with the Olympieium at Athens and that at Olympia. There is a considerable difference in the deviation of the axes of these two temples from the true east; but this is exactly accounted for by the greater apparent altitude of Hymettus over the more distant mountain at Olympia.[186]

"The Pleiades are common to the following temples of Minerva—viz., the Archaic temple on the Acropolis, the Hecatompedon, and Sunium. In the two former it is the rising, the latter the setting star.

"There must have been something in common between the temples at Corinth, Ægina, and Nemea. The two last, at any rate, are reputed temples of Jupiter."

The Greek side of the inquiry becomes more interesting when the connection between the orientation of the intra-solstitial temples and the local festivals is inquired into; in Egypt this is all but impossible at present.

A temple oriented to either solstice can only be associated with the longest or with the shortest day; if the temple points to the sunrise or sunset at any other period of the year, the sunlight will enter the temple twice, whether it points to the sunrise or sunset place.

Now Mr. Penrose finds that in Greece, as in Egypt, the initial orientation of each intra-solstitial temple was to a star, and this would, of course, secure observations of the star and the holding of an associated festival at the same time of the year for a long period. But when the precessional movement carried the star away, they would only have the sun to depend on, and this they might use twice a year. It is possible, as Mr. Penrose remarks, that

"there would have been no reason for preferring one of these solar coincidences to the other, and the feast could have been shifted to a different date if it had been thought more convenient."

He goes on to add:—

"It would appear that something of this sort may have taken place at Athens, for we find on the Acropolis the archaic temple, which seems to have been intended originally for a vernal festival, offering its axis to the autumnal sunrise on the very day of the great Panathenaia in August.

"The chryselephantine statue of the Parthenon, which temple followed on the same lines as the earlier Hecatompedon (originally founded to follow the rising of the Pleiades after that constellation had deserted the archaic temple alongside), was lighted up by the sunrise on the feast to the same goddess in August, the Synæcia, instead of some spring festival, for which both these temples seem at first to have been founded.

"The temple at Sunium, already quoted for its October star-heralded festival to Minerva, was oriented also axially to the sun on February 21, the feast of the Lesser Mysteries."

I have had to insist again and again that in the case of the Egyptian temples the stated date of foundation of a temple is almost always long after that in which its lines were laid down in accordance with the ritual. No wonder, then, that the same thing is noticed in Greece.

"In about two-thirds of the cases which I have investigated the dates deduced from the orientations are clearly earlier than the architectural remains now visible above the ground. This is explained by the temples having been rebuilt upon old foundations, as may be seen in several cases which have been excavated, of which the archaic temple of Minerva on the Acropolis of Athens and the temple of Jupiter of Olympius on a lower site are instances. There are temples also of the middle epoch, such as the examples at Corinth, Ægina, and the later temples at Argos and at Olympia (the Metroum at the last-named), of which the orientation dates are not inconsistent with what may be gathered from other sources."

The problem is, moreover, helped in Greece by architectural considerations, which are frequently lacking in Egypt: of two temples it can be shown, on this evidence alone, that one is older than the other. Such an appeal strengthens my suggestion that two of the temples of the Acropolis Hill were oriented to the Pleiades, by showing the older temple to point to an earlier position of the star group. To these Mr. Penrose adds another pair at Rhanmus, where he has found that there are two temples almost touching one another, both following (and with accordant dates) the shifting places of Spica, and still another pair at Tegea.