Astronomical Myths: Based on Flammarions's "History of the Heavens"

by J. F. Blake; Camille Flammarion

In what way was the primitive year regulated? was it a solar or a sidereal year?

There can be no doubt that when there was an absence of all civilisation and a calendar of any sort was unknown, the year meant simply the succession of seasons, and that no attempt would be made to reckon any day as its commencement. And as soon as this was attempted a difficulty would arise from there not being an exact number of days in the year. So that when reckoned as the interval between certain positions of the sun they would be of different lengths, which would introduce some difficulty as to the commencement of the year. Be this the case, however, or not, Mr. Haliburton's researches seem to show that the earliest form of year was the sidereal one, and that it was regulated by the Pleiades.

In speaking of that constellation we have noticed that among the islanders of the southern hemisphere and others there are two years in one of ours, the first being called the Pleiades above and the second the Pleiades below; and we have seen how the same new year's day has been recognised in very many parts of the world and among the ancient Egyptians and Hindoos. This year would begin in November, and from the intimate relation of all the primitive calendars that have been discovered to a particular day, taken as November 17 by the Egyptians, it would appear probable that for a long time corrections were made both by the Egyptians and others in order to keep the phenomenon of the Pleiades just rising at sunset to one particular named day of their year—showing that the year they used was a sidereal one. This can be traced back as far as 1355 B.C. among the Egyptians, and to 1306 B.C. among the Hindoos. There seem to have been in use also shorter periods of three months, which, like the two-season year, appear to have been, as they are now among the Japanese, regulated by the different positions of the Pleiades.

Among the Siamese of the present day, there are both forms of the year existing, one sidereal, beginning in November, and regulated by the fore-named constellation; and the other tropical, beginning in April. Whether, however, the year be reckoned by the stars or by the sun, there will always be a difficulty in arranging the length of the year, because in each case there will be about a quarter of a day over.

It seems, too, to have been found more convenient in early times to take 360 days as the length of the year, and to add an intercalary month now and then, rather than 365 and add a day.

Thus among the earliest Egyptians the year was of 360 days, which were reckoned in the months, and five days were added each year, between the commencement of one and the end of the other, and called unlucky days. It was the belief of the Egyptians that these five days were the birthdays of their principal gods; Osiris being born on the first, Anieris (or Apollo) on the second, Typhon on the third, Isis on the fourth, Nephys (or Aphrodite) on the fifth. These appear to have some relation with similar unlucky days among the Greeks and Romans, and other nations.

The 360 days of the Egyptian year were represented at Acantho, near Memphis, in a symbolical way, there being placed a perforated vessel, which each day was filled with water by one of a company of 360 priests, each priest having charge over one day in the year. A similar symbolism was used at the tomb of Osiris, around which were placed 360 pitchers, one of which each day was filled with milk.

On the other hand, the 365 days were represented by the tomb of Osymandyas, at Thebes, being surrounded by a circle of gold which was one cubit broad and 365 cubits in circumference. On the side were written the risings and settings of the stars, with the prognostications derived from them by the Egyptian astrologers. It was destroyed, however, by Cambyses when the Persians conquered Egypt.

They divided their year according to Herodotus into twelve months, the names of which have come down to us.

Even with the 365 days, which their method of reckoning would practically come to, they would still be a quarter of a day each year short; so that in four years it would amount to a whole day, an error which would amount to something perceptible even during the life of a single man, by its bringing the commencement of the civil year out of harmony with the seasons. In fact the first day of the year would gradually go through all the seasons, and at the end of 1460 solar years there would have been completed 1461 civil years, which would bring back the day to its original position. This period represents a cycle of years in which approximately the sun and the earth come to the same relative position again, as regards the earth's rotation on its axis and revolution round the sun. This cycle was noticed by Firmicius. Another more accurate cycle of the same kind, noticed by Syncellus, is obtained by multiplying 1461 by 25, making 36,525 years, which takes into account the defect which the extra hours over 365 have from six. The Egyptians, however, did not allow their year to get into so large an error, though it was in error by their using sidereal time, regulating their year, and intercalating days, first according to the risings of the Pleiades, and after according to that of Sirius, the dog-star, which announced to them the approaching overflowing of the Nile, a phenomenon of such great value to Egypt that they celebrated it with annual fêtes of the greatest magnificence.