CHAPTER XXIX.
THE MYTHOLOGY OF ISIS AND OSIRIS.
A long parenthesis has been necessary in order to inquire fully into the yearly festivals of the Egyptian priests, the relation of the feasts to the rising of stars, and the difficulties which arose from the fact that a true year was not in use till quite late.
It is now time to return to the subject-matter of Chapters XIX.-XXII. in order to show that since the goddesses chiefly worshipped at Denderah and Thebes were goddesses whose cult was associated with the year, it is open to us to inquire whether we may not use the facts with which we are now familiar to obtain a general idea of that part of mythology which refers to them.
I will begin by taking a certain group of goddesses.
1. There is evidence that many of the goddesses under discussion personified stars in exactly the same way that Isis personified Sirius and Mut γ Draconis.—If we leave Denderah and Thebes for the moment, and consider the pyramid region of Gîzeh, we find that the temples there, which are associated with each of the pyramids, are not oriented to Sirius; but yet they are temples of Isis, pointing due east; therefore they could not have pointed to the same Isis worshipped at Denderah, or the same Hathor worshipped at Thebes.
Thus, in the case of the temple of Mut at Thebes, of Isis at Denderah, and the temples of Isis at the pyramids, and in many towns facing East, obviously different stars were in question, whatever the mythology might have been.
BLACK GRANITE STATUE OF SEKHET FROM THE TEMPLE OF MUT AT THEBES.
Further, it seems quite certain that the star symbolised as Isis in the pyramid worship was the star Antares (Serk-t) heralding the autumnal equinox, and it is probable that the Pleiades (Nit) were so used at the vernal equinox.
