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.