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:—