If we study the inscriptions—and this, thanks chiefly to Mariette's magnificent book on Denderah, we can do—we find that they give out a very certain sound. Here is one of them:—
"She [i.e. her Majesty Isis] shines into her temple on New Year's Day, and she mingles her light with that of her father Rā on the horizon."
Here we have nothing more nor less than a distinct and perfectly accurate statement relating to the cosmical rising of a star, i.e., as I have before explained, of the sun and the star both rising at the same instant of time.
RUINS OF THE MAMISI (PLACE OF BIRTH) OR TEMPLE OF ISIS AT DENDERAH.
Further, in the inscriptions the "rising of Hathor" is mentioned distinctly. "La grande déesse Sefekh [Sesheta] apporté les écrits qui se rapportent à ton lever, ô Hathor, et au lever de Rā."[52] Everybody knows that "Rā" means the sun, and therefore the rising of Rā is at once accepted by everybody as obviously meaning sunrise. But if we find "Hathor" treated in the same way as the sun, then Hathor must be a celestial body rising like the sun. I consider this a very important conclusion to arrive at, for many reasons.
But, further, Hathor was also worshipped, according to the inscriptions,[53] under the name of Sothis.
Now we know, quite independently of all mythology, that Sothis is simply the Greek form of the Egyptian name (Sept) of the star Sirius.
Taking, then, all these inscriptions together, we have an absolute astronomical demonstration of the fact that the "rising of Hathor," which is referred to mythologically in the inscriptions given by Mariette, was the rising of Sirius; that the star which "shone into the temple, and which mingled her light with the light of her father Rā," was really the star Sirius. We get the demonstration of the fact that mythologically the star Sirius was Hathor, or otherwise Isis.
In other words, we find a star personified; Sirius being personified as Hathor or Isis.