"Cette invocation à Sothis, dans une chambre consacrée à la consécration de certains produits de la terre, n'a rien qui doit surprendre. Sothis est le symbole du renouvellement de l'année et de la résurrection de la nature. Au lever héliaque de Sothis, le Nil sort de son lit. Jusqu'à ce moment la terre de l'Égypte est stérile et nue. Fécondée par la fleuve, elle va se couvrir d'une verdure nouvelle."
But the Sothis here in question is Sirius, the star to the rising of which the temple of Isis, and not the temple of Hathor, was directed!
We have, then, at Denderah a temple not pointed to Sirius, the worship in which is that of Hathor, and there can be little doubt that we have astronomically determined the fact that "Her Majesty of Denderah" was really the star Sirius.
We can pass from Denderah to the temple of Hathor at Thebes. The general plan of Thebes prepared by Lepsius indicates the orientation of the temple of Dêr el-Bahari, to which I refer, the temple in the western hills of Thebes, embellished by Queen Hatshepset (circ. 1600 B.C.). This temple, instead of being-oriented 71½° N. of E., lies 24½° S. of E.; it can never, therefore, have faced the star observed in the temple of Hathor at Denderah. There is also another temple annexed to the temple of Amen-Rā, which received the light of Sirius in former years. These temples were, in all probability, intended to observe the same star which was subsequently observed in the temple of Isis at Denderah.
That is one point; here is another. We have it from Plutarch[61] that Isis = Mut = Hathor = Methuer.
The amplitude of the temple at Denderah dedicated to Hathor is 71½° N. of E. (59° N. declination). That of the temple dedicated to Mut at Karnak is 72½° N. of E. (58¾° N. declination), which, assuming for a moment the same star to have been used, corresponds to a date (according to the height of the horizon) of circ. 3000 to 3500 B.C. This is therefore later than the original foundation of the Hathor temple of Denderah, but not far from the date of its restoration by Pepi.
It is fundamental to the orientation theory that the cult shall follow the star. But we have here the same cult, according to Plutarch; we are hence permitted to suggest that in dealing with the temples of Hathor at Denderah and Mut at Thebes we are dealing with local names of the same goddess personifying the same star.
Two lines of argument may be followed to strengthen this conclusion.
The first has to do with the orientation of the temple of Mut at Thebes. There is no statement of its great antiquity, as in the case of the temple of Hathor at Denderah. Here we find again one of the great difficulties in our way, the impossibility of running back to the original foundation among the many restorations effected of the most important among the Egyptian temples. The temple of Mut is ascribed to Amen-hetep III., but I cannot hold this to be the original foundation, for the following reasons:—
1. With its orientation in the time of Amen-hetep III. it pointed to no star in particular.