The dawn of astronomy: A study of the temple-worship and mythology of the ancient EgyptiansLockyer, Norman, Sir
Religion
The dawn of astronomy: A study of the temple-worship and mythology of the ancient Egyptians
Lockyer, Norman, Sir
Astronomy, Egyptian; Sun -- Mythology; Sun worship; Temples -- Egypt
The female hippopotamus typified Taurt, the wife of Set (represented
by a jackal with erected tail, or hippopotamus), and one of the most
ordinary forms of Hathor is a hippopotamus. There is evidence that the
star we are considering, γ Draconis, occupied the place of the head or
the mythical head-gear.
Here, then, in the actual symbolism of Hathor we find γ Draconis as
distinctly pointed to as by the orientation of the temples.
[Illustration: THE COW OF ISIS.]
The other symbolism is quite different; instead of a hippopotamus we
deal with a cow.
In the inscriptions at Denderah we find the star Sirius represented by
a cow in a boat. In the circular zodiac we have the cow in the boat,
the point of the beginning of the year, and the constellation Orion,
so located as to indicate clearly that, at that time, the beginning of
the year fell between the heliacal rising of Sirius and of the stars in
Orion. Sirius was Isis-Sothis.
If we go to Thebes, we pass there from the cow Isis-Sothis to
Isis-Hathor, and there we find the mythology retains the idea of
the cow, the cow gradually appearing from behind the western hills.
There is not a doubt, I think, that the basis of this mythological
representation was, that the temple which was built to observe the
rising of the star at a time perhaps somewhat later than that given by
Biot (3285 B.C.) was situated in the western hills of Thebes, so that
Hathor, the goddess on which the light was to fall in the sanctuary,
was imaged as dwelling in the western hills. At Philæ we get no longer
either Isis-Sothis or Isis-Hathor, but Isis-Sati.[63]
[Illustration: HATHOR AS A COW.]
Now just as certainly as the hippopotamus had to do with the
constellation Draco, the cow had to do with Sirius, for Sirius was
represented as a cow in a boat.
[Illustration: HATHOR, "THE COW OF THE WESTERN HILLS."]
It may be gathered from this how truly astronomical in basis was the
mythologic symbolism to which we have been driven in the effort to
obtain more light; and, indeed, it is necessary for us to consider it
still more closely.
CHAPTER XXII.
STAR-CULTS (CONTINUED)--AMEN-T AND KHONS.
When I had the privilege of discussing at Thebes the orientation
hypothesis with M. Bouriant, the distinguished head of the French
School of Archæology in Egypt, he suggested that I should accompany
him one day to Medînet-Habû, at which place he was then superintending
excavations, and where there are three temples dedicated to Amen.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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