The dawn of astronomy : a study of the temple-worship and mythology of the ancient Egyptians / by J. Norman Lockyer.

  • Norman Lockyer
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The dawn of astronomy : a study of the temple-worship and mythology of the ancient Egyptians / by J. Norman Lockyer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

    428/476 (page 406)
    When the idea was conceived of indicating ,synil)olically the beginning of s])ring in the sky—whether the idea originated in the brains of the masses or in that of a learned scholar, whether it had a mythological or a more scientific basis— a name was given in the first instance to the region in which the snn was at the beginning of spring, or to that west of it, the name denoting symbolically the beginning of spring. This, of course, does not exclude the possibility that more eastward })ortions of the ecliptic, whose stars were less prominent, were included in this name. From this we may conclude that Taurus did not originate later than -3000, for at that time Aldebaran, its principal star, stood east of the sun at the beginning of spring. Hence it would follow that our creation legends are, at least in part, just as old. ^ It may, then, be gathered from the above that the con- stellations of the Bull and the Scorpion were recognised as such at the same early date both in Babylonia and Egypt; and to these we may add the Tortoise (our present Cancer) and some of the southern constellations. Further, that the date of their establishment was certainly not later than, say, ■iOOO B.C., and probal^ly much earlier. With regard to the complete ecliptic, the information seems meagre both from Bal^ylonia and from Egypt in early times. I have already referred to the Egyptian decans, that is, the lists of stars rising at intervals of ten days. The lists will be found in Lepsius and in Brugsch's Astronomische und ^ AVith regard to these legends Jensen writes: Now it is remarkalde that the oldest historical king about whom the Babylonians know anything-, Sargon of Agadi (■') is said to have lived about 3750 b.c—i.e., 5639 years ago—and that his son is called Narani-Sln= ' favourite of Sin,' the moon-god. And if we bear in mind that the zodiac with its signs plays into the Babylonian legends of creation, and that the Hebrew cosmogonic legends are derived from these, it is for us even more remarkable that the Jews place the creation of the world 5649 years ago, however much the figures derived from the Bible, according to other cominitations and traditions, may depart therefrom. Whether this is accidental or not, I do not profess to judge.