CHAPTER XX.

THE PERSONIFICATION OF STARS (CONTINUED)--THE TEMPLE OF HATHOR AT DENDERAH.

In Chapter XVII. I quoted from the inscriptions relating to the alignment of the axis of the temple of Hathor at Denderah. It will be remembered that the king, while stretching the cord, had his glance directed to the _āk_ of the constellation of the Thigh. Further, we saw in the last chapter that the amplitude of the temple axis is 71½° N. of E.

A copy of Biot's plan giving his value of the orientation is given on the next page.

I have shown how truly the temple of Isis was pointed to Sirius. We have now to try to find a star towards which the temple of Hathor may have been pointed in like manner.

It will be generally understood that in an inquiry of this kind there are very many difficulties, chiefly depending upon the uncertainty of the building-date of the original foundation, and upon the indeterminate nature of the information available. But although we meet with these difficulties in the case of the temple of Hathor, there are many from which we are free. In the case of many of the temples in Egypt we have no knowledge of the tutelary divinity. For a great many temples no observational data exist; they have not been properly measured--that is, we do not know exactly in what direction they point or what their amplitudes are; and, further we do not know anything of the horizon at the temple building, so as to be able to make the necessary corrections due to heights of hills.

This premised, I will now return to the statement regarding the temple of Hathor, to see what can be made of it on the view that either the middle or the chief point, that is, the brightest star, of the constellation of the Great Bear as we now know it, was the one referred to, and that the cord was stretched to the star on the horizon.

The first question which arises is, Was there any reason why δ Ursæ Majoris at the centre, or α the brightest, should have been used as the orientation point at any time? Was there any reason why any special sanctity should have been associated with either? Certainly not, in the case of δ, on account of its magnitude, because Dubhe, not far from it, is much brighter; and possibly not, in the case both of δ and α, on account of the time of their heliacal rising. We seem therefore in an _impasse_ along this line of inquiry; but a further consideration of the question brings out the remarkable fact that at three widely-sundered points of time the stars α Lyræ, α Ursæ Majoris, and γ Draconis have been the brightest stars nearest the North Pole, and with such declinations that α Lyræ would be visible at one of the dates, α Ursæ Majoris at another, and γ Draconis at another still--all rising in nearly the same amplitude far to the north.

In Chapter XVIII. I have shown that one of the temples, and possibly a series of them, at Thebes were directed to γ Draconis. It is interesting, then, to carry the inquiry further. It may possibly explain how it is that we get a definite statement about the _āk_ of the Great Bear in one case and a certain sure orientation to γ Draconis in the other.

In the first place, it has to be borne in mind that when a star is circumpolar--that is, never sets--no temple can be directed to its rising. Now, accepting the _āk_ as the brightest star (and as I stated in Chapter XVII., it might, indeed, have been the central one as well in the old constellation, for we do not know its limits), we have to deal with the facts concerning α Ursæ Majoris, called by the Arabians Dubhe.

The latitude of Denderah is a little over 20° N., therefore all stars with a less polar distance than that--or, to put it another way, all stars with a declination greater than (90°-26° = 64°. N.)--will be circumpolar. Now, the declination of Dubhe was greater than 64° between 4000 B.C. and 1500 A.D. (I neglect refractions and hills); hence, if there is any truth in the statements made in the building ceremonials, the temple could not have been founded between those dates.

But what are the records concerning this temple? We know that the structure as we see it was built in the time of the last Ptolemies and the first Roman emperors, and I have already shown that at those dates the Great Bear (the old Thigh) did not rise at all, as it was circumpolar.

It is also known that there was a temple here in the time of Thothmes III., and even earlier, going back to the earliest times of Egyptian history. King Pepi, of the Sixth Dynasty (_circ._ 3233 B.C.), is portrayed over and over again in the crypts.

Even this is not all the evidence in favour of a high antiquity. In one of the crypts (No. 9), according to Ebers and Dümichen, there are two references to the earliest plans of the temple. One inscription states that the great ground-plan (_Senti_) of Ant (Denderah) was found in old writing on parchments of the time of the followers of Horus (sun-worshippers) preserved in the walls of the temple during the reign of King Pepi. Another inscription goes further, referring to the restoration by Thothmes III. (_circ._ 1600 B.C.) of the temple to the state in which it was found described in old writings of the time of the King Chufu (Cheops) of the Fourth Dynasty (_circ._ 3733 B.C.). If any faith is to be placed in this inscription, it seems to me to suggest a still higher antiquity. There would have been more reason for describing an antique shrine than a brand new one.

Still another inscription runs:--

"King Tehuti-mes III. has caused this building to be erected in memory of his mother, the goddess Hathor, the Lady of An (Denderah), the eye of the Sun, the heavenly queen of the gods. The ground plan was found in the city of An, in archaic drawing on a leather roll of the time of the Hor-Shesu: it was found in the interior of a brick wall in the south side of the temple in the reign of King Pepi."[56]

But let us see what the facts are regarding the date supplied by the temple itself, accepting the statement made regarding the actual operations at the laying of the foundation stone originally.

To determine the dates approximately, we find that an amplitude of 71½° N. of E. in the latitude of Denderah gives a declination of 57¾° N., with a sea horizon (correcting for refraction) 58¾° N. with hills 1° high, and 59¾° N. with hills 2° high, which is not far from the exact conditions.

The star Dubhe had the declination of 60° N. in 5000 B.C.

If, then, I am right in my suggestion as to the word _āk_ referring to α Ursæ Majoris, we find the closest agreement between the astronomical orientation; the definite statement as to a certain star being used in the building ceremonies; the inscriptions in the crypts referring to Cheops as the earliest historical personage who describes the building, and to the Shesu-Hor as the original designers of the building. According to most authorities, 5000 B.C. lands us in the times of the Shesu-Hor before Mena.

I must confess that this justification of the double record strikes me as very remarkable, and I think it will be generally conceded that further local observations should be made in order to attempt to carry the matter a stage beyond a first approximation.

We have got so far, then. If we take the history as we find it, and further take the trouble to work out the very definite statements made, we find that the temple was founded pointing to the rising of Dubhe before it became circumpolar, and that in those times this star was symbolised by the name of Hathor.

We may accept, then, the possibility that as the temple of Isis was oriented to Sirius, that dedicated to Hathor was directed to Dubhe.

It will have been obvious from what has preceded, that if the worship of Hathor was to go on at all, and if it were in any way connected with the observations of a star rising near the north point of the horizon, a new star must be chosen when α Ursæ Majoris became circumpolar. That is the first point.

I have already stated that α Ursæ Majoris began to be circumpolar at Denderah 4000 B.C. I may now add that γ Draconis ceased to be circumpolar about 5000 B.C. They had the same declination (62° N.) and the same amplitude (78° N.) 4400 B.C.

Mariette's plan shows a second temple oriented to N. 6° E., which we may perhaps be justified in taking as N. 9° E., since his azimuth of the great temple differs from Biot's and my own by 3°.

The corresponding declination would be 68° N. of E., the declination of Dubhe in 4200 B.C. and of γ Draconis in 4300 B.C. The temple may well, therefore, have been erected when both stars had the same amplitude, the apparent difference of 100 years being due to the uncertainty of the measures available.

The second point, then, is that when Dubhe, which, while it rose and set, was the brightest star near the pole which did so, _became circumpolar_; γ Draconis, when it _ceased to be circumpolar_, fulfilled these conditions; astronomically, then, it became the natural successor of α Ursæ Majoris.

I have before pointed out that it is not impossible that a temple once oriented to a certain star, and long out of use on account of the precessional movement, may be utilised for another, and be rehabilitated in consequence, when that same movement brings another conspicuous star into the proper rising amplitude.

This consideration at once leads to my third point, which is, that after Dubhe became circumpolar the temple of Hathor at Denderah would become useless--there would be no star to watch--unless a new star was chosen.

Now, let us suppose this to have been so, and that the natural successor of the star in question were chosen. Studying the facts as before approximately, as final data are not yet available, we have the declination 59¾° N. This was the declination of γ Draconis about 3500 B.C., assuming hills 2° high, which I think is too much; 3300 B.C., with hills 1½° high.

In the present case the orientation fits γ Draconis in the historic period, but it also fits Dubhe in the times of the Hor-shesu, the dimly-seen followers of Horus, or sun-worshippers, before the dawn of the historic period.

Next let us go back to the inscriptions. We found that King Pepi is portrayed over and over again in the crypts, and, which is more important, that the plan of the temple on parchment, dating from the times of the Shesu-Hor, had actually been walled up in the temple during the reign of the same king, no doubt at the ceremony of restoration or laying a new foundation stone, as is sometimes done to this day.

Now, Pepi's date, according to the chronologists, is 3200 B.C., a difference of 100 years only from the rough orientation date.

We see, therefore, the full importance of the work done in Pepi's reign. The _āk_ of the Thigh was no longer of use; but a new star was now available. Hathor was rehabilitated. Perhaps even the priests alone knew that the star had been changed.

By the temple of Hathor, then, if we assume that the record is absolutely true (and I, for one, believe in these old records more and more), and that Cheops only described a shrine founded by the Hor-shesu, we are carried back to _circ._ 5000 B.C. I am indebted to my friend Dr. Wallis Budge for the suggestion that the position of Denderah as the terminus of the highway from the Red Sea--which may soon again be reached by a railway from Keneh to Kosseir!--would have made it one of the most important places in ancient Egypt.

It is important to note that at a very early date the traffic between the Nile Valley and the Red Sea, and thence probably with Arabia and South Africa, flourished, and grew to be a by no means insignificant commerce.

According to Ebers,[57] "the oldest and most famous of all these highways is that which led from Koptos (Keneh, Denderah) to the Red Sea, through the valley now known as the Wady Hammamāt, and called by the ancient Egyptians Rohanu. It was a busy high-road, not alone for trading caravans, but from time to time for stonemasons and soldiers, whose task it was to hew the costly building materials from the hard rocks, which here abound, and to prepare the vast monoliths which were finished _in situ_, and then to convey them all to the residence of the Pharaohs. A remarkably beautiful kind of alabaster, of a fine honey yellow or white as snow, is found in these mountains." Another road led from Esneh or Edfû to the ancient port of Berenice. We shall see in the sequel that the temple of Redisieh on this route was dedicated to the same cult as that at Denderah.

If the above results be confirmed, we have a most definite indication of the fact that in the rebuilding in the times of Pepi, Thothmes III., and the Ptolemies, the original orientation of the building was not disturbed; and that in the account of the building ceremonies we are dealing as surely with the laying of the first foundation-stone as with the original plan.

In any case the consideration has to be borne in mind that the series of temples with high northern (and southern) amplitudes at Denderah, Thebes, and possibly other places, were nearly certainly founded before the time at which the heliacal rising of Sirius, near the time of the summer solstice, was the chief event of the year, watched by priests, astronomers--if the astronomers were not the only priests--and agriculturists alike. Now we know, from Biot's calculations, that this became possible _circ._ 3285 B.C., and that Sirius--though, as I am informed by Prof. Maspero, _not_ its heliacal rising--is referred to in inscriptions in pyramid times.

Subsequent research may possibly show that these temples had to do with the heralding of sunrise throughout the year, the Sirian temples being limited to New Year's Day.