CHAPTER XXI.

STAR-CULTS.

The last two chapters, then, have brought us so far. There are two principal temples at Denderah. The smaller is called the temple of Isis. It is oriented 18½° S. of E. The inscriptions tell us that the light of Sirius shone into it, and that Sirius was personified as Isis. We can determine astronomically that the statement is true for the time about 700 B.C., which was the date determined independently by Biot for the circular zodiac referred to on page 18.

The larger temple is called the temple of Hathor. It is oriented 71½° N. of E. The inscriptions very definitely tell us what star cast its light along its axis, and give also definite statements about the date of its foundation, which enable us to determine astronomically that in all probability the temple was oriented to Dubhe somewhat later than 5000 B.C.

Now we are _certain_ that Isis personified Sirius. That "Her Majesty of Denderah" was Sirius, at all events in the later times referred to in the inscriptions, is not only to be gathered from the inscriptions, but has been determined astronomically.

It is also _probable_ that Hathor personified Dubhe. Now this looks very satisfactory, and it seems only necessary to test the theory by finding temples of Isis and Hathor in other places, and seeing whether or not they were oriented to Sirius and Dubhe respectively.

But, unfortunately for us, we have already learned from Plutarch that Isis and Hathor are the same goddesses, although they certainly personify different stars, if they personify stars at all.

We seem, then, in a difficulty, and at first sight matters do not appear to be made any clearer by the fact that Hathor (and, therefore, Isis) was worshipped under different names in every nome.

Lanzoni, in his admirable volumes on Egyptian mythology, gives us, not dealing with the matter from this point of view at all, _no less than twenty-four variants for Hathor_!

In the temple at Edfû no less than 300 names are given with the various local relations and forms used in the most celebrated shrines.[58]

In the inscriptions at Denderah itself a great number of variants is given.[59] It is important to give some of them in this place; the full value of the information thus afforded will be seen afterwards.

Hathor of Denderah = Sekhet of Memphis. " " Neith " Saïs. " " Saosis " Heliopolis. " " Nehem-an " Hermopolis. " " Bast } " Bubastis. " " Bes-t } " " Anub-et " Lycopolis. " " Amen-t " Thebes. " " Bouto " Unas. " " Sothis " Elephantine. " " Apet " " Mena-t " " Horus " Edfû. (female)

One variant is of especial importance in the present connection, and is emphasised in a special inscription in one of the chambers of the temple of Hathor--_not_, be it remarked, in the temple of Isis.

"Elle est la Sothis de Denderah, qui remplit le ciel et la terre de ses bienfaits. Elle est la régente et la reine des villes.... Au Sud elle est la reine du maître divin; au nord elle est la reine des divins ancêtres. Rien n'est établi sans elle.... Elle est la grande dans le ciel, la reine parmi les étoiles."[60]

Well may Mariette remark on this:

"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.

2. There is a series of four temples at Thebes turned to the same part of the horizon nearly, their amplitudes ranging from 62° to 72½° N. of E. Of these temples that of Mut has the highest amplitude; the one with the lowest but one is the temple lettered M by Lepsius. There is no question about the real founder of this temple, and there is not much question as to the date of the founder, Rameses III.

Now in the time of this king a temple erected with the orientation given pointed precisely to γ Draconis. (_See_ Chapter XVIII.) The amplitude was 62° N. of E.; the time, 1200 B.C. If we take the simplest case in the orientation theory--that the amplitudes

62° N. of E. 63½° " 68½° " 72½° "

were given to the various temples to enable observations to be made of the same star, which was being carried nearer the equator by the precessional movement, we can not only date the temple of Mut, but find an explanation of Plutarch's equation Hathor = Mut.

In other words, we watch the Mut-Hathor worship provided for from 3000 B.C. to the times of the Ptolemies.

So that here we have a very concrete case of the cult following the star, not only in the same place, but at different places, and we are driven to the conclusion that Hathor at Denderah and Mut at Thebes, exoterically different goddesses, were esoterically the same star, γ Draconis.

We are not, however, limited to a comparison between Denderah and Thebes. We have Annu and Abydos, and other places, to appeal to, since there are temples remaining there also facing N.E. Those at Abydos, however, we must leave out of consideration here, as their exact orientation is not determined. With regard to Heliopolis, and dealing with the obelisk which tradition tells us was erected by Usertsen I., the orientation of its N.E. face, according to my own observations, taking the present variation at 4½° W., is 77° N. of E. This corresponds approximately to a declination of 57½° N., which was the declination of γ Draconis in 2500 B.C. The date given to Usertsen I. by Brugsch is 2433 B.C.

This is very satisfactory so far, but we can go further. Here we are landed evidently in the worship of one of the local divine dynasties, that of Set; and we may justly, therefore, ask if Usertsen did not do at Heliopolis what it is very probable Pepi did at Denderah--namely, embellish an old temple which had in the first instance been used for observations of Dubhe and appropriate it to the use of the new Hathor γ Draconis. If this were so, then the original foundation stone was laid about 5100 B.C.

The next line of argument is furnished by the emblems which are associated with the various goddesses. These obviously indicate that they arose in a time of totemism, when each tribe or nome had its special totem, which would be certain to be associated with the local goddesses or the stars which they personified.

The local totem of the special warning-star in use at any time or place may be anything: hippopotamus, crocodile, hawk, vulture, lion, or even some other common living thing into which the totem degraded when the supply of the original fell short.[62]

Hence, as the number of warning-stars was certainly very restricted, they--or, rather, the goddesses which typified them--had different names in almost every nome. Hence Egyptian mythology should be, as it is in fact, full of synonyms; each local name being liable to be brought into prominence at some time or another, owing to adventitious circumstances relating either to dynasties or the popularity of some particular shrine.

Applying this test of symbolism, we find in the case of Hathor that the symbolism was double.

The Denderah _Hathor_ was connected with the hippopotamus, while at Thebes _Mut_ was represented by a hippopotamus.

Now this symbol of the hippopotamus helps us greatly, because it allows evidence to be gathered from a consideration of the old constellations. I do not think it is saying too much to remark that among these the attention of the North Egyptians was almost exclusively confined to the circumpolar ones. Further, the mean latitude being, say, 25°, the circumpolar region was a restricted one; 50° in diameter, instead of over 100°, as with us. But not quite exclusively, for to them in later times, as to us now, the Great Bear and _Orion_ were the two most prominent constellations in the heavens; for them, as for us, they typified the northern and southern regions of the sky.

There can be no question that the chief ancient constellation in the north was the Great Bear, or, as it was then pictured, the Thigh (Mesχet). After this came the Hippopotamus. I had come to the conclusion that this had been replaced on our maps by part of Draco before I found that Brugsch and Parthey had expressed the same opinion.

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.

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]

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.

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.