The ceiling in the tomb of Seti I shows the Egyptian constellations in the northern sky. The stars are represented as red dots.

Tomb KV17, located in Egypt's Valley of the Kings and also known by the names "Belzoni's tomb", "the Tomb of Apis", and "the Tomb of Psammis, son of Nechois", is the tomb of Pharaoh Seti I of the Nineteenth

Dynasty. It is one of the best decorated tombs in the valley, but now is almost always closed to the public due to damage. It was first discovered by Giovanni Battista Belzoni [1] on 16 October 1817.

The longest tomb in the valley, at 100 metres, it contains very well preserved reliefs in all of its eleven chambers and side rooms. One of the back chambers is decorated with the Ritual of the Opening of the Mouth, which stated that the mummy's eating and drinking organs were properly functioning. Believing in the need for these functions in the afterlife, this was a very important ritual. The sarcophagus is now in the Sir John Soane Museum in London. A very long and still incompletely explored tunnel leads away into the mountainside from beneath the location where the sarcophagus stood in the burial chamber

Seti's well preserved tomb (KV17) was found in 1817 by Giovanni Battista Belzoni, in the Valley of the Kings; it proved to be the longest—at more than 120 meters—and deepest of all the New Kingdom royal tombs. It was also the first tomb to feature decorations on every passageway and chamber with highly refined bas-reliefs and colorful paintings - fragments of which, including a large column depicting Seti I with the goddess Hathor, can be seen in the Museo Archeologico, Florence. This decorative style set a precedent which was followed in full or in part in the tombs of later New Kingdom kings. However's Seti's mummy was not discovered until 1881, in the mummy cache (tomb DB320) at Deir el-Bahri, and has since been kept at the Cairo Museum. His huge sarcophagus, carved in one piece and intricately decorated on every surface (including the goddess Nut on the interior base), is in Sir John Soane's Museum[21], in London, England; Soane bought it for exhibition in his open collection in 1824, when the British Museum refused to pay the £2,000 demanded. From an examination of Seti's extremely well preserved mummy, Seti I appears to have been less than forty years old when he died unexpectedly. This is in stark contrast to the situation with Horemheb, Ramesses I and Ramesses II who all lived to an advanced age. The reasons for his relatively early death are uncertain, but there is no evidence of violence on his mummy. His mummy was found with its head decapitated, but this may have been caused after his death by tomb robbers. The Amun priest carefully reattached his head to his body with the use of linen cloths. It has been suggested that he died from a disease which had affected him for years, possibly related to his heart. The latter was found placed in the right part of the body, while the usual practice of the day was to place it in the left part during the mummification process. Opinions vary whether this was a mistake, an attempt to have Seti's heart work better in his afterlife than it did during his lifetime or even that Seti was born with his heart on the right side of his body, a rare occurrence[citation needed]. Seti I was about 1.7 metres (5 1/2 feet) tall

Menmaatre Seti I was a Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt (Nineteenth dynasty of Egypt), the son of Ramesses I and Queen Sitre, and the father of Ramesses II. As with all dates in Ancient Egypt, the actual dates of his reign are unclear, and various historians claim different dates, with 1294 BC – 1279 BC[4] and 1290 BC to 1279 BC[5] being the most commonly used by scholars today. These 2 dates are dependent on the chronological system used by a particular Egyptologist. The ancient Egyptians counted time from a king's accession day as Year One of a Pharaoh's reign. When a Pharaoh died or fell from power, the following day immediately became Year number 1 of his successor's reign. To identify Seti I's Year 1 with a specific BC year, a chronologist must not only take into account the existing evidence from various sources, but which set of interpretations that he/she finds valid, so different chronologists and historians can have different views on the subject.

The name Seti means "of Set", which indicates that he was consecrated to the god Set. As with most Pharaohs, Seti had a number of names. Upon his ascension, he took the prenomen mn-m3‘t-r‘, which translates as Menmaatre in Egyptian, meaning "Eternal is the Justice of Re." His better known nomen, or birth name is technically transliterated as sty mry-n-pt?, which is usually realised as Sety Merenptah, meaning "Man of Set, beloved of Ptah". The Greeks called him Sethosis. Manetho incorrectly considered him to be the founder of the 19th dynasty.

Senemut (sometimes spelled Senmut, Senenmut or Senmout) was an 18th dynasty Ancient Egyptian architect and government official. Controversial evidence indicates that he may also have been the lover of the female Pharaoh Hatshepsut.

Senemut was of low birth, born to literate provincial class parents, Ramose and Hatnofer (or "Hatnefret") of Iuny (modern Armant). Much more is known about Senemut than many other non-royal Egyptians because the joint tomb of his parents has been discovered and preserved, the construction of which Senemut supervised himself. Senemut first enters the historical record on a national level as the "Steward of the God's Wife" (Hatshepsut) and "Steward of the King's Daughter" (Neferure).

Some Egyptologists place Senemut's entry into royal service during the reign of Thutmose I, but it is far more likely that it occurred during either the reign of Thutmose II or while Hatshepsut was still regent and not pharaoh. After Hatshepsut was crowned pharaoh, Senemut was given more prestigious titles and

became high steward of the king.

Senemut supervised the quarrying, transport, and erection of twin obelisks, at the time the tallest in the world, at the entrance to the Temple of Karnak. One still stands today; the other broke in two and toppled centuries ago. Karnak's Red Chapel, or Chapelle Rouge, was intended as a barque shrine and may have originally stood between the two obelisks.

Senemut's masterpiece building project is the Mortuary Temple complex of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahri. It was designed and implemented by Senemut on a site on the West Bank of the Nile close to the entrance to the Valley of the Kings. The focal point was the Djeser-Djeseru or "the Sublime of the Sublimes", a colonnaded structure of perfect harmony built nearly one thousand years before the Parthenon. Djeser-Djeseru sits atop a series of terraces that once were graced with gardens. It is built into a cliff face that rises sharply above it. Djeser-Djeseru and the other buildings of the Deir el-Bahri complex are considered to be among the great buildings of the ancient world.

Some Egyptologists have theorized that Senemut was Hatshepsut's lover. Facts that are typically cited to support the theory are that Hatshepsut allowed Senemut to place his name and an image of himself behind one of the main doors in Djeser-Djeseru, and the presence of graffiti in an unfinished tomb used as a rest house by the workers of Djeser-Djeseru depicting a male and a hermaphrodite in pharaonic regalia engaging in an explicit sexual act.

Although it is not known where he is buried, Senemut had two tombs constructed for him, one (TT71) in the Tombs of the Nobles, and another near the temple at Deir el-Bahri, near Hatshepsut's mortuary temple. They were both heavily vandalized during the reign of Thutmose III, perhaps during the latter's campaign to eradicate all trace of Hatshepsut's memory.

The oldest example of a sundial is Egyptian from about 1500 BC. The fabulous astrological ceiling of Senmut painted around 1460 BC, includes celestial objects such as Orion, Sirius, and the planets Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn. The oldest known copies of an almanac date from 1220 BC at the time of Ramses the Great. In 1100 BC Amenhope wrote "Catalog of the Universe" in which he identified the major known constellations.

Curiously, the catalog does not mention either Sirius or any of the planets previously known to the Egyptians. At least outwardly, there are no surviving inscriptions or documents to indicate that Eqyptian knowledge of astronomy was more than tomb decoration, and not protected over the ages as a body of knowledge.

More

The Egyptian system of decans are known through 4 main groups of sources: (1) the diagonal star clocks on the inside of coffin lids from the 9th Dynasty to the 12th Dynasty, (2) the cenotaph of Seti I, the tomb of Ramses IV, and Papyrus Carlsberg I, (3) the tomb of Senmut and later similar monuments, and (4) Hellenistic-roman monuments and astrological documents. (The latter group of sources considered the decans simply as thirds of zodiacal signs.) In both the cenotaph of Seti I and the tomb of Ramses IV the decans are represented on the body of the sky goddess Nut. Carlsberg Papyrus Number I is an extensive commentary on the inscriptions on monuments.

(2) Decan system

The decans are an Egyptian system of 36 stars/star groups (asterisms). The decans could be groups of stars or single bright (conspicuous) stars. The ancient Egyptians used special constellations (asterisms), the decans, to divide their year into 36 parts. They rose at particular hours of the night during 36 successive periods of 10 days each, constituting the year. A decan indicated the one and same hour during 10 days. (Each specific decan rose above the eastern horizon at dawn for an annual period of 10 days.) As the stars rise 4 minutes later night by night a given decan was replaced after 10 day by its predecessor to mark a given hour. Otto Neugebauer believed the 36 decans formed the old year of 360 days. The 5 additional or epagomenal days were "ignored" but undoubtedly were taken into account during the development of the decan system. (The earliest Egyptian calendars indicate that the 5 epagomenal days were not regarded as belonging to the year. The New Year festival begins on the 1st Thoth, not on the 1st of the epagomenal days.) A more recent view by Anne-Sophie von Bomhard is that the original decan system was designed for a year of 365 days. The Egyptian "star clocks" (i.e., decans) are the earliest detailed astronomical texts known.

According to the accepted interpretation made by Otto Neugebauer in Egyptian Astronomical Texts (Volume 1, 1960), based the Book of Nut texts, the decan stars circled the sky in a zone approximately parallel to and slightly south of the ecliptic. The decans (a Greek term) lay within a wide equatorial belt and began with Sepedet (= Sirius). (Sepedet (= literally, "the excellent" but also "The Great Star") was sometimes called the "Mistress of the Year.") Sirius (Sepedet) is the only one of the decans able to be unambiguously identified. (Neugebauer's identification of the location of the decanal belt is disputed by Kurt Locher "New arguments for the celestial location of the decanal belt and for the origin of the s3h-hieroglyph." (Atti di sesto congresso internazionale di egittologia. (2 Volumes, 1992-1993.)); and Joanne Conman "It's About Time: Ancient Egyptian Cosmology." (Studien zur Altägyptischen Kultur, Band 31, 2003).

The texts relating to the system of decan stars date from 2200 BCE to 1200 BCE. Decanal "star clocks" (also (mistakenly) termed "diagonal calendars") decorated the interior of Egyptian (wooden) coffin lids, in both drawings and texts, starting circa 2100 BCE (with the practice ending circa 1800 BCE). (Our principal knowledge of astronomy in the Middle Kingdom period comes from wooden coffin lids, primarily from the 9th and 10th Dynasties. The painted scenes (sometimes carved) on the inside of the coffin lids are actually tables of "rising stars.") They are also shown on the tomb ceilings of Seti I (1318-1304 BCE) and on some of the ceilings/walls of royal tombs of the Ramesside period (12th-century BCE). They show that there was a system of 36 named "equatorial" stars rising within 10 days of each other (and were based on the civil calendar year). Pictures of decans comprise most of the celestial representations in Egyptian tombs.

The system of decan stars was used to indicate the hours of the night throughout the year. Lists of decans were prepared to determine the hour of the night if the calendar date was known, or to determine the decan if the hour of the night was known. The use of the decan stars for time measurement during the night likely led to the twelve-division of the period of complete darkness. Of the 18 decans marking the period from sunset to sunrise 3 were assigned to each interval of twilight. This left 12 decans to mark the hours of total darkness. The 12-unit division of the night therefore probably originated in the combining of the decanal stars with the civil calendar decades. The twenty-four division of day and night (i.e., 24 hour system) eventually derived from this. (The original 24 hour division was actually a system of "hours" of uneven length and uneven distribution between daylight and night. This system was obsolete by the time of Seti I. By the Ramesside period there was a more even division of 24 hours into 12 hours of night and 12 hours of daylight each. It has been proposed, however, that the division of day and night into 12 hours each may have been initiated by the fact that the year was divided into 12 months.)

The "hours" successively marked by each decan star for an interval of 10 days were, however, actually only an "hour" of approximately 45 minutes duration. (Each decan would rise approximately 45 minutes later each night.) (The division of the hour into 60 minutes was the invention of the Babylonians.)

The decanal system has been traced back as far as the 3rd Dynasty (circa 2800 BCE) and may be older still. The contents of coffin lids establishes that the decanal system, of dividing the night into 12 hours according to the rising of stars or groups of stars, was in place at least by circa 2150 BCE. The contents of the Pyramid Texts show that the system of decans was established by at least the 24th century BCE.

The primary reason for the Egyptians to study the night sky seems to have been to establish the civil calendar (which was apparently initiated with the heliacal rising of Sothis (= Sirius)) on a firm basis. (The civil calendar was the official calendar. It was a simple calculating tool that could be followed automatically. The civil calendar remained unchanged in Egypt from its establishment circa early 3rd millennium BCE until near the end of the 1st millennium BCE.) The Egyptian calendar-year on which the system of decans (star clocks) was originally constructed was the civil or "wandering" year which consisted of 12 months of 3 10-day weeks, divided into 3 seasons of 4 months each, followed by 5 epagomenal days (called "the days upon the year"/"those beyond the year"). The civil calendar had been long established when the decans first appeared on the inside of coffin lids of the Middle Kingdom period. Otto Neugebauer (The Exact Sciences in Antiquity, 1957, Page 82) wrote: "In tracing back the history of the Egyptian decans we discover the interaction of the two main components of Egyptian time reckoning: the rising of Sirius as the harbinger of the inundation, and the simple scheme of the civil year of 12 months of three decades each." To assist the establishment of a civil (year) calendar the sky was divided into a scheme of 36 decans, with each decan (characterised by a bright star or distinctive star group) marking 36 ten-day periods, to which was added 5 epagonal days.

There were two systems of decanal stars. The first (and original) system used heliacal risings. The second (and later) system used meridian transits.

(3) Decan lists

The decanal system involved the arrangement of 10-day intervals throughout the year. The decan lists were essentially set out in tables consisting of 36 columns with (usually) 12 rows or divisions. The columns in the tables covered the year in 10-day intervals. The rows in the tables covered the 12 decanal hours of the night. In each of the 36 columns the decans are placed in the order in which they rise above the horizon (or transit the meridian). With each of the successive 36 columns the name of a specific decan is moved one line higher to its place in the preceding column (i.e., the second decan becomes the first and so on). This results in a diagonal structure (diagonal pattern) which is the reason for the early name "diagonal calendars" being given to these texts (but properly "star clocks" or "diagonal star clocks").

(4) Rising decans

The decanal system consisted of 36 rising stars and used the heliacal risings of stars/asterisms on the eastern horizon as markers. Each period of 10 days was first marked by the heliacal rising of the next decan on the eastern horizon. They rose heliacally 10 days apart and all had the same invisible interval of 70 days prior to their heliacal rising. (At least ideally all the decans had the same duration of invisibility as their leader Sirius. All decans were invisible for 70 days between acronychal setting and heliacal rising - because of being in the light.)

By the time of the New Kingdom period (circa 1550-1100 BCE) the usefulness of the original decan system of hours had ceased. By the 10th Dynasty and 11th Dynasty the original decan system had become completely unusable and in the 12th Dynasty were subjected to a radical revision. Many old decans were dropped out and many new decans were introduced.

(5) Transit decans

From the Book of Nut texts we can identify the introduction of a new decanal system that can be termed transit decanal clocks. This new system, termed the Ramesside star clocks, used the transiting of the meridian by decans (their culminations) to mark the night-time hours. (The time of decan transits involved the time they crossed the meridian i.e., reached the highest point in the sky (culmination).) This new method of indicating the night hours arose by combining only those stars which behave like Sirius with 10-day weeks of the civil calendar. Likewise with the previous system of decans, this attempt to substitute the culmination of stars for their heliacal rising also did not last.

The Ramesside (20th Dynasty) star clocks are star tables which measure hours by means of transits, in half month intervals. (One of the most important documents relating to Egyptian astronomy is the long table of (decan) star transits (culminations) for each hour of the night on every fortnight of the year. This is given with most accuracy in the tomb off Ramses VI) These are different star clocks to the earlier system of decans. Only a few of the stars/asterisms used in the earlier decanal star clocks are the same as, or near to, those used in the Ramesside star clocks. The evidence for these later star clocks comes exclusively from the ceilings of a number of Egyptian royal tombs of the Ramesside period (Ramses VI, Ramses VII, and Ramses IX of the 12th-century BCE). Two sets of star tables appear in the tomb of Ramesses VI, one set of star tables appears in the tomb of Ramesses VII, and one set of star tables appears in the tomb of Ramesses IX. The texts consist of 24 star clock tables for the 24 half-month intervals of one year. These particular ceilings also include other astronomical information: (1) lists of decans and their divinities, (2) constellations, and (3) the days of the lunar month.

(6) Time-keeping corrections

The Egyptian civil calendar was invented in the 3rd Dynasty. The Egyptian civil year contained 365 days whilst the system of 36 decans sufficed only for the old year of 360 days. This was taken into account by the originators of the decanal system. They added an additional set of stars/asterisms to indicate the hours of darkness for the 5 epagomenal days. The decans of the 5 additional (epagomenal) days were treated separately. They are depicted on 4 coffin lids separately and appear after the 36 decans of the 360 day year. (The last 5 (extra) days of the year were the birthday festivals of the 5 principal gods/goddesses: Osiris, Isis, Horus, Seth, and Nephthys.) However, keeping the (diagonal) star clocks adjusted was a continuous problem. The Egyptians did not bother to take into consideration the fact that the 365 days did not accurately measure the return of the sun to the same star. The calendrical system based on the decans was flawed by its failure to take into account the fact that the Egyptian civil year was always approximately 6 hours short and the solar year. The result was a slow progressive change took place in the relation between the heliacal rising of a decan and its date in the civil calendar. Rearrangements of the decanal order were attempted in order to counter the resulting mismatch.

The decanal star clocks were eventually replaced by water clocks. What is believed to be one of the oldest Egyptian water clocks was discovered in the tomb of Amehotep I (who died circa 1500 BCE).

The decans were selected for decades of the civil calendar, 3 for each month (of 3 x 10-day weeks), leaving over 5 epagomenal days at the end of the year. The civil year and the astronomical year were often out of phase because the civil calendar contained exactly 365 days. A calendar of 365 days does not accurately measure the return of the sun to the same star. (The fraction of the day left unrecognised was ·2422.) The civil year was shorter than the year based on the risings of stars. The total of 365 days did not vary. (The Egyptians did not take leap years into account. No intercalary day was inserted in any year. As a result the civil calendar moved further and further away from the actual seasons.) As a consequence there is a relentless slow movement in the relation between the heliacal rising of a decan and its date in the civil calendar. The civil year through the natural (astronomical/solar) year by approximately 1 day every 4 years. The beginning of the schematic civil calendar of 365 days "wandered" in the course of time through all the seasons. Every 4 years the beginning of the civil calendar year (1st of Thoth) was delayed by 1 day.

The civil year and the astronomical/solar year (seasonal year) were usually reckoned to coincide only every (approximately) 1460 years (according to the definition of "a solar year") (the so-called Sothic cycle - from the name of the star observed). Only then did the civil calendar year syncronise with the actual seasons (more or less). The "Sothic cycle" of (approximately) 1460 years was the result of connecting the agricultural year with the yearly recurring astronomical phenomenon, the heliacal rising of the star Sirius, which roughly coincided with (i.e., slightly preceded) the beginning of the inundation of the Nile River. The heliacal rising of the star Sirius only attained its importance by its closeness to the inundation of the Nile River. The Egyptian (seasonal) year was considered to begin on July 19th (Julian calendar date) - the date of the heliacal rising of Sirius.

The 3 seasons, however, corresponded to the cycle of the Nile River and agriculture. By the Middle Kingdom period (circa 2040-1640 BCE) the heliacal rising of the star Sirius was established as the event which marked the beginning of the seasonal year. (There is considerable evidence that from an early date the Egyptians regarded the heliacal rising of the star Sirius as marking the beginning of the year. The Egyptians fixed the beginning of their year, but not their civil calendar, with the heliacal rising of Sirius (our Julian calendar date of July 19th = the "coming out of Sepedet). With the civil calendar the first month of the Inundation always followed the 5th epagomenic day, irrespective of whether Sothis had risen or not. (The heliacal rising of the star Sirius fell on the 1st of Thoth once every 1460 Julian calendar years.) The Sothic year was the lapse of time which passed between 2 heliacal risings of the star Sirius, at the same latitude of reference. Also, the length of a Sirius cycle is somewhat variable.) The solar year was in official use as early as the 12th Dynasty (circa 1938-1756 BCE) period and was defined as beginning at the heliacal rising of Sirius. New year's day (our Julian calendar date of 19th July) marked the beginning of the first season (i.e., the flooding of the Nile). The New Year day was not determined on astronomical grounds (by a celestial event) but was determined by a calendar of 365¼ days and the method of counting 365¼ days from the previous new year's date.

(7) Hellenised decans

The identification of the decans with the ecliptic is a late development. The later division of the ecliptic into 10 degree sections called decans by the Greeks derives from the Egyptian system of decan stars. In Hellenistic times the Egyptian system of decans was brought into a fixed relation to the Babylonian zodiac. Also in Hellenistic times, after the death of Alexander the Great, the 36 decans eventually were defined as thirds of zodiacal signs, each decan representing segments of the ecliptic of exactly 10 degrees length. Usually these segments were not given special names but were simply counted as 1st, 2nd, or 3rd decan of the zodiacal sign in question. This system of the use of decans continued through into medieval astrology.

by Gary D. Thompson

The Ancient Egyptians had a limited knowledge of astronomy. Part of the reason for this is that their geometry was limited, and did not allow for complicated mathematical computations. Evidence of Ancient Egyptian disinterest in astronomy is also evident in the number of constellations recognized by Ancient Egyptians. At 1100 BC, Amenhope created a catalogue of the universe in which only five constellations are recognized. They also listed 36 groups of stars called decans. These decans allowed them to tell time at night because the decans will rise 40 minutes later each night. Theoretically, there were 18 decans, however, due to dusk and twilight only twelve were taken into account when reckoning time at night. Since winter is longer than summer the first and last decans were assigned longer hours. Tables to help make these computations have been found on the inside of coffin lids. The columns in the tables cover a year at ten day intervals. The decans are placed in the order in which they arise and in the next column, the second decan becomes the first and so on.

Astronomy was also used in positioning the pyramids. They are aligned very accurately, the eastern and western sides run almost due north and the southern and northern sides run almost due west. The pyramids were probably originally aligned by finding north or south, and then using the midpoint as east or west. This is because it is possible to find north and south by watching stars rise and set. However, the possible processes are all long and complicated. So after north and south were found, the Egyptians could look for a star that rose either due East or due West and then use that as a starting point rather than the North South starting point. This would result in the pyramids being more accurately aligned with the East and West, which they are, and all of the errors in alignment would run clockwise, which they do. This is because of precession of the poles which is very difficult to view, and the Ancient Egyptians did not know about. This theory is further substantiated by the fact that the star B Scorpii’s rising-directions match with the alignment of the pyramids on the dates at which they were built.

Ancient Egyptians also used astronomy in their calendars. There life revolved the annual flooding of the Nile. This resulted in three seasons, the flooding, the subsistence of the river, and harvesting. These seasons were divided into four lunar months. However, lunar months are not long enough to allow twelve to make a full year. This made the addition of a fifth month necessary. This was done by requiring the Sirius rise in the twelfth month because Sirius reappears around the time when the waters of the Nile flood. Whenever Sirius arose late in the twelfth month a thirteenth month was added. This calendar was fine for religious festivities, but when Egypt developed into a highly organized society, the calendar needed to be more precise. Someone realized that there are about 365 days in a year and proposed a calendar of twelve months with 30 days each, with five days added to the end of it. However, since a year is a few hours more than 365 days this new administrative calendar soon did not match the seasonal calendar.

French Image (taken by Napoleon Expedition to Egypt) the astronomical ceiling (dating to the Late Ptolemaic Period (i.e., late Hellenistic Period)) that was located at the temple of Hathor in Denderah, Egypt. The representation of the Egyptian sky is called the Denderah zodiac because it depicts the zodiacal constellations. (All Egyptian zodiacs are late and originated in the Hellenistic and Roman periods.) (The Ptolemaics were a Greek dynasty originating from the break-up of of the Greek Empire after the death of Alexander the Great. The Ptolemaic Period lasted from circa 300 BCE until the early Christian era.) (The temple was used primarily for the celebration of the new year.)

The zodiac was situated in the ceiling in a middle room of the small eastern Osiris chapel located on the roof of the Hathor temple - specifically on the western half of the ceiling of the central (i.e., first

enclosed) chamber - and formed the greater part of the ceiling. (It is essentially comprised of two concentric circles. The entire disk is approximately 240 centimetres in diameter. The circular star map is approximately 150 centimetres in diameter. Its thickness is approximately 90 centimetres. The weight of the two huge blocks of sandstone comprising the disc is many tonnes.) Construction began on the temple of Hathor circa 125 BCE and was finished circa 60 CE. (The Denderah circular zodiac is dated circa 36 BCE or 30 BCE. It is the oldest known representation of the zodiac.)

Accounts differ as to who discovered the Denderah circular zodiac. One source states it was discovered in 1798 by Louis Chastel, a captain of dragoons. Another source states it was first discovered in 1799 by Napoleon's General Louis Desaix when he was pursuing the remnants of Murad-Bey's army (up the Nile) across the Thebaid (near Luxor). It would seem that Napoleon's troops reached Denderah on 25th May 1799.

Accounts of who sketched (or re-sketched) the Denderah skymap, and when, tend to be a bit confusing. The French artist Vivant (I have also seen his first name appear as Dominique) Denon was the first to make a drawing of the Denderah planisphere. Vivant Denon accompanied Napoleon's Egyptian expedition and he was commissioned by General Louis Desaix to do such for the projected Description de l'Egypte. The ceiling was rapidly sketched by the artist in 1799. The artist published the drawing in his 1802 account (a massive folio book titled Voyage) of his experiences traveling with Napoleon's Egyptian expedition. Vivant Denon's published drawing of what appeared to be a zodiac created immediate interest and caused immense discussion in Paris. In 1820 it was redrawn by Vivant Denon's compatriot the Italian scientist Girolamo Segato.

It would appear that the actual drawing/engraving of the Denderah zodiac ("The Round Denderah B Zodiac") that appeared in Description de l'Egypte was made by the French scholars Jean Jollois and René Devilliers (both scientists) also whilst accompanying Napoleon's Egyptian expedition (1798-1801). It was later published circa 1815 in the multi-volume Description de l'Egypte (Volume 4). (The drawing/engraving is not a completely accurate rendition of the actual ceiling.)

The British consul Henry Salt had attempted to acquire the ceiling for the British Museum but the French antiquities collector Sebastian Saulnier employed a French engineer/master mason, Jean Lelorrain, to remove the sandstone slab and arrange its transport to France by ship. Jean Lelorrain left for Egypt in early October, 1820 with some specially constructed tools. After considerable effort at sawing and pulling he eventually made careful use of gun powder to blow holes in the temple roof to effect the removal of the ceiling.

The original sandstone carving was moved from Denderah in 1821 and arrived by ship (the La Lorainne) at Marseilles on September 9, 1821. Due to quarantine restrictions it was not off-loaded until November 27. It arrived in Paris in 1822 and was put on show until it was sold to King Louis XVIII for 150,000 francs. (Public pressure had led to Sebastian Saulnier being paid this enormous sum of money for the zodiac.) It was then placed in the royal library (which later became the Bibliothéque Nationale). In 1919 it was moved to the Louvre Museum, Paris where it was initially placed on display in the Grand Gallery on the ground floor. It was then moved several times and even located on a stairway. Since 1997 it has been in the Galerie D'Alger. (A plaster replica (a cast made from the original zodiac) only is now in the ceiling of the Osiris chapel at the Denderah temple. This mould from the original zodiac was made and sent to Egypt in 1920.) (It would appear that a marble copy of the Denderah star map, sculpted by the French sculptor J. Castex in 1819 from casts of the original, is located in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, England. (Rosalind Park has commented that whilst a life-size replica probably exists the claim of it being a marble copy may be erroneous.) English visitors arrived at Denderah prior to 1820.)

The first appearance in Egypt of our own 12 zodiacal constellations comes from the so-called Zodiac of Denderah. All available evidence indicates that the concept of the zodiac was not native to Egypt but that it was imported at a late (but unknown) date. (Perhaps during the period of the expansion of the Assyrian Empire.) The Denderah star map integrates ancient Egyptian star-groups with the zodiacal constellations of the Babylonians (and Greeks). The Babylonian zodiac has been integrated into the Egyptian sky. (The French Egyptologist Christiane Desroches-Noblecourt has argued for an Egyptian origin of the zodiacal signs. She connects them with the cycle of the sun and Osiris.) The constellation figures outside the zodiac (except the Southern Fish, which was regarded as part of the Waterman) are Egyptian. (The identity of most of the other (purely Egyptian) constellation symbols remain unknown.)

The organisation of the zodiac is not haphazard but also it is not a very accurate astronomical representation. (None of the Egyptian zodiacs were very accurate astronomical representations.) (Like all the Egyptian zodiacs it includes the signs of the zodiac (ultimately of Babylonian origin), the old hour decans, the planets, and native Egyptian stars and constellations.) The astronomical ceiling shows all 12 zodiacal constellations (as well as other constellations, and the planets). It is a syncretistic zodiac based on Egyptian and Greek ideas and is most likely based on a Hellenistic model (i.e., from the use of the zodiacal Ram). The figures of 36 decans (from the Tanis family of decans), indicators of the hours of the night, are depicted standing on the circumference (as walking men, snakes, and other animals) (adjacent to the hands of the supporting figures). The signs of the zodiac are located inside the decan ring and the planets in their exaltations and some constellations are interspersed among them. (The planets are depicted as gods holding staffs.) The northern constellations are in the centre of the disc (and the north celestial pole is approximately at the centre of the disc).

The 12 zodiacal constellations form an inner (and properly offset) ring (and follow a circle that corresponds to the ecliptic). All the 12 zodiac constellations are easily recognizable. The Egyptians, however, have varied the figures and also have varied the attitudes of the figures from those of the Babylonian-Greek sky. The identification of the zodiacal constellations can be made in clockwise sequence near the eccentric circle at the centre of the star map. (The positioning of the constellations Cancer and Libra is irregular.) To the right of centre are located the two fishes (Pisces), next (below the fishes) the Ram and the Bull, next the Twins, the Crab (Cancer), and the Lion. More upwards the Virgin with the Corn-Ear, the Balance, and the Scorpion. The next three zodiacal constellations/signs are the Archer, the Goat-fish, (Capricorn), and the Waterman.

Cancer the Crab is represented by the Scarab Beetle. The figure of the Lion near the Scales (which is not the zodiacal Lion) is the constellation Centaurus. A man and a woman with joined hands represent Gemini. The Ram and the Bull are both reversed from their normal pose, and the figure of the Bull is complete, not the usual truncated (half) figure. The woman (Isis?) who holds a spike of wheat is an obvious representation of Virgo. (Also, the female figure standing on the Lion's tail, which she grasps with her hand, has been interpreted by some as representing Virgo.) The Scales point in a different direction, the Waterman's vessel and stream of water are on the reverse side of his body; the zodiacal Fishes swim in parallel directions instead of divergent ones.

The familiar northern Egyptian constellations of the Bull's Foreleg ((part of) Ursa Major, the Big Dipper asterism) and the Hippopotamus (Draco, the Dragon) are easily identifiable. The figure of the Hippopotamus is in the centre. (One controversial view is that a mark on the breast of the Hippopotamus identifies the north ecliptic pole.) The figure of an Ape is under the Scorpion. Instead of the Great Bear there is the figure of a crocodile. Also, the small crouched lion next to (i.e., beneath) the Bull's Foreleg on the Denderah zodiac is part of Egypt's indigenous Northern group of constellations (near the celestial pole). Currently (circa 2002 onwards) there is a manufactured controversy over whether this particular figure is a lion or a ram. The depiction does not suggest a ram. Unfortunately there is a lack of textual information to clarify the identification. However, the star map depiction on the Heter coffin from Roman Egypt indicates the figure is indeed a crouching lion belonging to the northern group of early Egyptian constellations. (Many other figures representing constellations have not yet been identified with those in present use.)

Hydra and the Raven are in fairly correct positions under the Lion. The representation of Orion and Sirius is not quite identical with that in the "rectangular zodiac" in the Great Hypostyle Hall. (Below Leo is situated a cow in a boat with a star between its horns. This figure is Sirius.) The bow behind Sirius reminds us that "the Bow Star" was one of the Babylonian names of Sirius. Orion is the figure holding a staff and standing near Taurus. The jackal near the Hippopotamus is Ursa Minor.

The symbols of the planets are located in the constellations in which they were thought to be particularly (astrologically) influential. The disc between Pisces and Aries may be the full moon.

The zodiac (i.e., sky) is supported by four human-headed feminine figures standing erect (at the four corners of the canopy of heaven), who are the goddesses of the cardinal points of the compass (the other identification given is: four standing figures of the sky-goddess Nut), and also four pairs of kneeling falcon-headed deities (the other identification given is: eight figures of the kneeling earth-god Geb).

A much larger "rectangular (straight) zodiac" is still situated in the ceiling of the Hathor temple's Great Hypostyle Hall. (The term "hypostyle" denotes a hall with a roof borne on columns. Its use first appeared in Diodorus, 1st century BCE.) The capitals of the columns supporting the decorated ceiling of the Hypostyle Hall are carved in the shape of a naos sistrum. The naos sistrum is a musical instrument (a rattle) with its body shaped like Hathor's head, and its upper part shaped like a shrine (naos).

by Gary D. Thompson

In Tomb of Seti I is in Big Dipper, but in Dendera is replaced by the ox leg

We identified him between Ursa Major, Leo Minor and Lynx Constellations. He has a weapon in his hand and he is atacking to the Bull in Tomb of Seti 1

Taweret (Taueret, Taurt, Toeris, Ipy, Ipet, Apet, Opet, Reret) - The Great Female - was the ancient Egyptian goddess of maternity and childbirth, protector of women and children.

Like Bes, she was both a fierce demonic fighter as well as a popular deity who guarded the mother and her newborn child.

She was depicted as a combination of a crocodile, a pregnant hippopotamus standing on her hind legs with large breasts and a lion. Unlike the composite demoness Ammut, her head and body were that of the hippo, her paws were that of the lion, and her back was the back of a crocodile. All of these animals were man killers, and as such she was a demoness.

All three animals were regarded as fierce creatures who would kill to protect their young.

...Taweret, British Museum Glossary

It was in her role of a protector that she was seen as a goddess. As the mother hippo is protective of her young, Taweret was believed to be protective of Egyptian children. She was often shown holding the sa hieroglyph of protection or the ankh hieroglyph of life. She was thought to assist women in labour and scare off demons that might harm the mother or child.

... because hippos are denizens of the fertile Nile mud, Egyptians also saw them as symbols of rebirth and rejuvenation. The birth-related aspect of the hippo's powers also appears in the complicated shape of the goddess Taweret, who protects women in childbirth.

She was also a goddess relating to fertility. She was goddess of harvests as well as a goddess who helped with female sexuality and pregnancy. In this capacity, she was linked with the goddess Hathor. As a fertility goddess, she was closely associated with the inundation of the Nile especially at Jabal al-Silsila.

Amulets of Taweret were popular, used by the expectant mother because of Taweret's protective powers. These were even found at Akhetaten - Akenaten had no power to stop his people from needing the protection of this goddess (or of Bes), despite his attempts to replace the gods and goddesses of Egypt with the Aten. Her picture was also found on women's cosmetic tools, headrests, jewelry. There were even vessels in the shape of the goddess, with a hole in one of her nipples for pouring. It was thought that she would assign magical protection, when accompanied with a spell, to the milk poured through these vessels.

Another way that Taweret was thought to scare away evil that could hurt a mother and child was through the use of magic. She was associated with the magic 'wand' or 'knife' that the Egyptians used because she was a hippopotamus goddess:

Childbirth and early infancy were felt to be particularly threatening to both mother and baby. Magic played the primary role in countering these threats; various evil spirits needed to be warned off, and deities invoked to protect the vulnerable. These magic knives, also known as apotropaic (that is, acting to ward off evil) wands, were one of the devices used. They are usually made of hippopotamus ivory, thus enlisting the support of that fearsome beast against evil.

The depictions on this knife encompass a range of protective images. They include a grotesque dwarf, probably known as Aha at this date, but later the more famous Bes, and Taweret ... both of whom are associated with childbirth.

...Apotropaic Wand, British Museum

Taweret was a household deity, rather than a specific deity of the pharaoh, and she enjoyed huge popularity with the every day Egyptian. She wore a low, cylindrical headdress surmounted by two plumes or sometimes she wore the horns and solar disk of Hathor. Although her popularity was strongest in later periods, she first appeared in the Old Kingdom as the mother of the pharaoh, offering to suckle him with her divine milk. In later times, the pharaoh Hatshepsut depicted the goddess attending to her birth along side other deities of childbirth. During Egyptian history, she was called by three names - Ipet ('harem'), Taweret ('great one') and Reret ('the sow'). Of the three, the cult of Taweret assimilated the other two versions of this goddess, despite the Temple of Ipet (often translated to be 'Harem' rather than the name of the goddess) at Karnak.

In Egyptian astronomy, Taweret was linked to the northern sky. In this role she was known as Nebetakhet, the Mistress of the Horizon - the ceiling painting of the constellations in the tomb of Seti I showed her in this capacity. She was thought to keep the northern sky - a place of darkness, cold, mist, and rain to the Egyptians - free of evil. She was shown to represent the never-setting circumpolar stars of Ursa Minor and Draco. The seven stars lined down her back are the stars of the Little Dipper. She was believed to be a guardian of the north, stopping all who were unworthy before they could pass her by.

In all of the ancient Egyptian astronomical diagrams there is one figure which is always larger than all the rest, and most frequently found at the center of what appears to be a horizontal parade of figures. This figure is Taweret "The Great One", a goddess depicted as a pregnant hippopotamus standing upright. It is no mystery that this figure represents a northern constellation associated, at least in part, with our modern constellation of Draco the dragon.

...Precession and the Pyramid Astronomical Knowledge in Ancient Egypt, Jim Fournier

In the Book of the Dead Taweret, the 'Lady of Magical Protection', was seen as a goddess who guided the dead into the afterlife. As with her double nature of protector and guardian, she was also a guard to the mountains of the west where the deceased entered the land of the dead. Many of the deities relating to birth also appear in the underworld to help with the rebirth of the souls into their life after death.

She was thought to be the wife of a few gods, mostly because of her physical characteristics. She was linked to the god Sobek, because of his crocodile form. Occasionally Taweret was depicted with a crocodile on her back, and this was seen as Taweret with her consort Sobek. Bes, because the Egyptians thought they worked together when birthing of a child, was thought to be her husband in earlier times.

At Thebes, she was also thought to be the mother of Osiris, and so linked to the sky goddess Nut. Another part of this theology was that it was Amen, who became the supreme god rather than Ra, who was the father of Osiris. It was believed that Amen came to Taweret (called Ipet at this particular time) and joined with her to ensure the renewal of the cycle of life. Ipet herself had become linked with the original wife of Amen, Amaunet (invisibility). It was at Karnak that she was believed to have given birth to Osiris. In later times, Ipet was assimilated by Mut who took her place as the wife of Amen and mother goddess.

Plutarch described Taweret as a concubine of Set who had changed her ways to become a follower of Horus. In this form, she was linked to the goddess Isis. It was thought that the goddess kept Set's powers of evil fettered by a chain. This is probably because she was a hippo goddess while Set was sometimes seen as a male hippo. The male hippopotamus was seen by the Egyptians as a very destructive creature, yet the female hippopotamus came to symbolise protection. This is probably why Set was, in later times, regarded as evil while Taweret was thought to be a helpful goddess, deity of motherhood and protector of women and children.

Undentified man pointing to Meskheti Bull and Serisa Cocodrile. Probably will be Pharaon Seti I. He is into Auriga Constellation

Into Auriga Constellation

Into Cassiopeia

Serqet (Serket, Selqet, Selket, Selkit, Selkis) was the ancient Egyptian scorpion goddess of magic. As with other dangerous goddesses, she was both a protective goddess, and one who punished the wrong doers with her burning wrath. She could punish those with the poison of a scorpion or snake, causing breathlessness and death, or she could protect against the same venom. Yet just as she could kill, she was thought to give breath to the justified dead, helping them be reborn in the afterlife.

Serqet was often shown as a woman with a scorpion on her head, and occasionally as a scorpion with the head of a woman, though this was rare. She was sometimes shown wearing the headdress of Hathor - a

solar disk with cow horns - but this was after Isis started to be shown wearing it. (Serqet was closely connected with Isis and her twin sister Nephthys.) By the XXI Dynasty, she was sometimes shown with the head of a lioness, with a protective crocodile at the back of her neck.

The Egyptian scorpion-goddess is srq.(j)t ... A fuller form, srq.(j)t-Ht.w exists, that has been rather surprisingly translated "She Who Lets Throats Breathe", a rather unusual role for a poisonous arachnid. I believe rather that srq is cognate with Indo-European streng/k-; and that it means "to tighten, stiffen" so that srq.(j)t-Ht.w should be translated as "She Who Stiffens (Paralyzes) the Throats", rather more keeping with the usually anticipated effects of a scorpion's bite. This is a suitable epithet for a deity that is so closely connected with seasonal death.

-- The Animals of Creation, Patrick C. Ryan

As a protective goddess, she was called on by the people to protect and heal them from snake bites and scorpion stings. She was thought to be the one who helped Isis protect Horus from scorpions, either by providing the goddess with seven scorpions to protect her, or by calling to Isis for the royal barque of Ra to stop, forcing the other gods to help bring Horus back to life. She also joined Ra's solar journeys through the underworld each night, and helped to protect the barque from the attack of the snake-demon Apep. It was believed that she had power over all snakes, reptiles and poisonous animals. She was thought to especially protect children and pregnant women from these creatures.

"Rejoice, most fortunate of women, for you shall bear a daughter who shall be the child of Amen-Ra, who shall reign over the Two Lands of Egypt and be sovereign of the whole world."

The monument in the temple shows their bodies interlocked, the god offering her the ankh to breath life, and throwing some rituals on her foot. Nit, the goddess of life, and Serqet the protectoress of the living were holding the god and queen's feet.

-- Hatshepsut, The Queens of Egypt, Dr. Sameh Arab

Left: A fragment of a ring with the symbolic scorpion of Serqet

In the underworld, she helped in the process of rebirth of the newly deceased, and oriented them as they came to her, giving them the breath of life. She was given the title "Mistress of the Beautiful House", associating her with the Divine Booth where mummification took place. She was the protector of the canopic jar that held the intestines, along with Qebehsenuef - a falcon headed Son of Horus. She was associated with the western cardinal point.

(I am) Serqet, mistress of heaven and lady of all the gods. I have come before you (Oh) King's Great Wife, Mistress of the Two Lands, Lady of Upper and Lower Egypt, Nefertari, Beloved of Mut, Justified Before Osiris Who Resides in Abtu (Abydos), and I have accorded you a place in the sacred land, so that you may appear gloriously in heaven like Ra.

-- Inscription in the Tomb of Nefetari, Serqet speaking to Nefertari

Originally she was worshiped in the Delta, but her cult spread throughout the land of Egypt, with cult centers at Djeba and Per-Serqet (Pselkis, el Dakka). The priests of Serqet were doctors and magicians - in ancient Egypt, medicine was a mixture of folklore, magic and science - who dedicated themselves to healing venomous bites from poisonous creatures. The goddess herself was invoked by the people to both prevent and heal poisonous animal bites. Although she had a priesthood, there have been no temples to this goddess found as yet.

She was believed to be either the mother or daughter of the sun god Ra, and thus her wrath was thought to be like the burning, noonday sun. It was probably because of her very close connection with Isis and her twin sister Nephthys that in Djeba (Utes-Hor, Behde, Edfu), she was believed to be the wife of Horus and the mother of Harakhety (Horus of the Horizon). The Pyramid Texts claim that she was the mother of Nehebkau, a snake god who protected the pharaoh from snakebites. She was also identified with Seshat, the goddess of writing. With Nit, she was a watcher of the sky who, in one story, was thought to stop Amen and his wife from being disturbed while they were together, making her a goddess of marriages.

Egypt was a land of snakes and scorpions, so it is only natural that the worship of this goddess spread through Egypt. The people worshiped her for her protection against these dangerous creatures, and revered her for her power and protective qualities. She guarded all of the people, including the pharaoh, mothers and children. Her followers were priestly doctors, healing the people affected by venom. She extended her protection from life into the land of the dead, not only helping to revive the dead, but to introduce them with the afterlife. She even protected the other gods from the serpent-demon, Apep. Although having no temples, she was worshiped throughout the land of Egypt.

Into Perseus

In Perseus Constellation. It has 18 Stars .

it is in Canis Major. In Egyptian mythology, Sopdet was the deification of Sothis, a star considered by almost all egyptologists to be Sirius. The name Sopdet means (she who is) sharp in Egyptian, a reference to the brightness of Sirius, which is the brightest star in the night sky. In art she was depicted as a woman with a five-pointed star upon her head.

Just after Sirius appears in the July sky, the Nile River begins its annual flood, and so the ancient Egyptians connected the two. Consequently Sopdet was identified as a goddess of the fertility of the soil, which was brought to it by the Nile's flooding. This significance led the Egyptians to base their calendar on the heliacal rising of Sirius.

Sopdet was regarded as the consort of Sah, the constellation of Orion, by which Sirius appears, and the planet Venus was sometimes considered their child. The noticeably human figure of Orion was eventually identified as a form of Horus, the sky-god, and thus, together with her being a fertility deity, this lead to her being identified as a manifestation of Isis.

After Sirius' appearance, the scorching heat of summer arrives, an aspect that was referred to as Sopdu, meaning (one who is) with Sopd,

Sopd being simply the masculine form, and stem, of Sopdet. Since the heat arrived after Sirius' appearance, it was said that Sopdet had given birth to it, thus Sopdu was seen as being a child of Sopdet, and thus also of Sah.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sopdet"

It is Orion Constellation.

The god Sah and his consort, Sopdet (Spdt, Sepedet), who is probably better known by her Greek name, Sothis, personified the constellation of Orion (which he is sometimes referred to) and the bright, first magnitude star Sirius (the "dog star") respectively. Orion was, to the ancient Egyptians, the most distinctive of all the constellations in the night sky, and it rose directly before the adjacent star Sirius, thus explaining the connection between these two ancient gods from a very early date.

Orion was imagined as being swallowed at dawn by the Underworld but had the power to emerge again into the night sky. Their son was Soped (Sopdu, Horus Spd), who was another astral deity. They came to be

viewed as manifestations of Osiris and Isis.

Sah, while perhaps not as familiar to us as Sopdet, is mentioned very frequently in the Pyramid Texts, where he is called "father of the gods". The deceased king is said to enter the sky "In the name of the Dweller in Orion, with a season in the sky and a season on earth". The association between Sah and Sopdet is also clear in these early texts where the king is told, "You shall reach the sky as Orion, your soul shall be as effective as Sothis". During the New Kingdom, Funerary texts explains that Orion is said to row towards the stars in a boat and Sah was sometimes depicted in this manner in scenes found in temples and tombs, where he is surrounded by stars as he sails across the sky in a papyrus skiff.

The reason that Sopdet, or Sothis, is better known to us is that Sirius was, for the ancient Egyptians, a very important star that signaled after having been hidden from view for seventy days, in its appearance on the eastern horizon at dawn during July (Heliacal rising), the coming annual inundation of the Nile River which marked the beginning of the agricultural year. Hence, the goddess was called the "bringer of the New Year and the Nile flood". It was for this reason that she was associated with Sah, and thus Osiris, who symbolized this annual resurgence of the Nile. In fact, Pyramid Text 965 describes Sopdet as the daughter of Osiris. Therefore, Sopdet became associated with the prosperity resulting from the fertile silt left by the receding waters. In the pyramid text, Sopdet is described as having united with the king/Osiris to give birth to the morning star, Venus, and through her association with that netherworld god, she was naturally identified with Isis, who she was eventually synchronized with as Isis-Sothis. In the Lamentations of Isis and Nephthys, from a fourth century BC papyrus, Isis asserts that she is Sothis, who will unswervingly follow Osiris in his manifestation as Orion in heaven. Though at first an important deity of the inundation and as an afterlife guide to the deceased king through the Field of Rushes, by the Middle Kingdom she was identified as a "mother" and "nurse".

The earliest known depictions of Sothis, known from a 1st Dynasty ivory tablet belonging to Djer and unearthed at Abydos, represent the goddess as a reclining cow with a plant-like emblem (perhaps representing the "year") between her horns. She is almost always shown as a woman wearing a tall crown similar to the White Crown of Upper Egypt but with tall, upswept horns at the sides and surmounted by a star with five points. In this iconography, she had few variations, and is usually represented as simply standing with arms at her sides or with one arm folded across her lower breast. However, occasionally the goddess could also be depicted as a large dog. In her syncretistic role as Isis-Sothis, she is also shown riding side-saddle on this symbolic animal on some of the coins minted at Alexandria during Roman times.

The star Sirius may have been worshipped as a cow-goddess in the Predynastic Period before its eventual identification with Isis and Sopdet. Sopdet was clearly an important god in her own right at first, but her growing identification with Isis eventually meant that her individual identity was decreased during later times. By the Graeco-Roman Period, her assimilation with Isis was almost complete. Though we know nothing of any specific cult that worshipped specifically Sopdet, during the excavation for the Cairo Metro (subway), a temple was unearthed that was apparently dedicated to Isis-Sothis.

The Egyptians associated Aries with the god Amon Ra. During the time of Dionysus and his campaigns in Africa, his troops were traveling through a sandy desert. They ran out of water and were worn out struggling through the sand. A ram appeared before them, rose up in the air and landed behind a dune.

When scouts followed the animal, they came upon a spring of water, but no ram. Dionysus ordered the building of a temple to Zeus Amon on the spot where the spring rose. A likeness of the ram was placed in the

temple and the ram was placed in the heavens in a position of great importance.

The cult of Aries had its beginning here since its position at the zenith coincided with the rising of Sirius in the east and the flooding of the Nile. The Temple of Amon-Ra at Karnak bore the likeness of the supreme sun-god with the horns of a ram. The road to Karnak was formed from the wings of two granite sphinxes bearing the head of Aries.

What's New?

About the Site

FAQ

Bookstore

the Gods the Myths the Symbols the Land the Resources Home :: the Land :: The ZodiacThe Zodiac

The ancient Egyptians had knowledge of the twelve signs of the Zodiac. However, the Egyptians did not invent the twelve classic signs. These were created by the Babylonians and the Egyptians learned of them from the Greeks during the Ptolemiac period.

The Egyptian zodiac recognized many of the same basic constellations, but they were imagined to be in different shapes than the ones common today. For instance, the "Big Dipper" was seen as the foreleg of an ox.

Below are the Egyptian images of the twelve classic signs of the Zodiac as they appeared in the second room of the temple roof at Dendera.

Historical Astrology In Egypt

Astrology has played a major role in society since the beginning of civilization, and maybe even before that. Its influence can be seen in almost every part of the world. Astrology’s history is a long one, and common belief is that its origins lie with the Greeks. However, a closer look shows that the foundations for astrology were laid much earlier than that, and the Egyptians had much to do with this. The Egyptian influence will be discussed shortly; but first, it will be very helpful to describe the history of astrology up to the point that the Egyptians became involved.

The Sumerians, who settled in Mesopotamia around 4000 BC, mark the first example of a people who worshipped the sun, moon, and Venus. They considered these heavenly bodies gods, or the homes of gods. The moon god’s name was Nanna, the sun god was called Utu, and the god of Venus was named Inanna. These were not the only gods the Sumerians worshipped; in fact, other gods, especially those of creation, were more important in the Sumerian pantheon. The Akkandians, near Sumer, adopted the sun, moon and Venus gods, changing their names. This was common with the gods in ancient times: the gods were accepted by a society, but their names were changed, depending on who had conquered whom.

The priests of the time who communicated with the gods were the first rulers. Temple systems were created and staffs of as many as several hundred to several thousand people in various roles were "employed" to fulfill various needs of the priests. There were junior priests, counselors, musicians, potters, etc. Later, it became necessary to have military leaders and some of these became kings. These kings usually had in their company a seer, or "baru-priest." This person was an interpreter of the skies -- he would read the sky for warnings, which usually involved eclipses of the moon. It could be said that the "baru-priests" were the first actual astrologers. In order to be able to communicate with the gods, mounds were built which represented shrines. These, over time, grew to larger structures called "ziggurats." (Later, these ziggurats would be used to map the star formations and to watch the sky for omens.)

The Sumerian baru-priests were under quite a bit of pressure to predict correctly. Predictions became more an art than science, since the priests had to be a bit crafty in their work. They did succeed in predicting eclipses with correct mathematics; thus contributing greatly to the later development of the laws of astronomy. (It may be useful at this point for some to make the distinction between astrology and astronomy. Astronomy is the scientific study of the stars and planets and their movements. Astrology is the pseudoscientific study of the influence those heavenly bodies and their movements have on humankind.) Astrology as we, or even the ancient Greeks, would consider it did not exist at this time. The priests were concerned with predicting natural events (weather, eclipses, etc.) in order to maintain their power. Their efforts, however, did contribute to the development of astrology -- they designed a calendar; identified the basic cycles of the sun, moon, planets and stars; and divided their year into twelve months based on the moon’s twelve cycles during a year.

The beginnings of actual astrology can be seen during the Old Babylonian period, during the second millennium. The focus of the Babylonians was on the well-being of the kingdom and the king, not of the individual. For this reason, predictions revolved around things that would affect this well-being. The Babylonian priests correctly documented Venus’s appearances and disappearances and because of this erratic behavior (due to the fact that Venus revolves about the sun backwards) Venus became associated with love and war. Somewhere around 1300 BC, the precursors of the individual birth horoscopes were formulated. These were merely predictions based on which month a child was born in. By this time the astral bodies have become quite significant at this point.

The Assyrian Era marked a new phase in the development of astrology. This time period lasted from about 1300 to 600 BC The Assyrians conquered Babylon in 729 BC, and the inevitable changing of the gods occurred. At this time, the sun god, called Shamash now, was deemed high god. The state was still considered more important than the individual; thus the omens and predictions were still directed at the events that would affect the state. The Assyrians overcame a long time problem -- they created a consistent and accurate calendar. Star maps were plotted correctly, constellations were formed, and astrolabes, or lists of stars were made. Omens were very important to the Assyrians and the priests-astrologers-astronomers would present their omens to the courts often. Those who could forecast good things were well-respected.

As mentioned above, the Assyrians had developed constellations. In fact, they plotted eighteen all together. Later, by 600 BC, some of these would be combined and some would be deleted to form the twelve constellations of the zodiac. There is a certain amount of controversy over just how these constellations were named. The following is a list of the names: the Latin name first -- the name we are most familiar with, then the Babylonian name. Much of astrology today is based on the relationships these constellations have with the seasons. The constellations should not be confused with the traditional signs of the zodiac, as the latter had not yet been created.

1) Aries - Luhunga 7) Libra - Zihanitum

2) Taurus - Guanna or Mul 8) Scorpio - Gir-tab

3) Gemini - Mastabagalgal or Mash 9) Sagittarius - Pah

4) Cancer - Nangar 10) Capricorn - Suhur

5) Leo - U-ra 11) Aquarius - Gu or Gula

6) Virgo - Absin 12) Pisces - Zib

The Assyrians placed as much or even more importance on the five planets they had identified and their movements into these constellations. The reason for this is that they believed the planets were gods or at least the home of gods. The names given to these planets as well as the sun and moon were eventually replaced by the Greek names, then the Roman names, and eventually the English names. In Assyrian times the names were as follows: Sun=Shamash, Moon=Sin, Venus=Ishtar, Mercury=Nebo or Nabu, Mars=Nergal, Saturn=Ninurta, and Jupiter=Marduk. The various personalities and domains of these gods changed with time and change of rulership.

The next phase in the history of astrology is the New Babylonian period (600-300 BC). Some of the prominent astrologers of this period were Kiddinu, Berossus, Antipatrus, Achinopoulus, and Sudines. Up to this point, really the only kind of astrology being practiced was omen astrology, or the foretelling of major events. It was during the New Babylonian period that the signs of the zodiac were invented and horoscope, or birth, astrology had its beginnings. As of 1996, sixteen Babylonian horoscopes have been found and it was not uncommon for these horoscopes to contain little or no prediction. They mostly consist of the position of the skies at the time of conception or birth of the individual.

The Greeks began their immense influence on astrology during the fifth and fourth centuries BC. Alexander the Great managed to spread the Greek way of life, also known as Hellenism, to places such as Alexandria and Antioch. The Hellenistic period spanned from the time of his death in 323 BC to the middle of the second century BC, when the Romans took the eastern Mediterranean. The Greeks were responsible for incorporating mythology into astrology. The names we are familiar with today when we think of mythology came into existence. Up to this point, the same gods existed, just under different names and personalities.

This was the age of such famous forerunners of modern science as Plato, Pythagoras, who asserted that the earth was round and traveled around the sun; Leucippus, whose theory would later be the beginnings of atomic science; and Aristotle. Other scientists involved with the study of astronomy, such as Eudoxus, held the opinion that astrology was ridiculous and no one should believe prediction about his life based on which day he was born. Nevertheless, astrologers such as Critodemus, Apollonius of Myndus, and Epigenes of Byzantium continued to refine horoscopic astrology.