Gyula Priskin
University of Szeged, Ancient History, Faculty Member
Although it has long been accepted by modern researchers that the ancient Egyptians started their lunar month on the day when the waning crescent was no longer visible at dawn on the eastern horizon (last crescent invisibility), so far... more
Although it has long been accepted by modern researchers that the ancient Egyptians started their lunar month on the day when the waning crescent was no longer visible at dawn on the eastern horizon (last crescent invisibility), so far regretfully little attention has been paid to how this event was reflected in writing or by visual representations. The understanding of the descriptions and visual symbols of lunar invisibility is not only hampered by the often arcane allusions of the Egyptian sources, but also by our perception of the lunar cycle that – being a descendant of classical and Near Eastern lunar calendars – predominantly identifies its key moment as the appearance of the first crescent of the waxing moon after sunset over the western horizon. In my presentation I give an overview of the written accounts of lunar invisibility, especially focusing on the Book of the Moon (Coffin Texts spells 154–160) and Ptolemaic texts from Karnak, Edfu, and Dendera. I also present various scenes that depict lunar invisibility, starting from the New Kingdom hieroglyph of psDn.tjw to the zodiacs of the Graeco-Roman era. The mythological implications of these sources seem to be various. Because the moon was a prime symbol of resurrection, its period of invisibility often occurs in this framework, and is associated with the moment of divine conception. At other times, the invisible moon – as it is perceived being closest to its companion, the sun – may act as the enemy or the counterpart of the sun god.
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Spells 154–160 do not only constitute a unified composition because they describe the bas of different localities but also because they give a chronologically organized account of the events that happen during the course of a lunar month,... more
Spells 154–160 do not only constitute a unified composition because they describe the bas of different localities but also because they give a chronologically organized account of the events that happen during the course of a lunar month, from one period of invisibility to the next one. Within the composition, which may be dubbed the Ancient Egyptian Book of the Moon, different units can be discerned through the analysis of the content of the texts. Thus spells 154, 157, and 158 clearly form a subsection that is bound together by the predominance of the sun god Re and the recurring aetiological motif. This grouping also implies that spells 155 and 156, in which the emphasis is on Thoth and Re is barely mentioned, were inserted into a previously existing text. The core text consisting of spells 154, 157, and 158 was also enlarged by the addition of two more spells at the end (spells 159 and 160) that likewise lack explanatory comments on how things came to exist. The identification of the different textual layers leads to the conjecture that the three core spells may have belonged to the corpus of royal funerary texts compiled prior to the Middle Kingdom in the Memphite area and then were later augmented in Hermopolis, the chief cult centre of the preeminent lunar god, Thoth. The composition as a whole gives us a unique chance to get a better understanding of how the collection of spells known as the Coffin Texts was developed and what role Hermopolis played in the process.
Research Interests:
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The scenes that have come down to us from Graeco-Roman temples depicting the entire lunar cycle can be classified into two major groups. The first comprises some unanimously interpreted cases which show a line of gods in procession... more
The scenes that have come down to us from Graeco-Roman temples depicting the entire lunar cycle can be classified into two major groups. The first comprises some unanimously interpreted cases which show a line of gods in procession towards the moon. The second group is made up of the more complex scenes found in the temples of Edfu, Dendera and Esna, for which either unsatisfactory or conflicting, sometimes even diametrically opposed interpretations have been put forward. All these problematic representations are reviewed here in order to present a unified analysis that, on the one hand, aims to unravel the subtleties of the iconographic details of the individual scenes and, on the other, to establish clear interconnections between them.
Research Interests:
According to the Graeco-Roman zodiacs, the appearance of the full moon on the day of the autumnal equinox signified the moment in the astral myth of Osiris when the god was resurrected. The paper argues that the concise version of the... more
According to the Graeco-Roman zodiacs, the appearance of the full moon on the day of the autumnal equinox signified the moment in the astral myth of Osiris when the god was resurrected. The paper argues that the concise version of the hour vigil on the interior surface of the lid of Peftjauneith’s coffin refers to the same mythical episode. Similarly to a few other coffins of the 26th dynasty, Peftjauneith’s composition includes a short exhortative text, a visual list of the hour goddesses, together with their names (twelve for the day, and twelve for the night), and the figure of Nut who is unusually depicted as swallowing the sun and giving birth to the moon. The even distribution of the hours points to the equinox, while the juxtaposition of the sun and the moon captures the rising of the full lunar disc. The whole scene thus refers to a detail of the hour vigil not documented elsewhere, namely, that it was ideally performed when the full moon coincided with the day of the equino...
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... The Golden Ratio in Ptolemaic Temple Design. Autores: Gyula Priskin; Localización: Göttinger Miszellen: Beiträge zur ägyptologischen Diskussion, ISSN 0344-385X, Nº 194, 2003 , págs. 59-64. Fundación Dialnet. Acceso de usuarios... more
... The Golden Ratio in Ptolemaic Temple Design. Autores: Gyula Priskin; Localización: Göttinger Miszellen: Beiträge zur ägyptologischen Diskussion, ISSN 0344-385X, Nº 194, 2003 , págs. 59-64. Fundación Dialnet. Acceso de usuarios registrados. ...
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Research Interests: Ancient History and Art
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The perimeter of the Dendera temple, defined as the sum of the perimeters of the naos and the pronaos, is shown to result from a symbolic numbers game the purpose of which was to express order in both spatial and temporalterms drawing on... more
The perimeter of the Dendera temple, defined as the sum of the perimeters of the naos and the pronaos, is shown to result from a symbolic numbers game the purpose of which was to express order in both spatial and temporalterms drawing on the mathematical concept of the golden ratio.
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The dimensions of the 6th Dynastie pyramids, when rendered in small cubits regarded to represent 5/6 part of the royal cubit, reveal a partiuclar kind of calendrical symbolism, as they conform to a 3 : 4 : 5 paradigm triangle the... more
The dimensions of the 6th Dynastie pyramids, when rendered in small cubits regarded to represent 5/6 part of the royal cubit, reveal a partiuclar kind of calendrical symbolism, as they conform to a 3 : 4 : 5 paradigm triangle the perimeter of which equals 360. The triangle's importance is undrlined by the fact that it also appears in the plan of Khufu's mortuary temple and in the geometry of the King's chamber. Again, the triangle's appearance in the Chamber is dependent on the different units of Egyptian linear metrology. The points of connection that from a geometric-symbolic point of view link most of the pyramids of the 4th, 5th, and 6th Dynasties establish a conceptual analogy between these buildings.
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Little evidence has so far been discovered to support the theory that the Great Pyramid at Giza was designed to include the golden ratio in its proportions. Our knowledge of Egyptian measuring techniques and tools suggests that this ratio... more
Little evidence has so far been discovered to support the theory that the Great Pyramid at Giza was designed to include the golden ratio in its proportions. Our knowledge of Egyptian measuring techniques and tools suggests that this ratio occured in the pyramid's geometry incidentally, as a natural consequence of the building criteria observed during construction. A careful analysis of a New Kingdom funerary document, the Amduat, shows that the builders of the pyramid knew well the golden ratio and the related concept of additive progression. The Amduat also reveals that the Egyptians regarded these mathematical ideas essential for their mythology, because they realized that the golden ratio made the basic cycles of the calendar, the month and the year, commensurable.
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The consensual figure of 20,000 royal cubits for the length of one iteru was determined early in the 20th century by the comparison of lengths cited in hieroglyphic inscriptions with actual geographical distances. Information from various... more
The consensual figure of 20,000 royal cubits for the length of one iteru was determined early in the 20th century by the comparison of lengths cited in hieroglyphic inscriptions with actual geographical distances. Information from various antique and late Egyptian metrological texts is collated here to support the validity of this figure. An attempt is also made to track down the developments that led to a considerable change in the length of the schoinos, the Greek counterpart of the iteru, in the second half of the first millenium BC.
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This paper presents a fresh rendering of Coffin Texts spell 155 based on the hieroglyphic text variant that is found on the coffin of a Deir el-Bersha official, Sen. It is argued that through references to an extensive body of lunar... more
This paper presents a fresh rendering of Coffin Texts spell 155 based on the hieroglyphic text variant that is found on the coffin of a Deir el-Bersha official, Sen. It is argued that through references to an extensive body of lunar knowledge and wide-ranging associations this spell gives an elaborate – hitherto only partially understood – description of the period of time when the moon is not visible in its monthly cycle, i.e. astronomical new moon.
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In my recent analysis of the Dendera zodiacs, I proposed that the primary purpose of these artefacts, dating from the 1st century BCE and CE, was not to catalogue the various constellations of the sky, as has hitherto been widely... more
In my recent analysis of the Dendera zodiacs, I proposed that the primary purpose of these artefacts, dating from the 1st century BCE and CE, was not to catalogue the various constellations of the sky, as has hitherto been widely believed,1 but rather to recount and illustrate the astral aspects of the myth of Osiris, including notably the birth of his son, Horus.2 My claim is essentially based on Plutarch’s remark that the conception and birth of Horus were tied to three key points in the annual solar cycle: the autumnal equinox, the winter solstice, and the spring equinox.3 Acting on Plutarch’s hints, and assuming that the images in the zodiacs marked specific cultic or celestial events connected with the divine regeneration cycle, I could determine that Horus’ astral rebirth was centred not only around the yearly wanderings of the sun, but manifested itself through a series of occurrences that involved both the sun and the moon (see below). It is of course well-known that the con...
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A simple geometric scheme is unravelled to establish a close connection between the dimensions of the Second Pyramid and those of the Great Pyramid. The scheme implies that the Second Pyramid was designed as a dual pyramid, the separate... more
A simple geometric scheme is unravelled to establish a close connection between the dimensions of the Second Pyramid and those of the Great Pyramid. The scheme implies that the Second Pyramid was designed as a dual pyramid, the separate parts being distinguished by the bottommost granite course of the casing. Belonging to the two parts of the pyramid, two sets of dimensions are determined, replacing the Second Pyramid's putative dimensions. These dimensions, and the way they derive from the geometry of the Great Pyramid, spell out an essential identity between the 3:4:5 paradigm and calendrical symbolism. Inscriptional evidence and new geometric correspondences are presented to link the Giza pyramids and the Graeco-Roman temples at Dendera and Edfu.
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Información del artículo The Egyptian Heritage in the Ancient Measurements of the Earth.
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Representations of how the ancient Egyptians saw the sky have come down to us in the form of astronomical diagrams that are known from tombs, memorial temples, water clocks, and coffins. An emphatic element of these catalogues of... more
Representations of how the ancient Egyptians saw the sky have come down to us in the form of astronomical diagrams that are known from tombs, memorial temples, water clocks, and coffins. An emphatic element of these catalogues of celestial phenomena, comprising both textual and visual information, was the drawings of constellations. They appeared in two groups in the southern and northern panels of the astronomical diagrams. Two different strands of tradition existed about the northern constellations, exemplified by the astronomical diagrams in the tombs of Senenmut and Seti I. Based on the analysis of the arrangement of the constellation figures within these documents, and through the examination of a wide range of relevant sources, the paper – using the principle of visual resemblance and the help of planetarium software – identifies the star patterns in the sky from which the ancient Egyptian constellations were derived. ENiM – Une revue d’égyptologie sur internet. http://www.eni...
... Cryptic Numerals on Cubit Rods. Autores: Gyula Priskin; Localización: Göttinger Miszellen: Beiträge zur ägyptologischen Diskussion, ISSN 0344-385X, Nº 192, 2003 , págs. 61-68. Fundación Dialnet. Acceso de usuarios registrados. ...
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... Cryptic Numerals on Cubit Rods. Autores: Gyula Priskin; Localización: Göttinger Miszellen: Beiträge zur ägyptologischen Diskussion, ISSN 0344-385X, Nº 192, 2003 , págs. 61-68. Fundación Dialnet. Acceso de usuarios registrados. ...
Research Interests:
... The Golden Ratio in Ptolemaic Temple Design. Autores: Gyula Priskin; Localización: Göttinger Miszellen: Beiträge zur ägyptologischen Diskussion, ISSN 0344-385X, Nº 194, 2003 , págs. 59-64. Fundación Dialnet. Acceso de usuarios... more
... The Golden Ratio in Ptolemaic Temple Design. Autores: Gyula Priskin; Localización: Göttinger Miszellen: Beiträge zur ägyptologischen Diskussion, ISSN 0344-385X, Nº 194, 2003 , págs. 59-64. Fundación Dialnet. Acceso de usuarios registrados. ...
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Résumé/Abstract The dimensions of the 6th Dynastie pyramids, when rendered in small cubits regarded to represent 5/6 part of the royal cubit, reveal a partiuclar kind of calendrical symbolism, as they conform to a 3: 4: 5 paradigm... more
Résumé/Abstract The dimensions of the 6th Dynastie pyramids, when rendered in small cubits regarded to represent 5/6 part of the royal cubit, reveal a partiuclar kind of calendrical symbolism, as they conform to a 3: 4: 5 paradigm triangle the perimeter of which equals ...
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Representations of how the ancient Egyptians saw the sky have come down to us in the form of astronomical diagrams that are known from tombs, memorial temples, water clocks, and coffins. An emphatic element of these catalogues of... more
Representations of how the ancient Egyptians saw the sky have come down to us in the form of astronomical diagrams that are known from tombs, memorial temples, water clocks, and coffins. An emphatic element of these catalogues of celestial phenomena, comprising both textual and visual information, was the drawings of constellations. They appeared in two groups in the southern and northern panels of the astronomical diagrams. Two different strands of tradition existed about the northern constellations, exemplified by the astronomical diagrams in the tombs of Senenmut and Seti I. Based on the analysis of the arrangement of the constellation figures within these documents, and through the examination of a wide range of relevant sources, the paper – using the principle of visual resemblance and the help of planetarium software – identifies the star patterns in the sky from which the ancient Egyptian constellations were derived.
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Translation and commentary of the first part of the longer lunar text found on the eastern wall of the pronaos of the Edfu temple, describing the period when the moon is not visible in the sky.
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According to the Graeco-Roman zodiacs, the appearance of the full moon on the day of the autumnal equinox signified the moment in the astral myth of Osiris when the god was resurrected. The paper argues that the concise version of the... more
According to the Graeco-Roman zodiacs, the appearance of the full moon on the day of the autumnal equinox signified the moment in the astral myth of Osiris when the god was resurrected. The paper argues that the concise version of the hour vigil on the interior surface of the lid of Peftjauneith’s coffin refers to the same mythical episode. Similarly to a few other coffins of the 26th dynasty, Peftjauneith’s composition includes a short exhortative text, a visual list of the hour goddesses, together with their names (twelve for the day, and twelve for the night), and the figure of Nut who is unusually depicted as swallowing the sun and giving birth to the moon. The even distribution of the hours points to the equinox, while the juxtaposition of the sun and the moon captures the rising of the full lunar disc. The whole scene thus refers to a detail of the hour vigil not documented elsewhere, namely, that it was ideally performed when the full moon coincided with the day of the equinox. With its setup, the hour vigil of Osiris on Peftjauneith’s coffin is a forerunner of the later Graeco-Roman zodiacs.
Keywords: hour vigil, Peftjauneith, 26th dynasty, coffin decoration, Osiris, astral myths
Keywords: hour vigil, Peftjauneith, 26th dynasty, coffin decoration, Osiris, astral myths
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The paper is available for download here: http://www.archaeopress.com/ArchaeopressShop/Public/displayProductDetail.asp?id={6F3DFF1E-3380-442D-9327-7952D0CE1671}
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The analysis of two scenes in the tomb of Benaty ‒ the lunar and solar journey ‒ stems from the novel interpretation of the Dendera zodiacs, and is eventually based on Plutarch’s claim that Horus’ conception and birth are related to the... more
The analysis of two scenes in the tomb of Benaty ‒ the lunar and solar journey ‒ stems from the novel interpretation of the Dendera zodiacs, and is eventually based on Plutarch’s claim that Horus’ conception and birth are related to the autumnal equinox, winter solstice, and vernal equinox. The lunar scene on the east side shows the first conjunction of the sun and the moon after the autumnal equinox, and thus the procreation of Horus, while the solar scene depicts the appearance of the first crescent after the vernal equinox in the following year, that is Horus’ birth. Since the scenes in Benaty’s tomb predate their later parallels ‒ the zodiacs found at Dendera and in the tomb of Petosiris (Dakhleh oasis) ‒ by some 500-600 years, they provide good evidence for the native origins of the astral myths about Osiris’ resurrection (i.e. the birth of his son, Horus) that the Graeco-Roman artefacts also illustrate.
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Coffin Texts spells 154–160 do not only constitute a unified composition because they describe the bas of different localities but also because they give a chronologically organized account of the events that happen during the course of a... more
Coffin Texts spells 154–160 do not only constitute a unified composition because they describe the bas of different localities but also because they give a chronologically organized account of the events that happen during the course of a lunar month, from one period of invisibility to the next one. Within the composition, which may be dubbed the Ancient Egyptian Book of the Moon, different units can be discerned through the analysis of the content of the texts. Thus spells 154, 157, and 158 clearly form a subsection that is bound together by the predominance of the sun god Re and the recurring aetiological motif. This grouping also implies that Coffin Texts spells 155 and 156, in which the emphasis is on Thoth, and Re is barely mentioned, were inserted into a previously existing text. The core text consisting of spells 154, 157, and 158 was also enlarged by the addition of two more spells at the end (spells 159 and 160) that likewise lack explanatory comments on how things came to exist. The identification of the different textual layers leads to the conjecture that a significant part of the composition (the three core spells and the last two spells) may have belonged to the corpus of mortuary texts compiled prior to the Middle Kingdom in the Memphite area and then were later augmented in Hermopolis, the chief cult centre of the preeminent lunar god, Thoth. The composition as a whole gives us a unique chance to get a better understanding of how the collection of spells known as the Coffin Texts was developed and what role Hermopolis played in the process.
Research Interests:
The scenes that have come down to us from Graeco-Roman temples depicting the entire lunar cycle can be classified into two major groups. The first comprises some unanimously interpreted cases which show a line of gods in procession... more
The scenes that have come down to us from Graeco-Roman temples depicting the entire lunar cycle can be classified into two major groups. The first comprises some unanimously interpreted cases which show a line of gods in procession towards the moon. The second group is made up of the more complex scenes found in the temples of Edfu, Dendera and Esna, for which either unsatisfactory or conflicting, sometimes even diametrically opposed interpretations have been put forward. All these problematic representations are reviewed here in order to present a unified analysis that on the one hand aims to unravel the subtleties of the iconographic details of the individual scenes and, on the other, to establish clear interconnections between them.
Research Interests:
The different forms of the first two decans that belong to the sign of Taurus in the Graeco-Roman zodiacs – a kneeling woman, a pig, the dead Osiris lying in a boat, and a pair of eyes – are shown to refer to the full moon in the month I... more
The different forms of the first two decans that belong to the sign of Taurus in the Graeco-Roman zodiacs
– a kneeling woman, a pig, the dead Osiris lying in a boat, and a pair of eyes – are shown to refer to the
full moon in the month I Shemu, and the cultic and mythological connotations of this event. The basis
of this connection was the fact that I Shemu overlapped with the sun’s annual stay in Taurus around the
beginning of the Common Era. The Taurus decans showing Osiris and the pair of eyes in the barque
derive from the New Kingdom astronomical diagrams which depicted a boat under the decan called ḥr.jjb-
wjȝ “the middle of the boat”. In the later zodiacs the same decan belongs to the sign of Libra. The
analysis of the symbols of this decan in the astronomical diagram of the Ramesseum and in the round
zodiac of Dendera, unveiling the multiple layers of signification that have been attached to them, reveals
that the Egyptian constellation of the boat was identical with the three brighest stars of the modern
constellation of Libra (α, β, and σ Librae, the ḥr.j-jb-wjȝ decan being the star in the middle, α Librae).
This boat in the sky played a crucial role in Egyptian cosmographies and the astral myth of Osiris
because of its closeness to the autumnal equinoctial point throughout much of ancient Egyptian history. Weblink: http://www.enim-egyptologie.fr/index.php?page=enim-9&n=7
– a kneeling woman, a pig, the dead Osiris lying in a boat, and a pair of eyes – are shown to refer to the
full moon in the month I Shemu, and the cultic and mythological connotations of this event. The basis
of this connection was the fact that I Shemu overlapped with the sun’s annual stay in Taurus around the
beginning of the Common Era. The Taurus decans showing Osiris and the pair of eyes in the barque
derive from the New Kingdom astronomical diagrams which depicted a boat under the decan called ḥr.jjb-
wjȝ “the middle of the boat”. In the later zodiacs the same decan belongs to the sign of Libra. The
analysis of the symbols of this decan in the astronomical diagram of the Ramesseum and in the round
zodiac of Dendera, unveiling the multiple layers of signification that have been attached to them, reveals
that the Egyptian constellation of the boat was identical with the three brighest stars of the modern
constellation of Libra (α, β, and σ Librae, the ḥr.j-jb-wjȝ decan being the star in the middle, α Librae).
This boat in the sky played a crucial role in Egyptian cosmographies and the astral myth of Osiris
because of its closeness to the autumnal equinoctial point throughout much of ancient Egyptian history. Weblink: http://www.enim-egyptologie.fr/index.php?page=enim-9&n=7
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Spells 154‒160 of the Coffin Texts have long been known to form a unified composition since most of them promise the knowledge of sacred localities. The main purpose of these spells is, however, not to draw up a mental map of places of... more
Spells 154‒160 of the Coffin Texts have long been known to form a unified composition since most of them promise the knowledge of sacred localities. The main purpose of these spells is, however, not to draw up a mental map of places of ritual import but to describe a more tangible yet still grandiose journey, the wanderings of the moon across time and space. After the introduction (spell 154) which explains the origins of the month, the separate texts represent the successive stages of the monthly cycle: the period of invisibility (spell 155), waxing (spell 156), events around the full moon (spell 157), waning (spell 158), the arrival of the last crescent at the eastern horizon (spell 159), and again the conjunction of the sun and the moon when a solar eclipse can occur (spell 160). The references to the moon in the texts are sometimes straightforward, while to grasp the lunar content of other passages a greater understanding of ancient Egyptian astronomical concepts is required. The spells present a hitherto unsuspected coherent account of lunar phenomena and can appropriately be dubbed the Ancient Egyptian Book of the Moon.
Full text of the paper will be available on Academia.edu in three years’ time. Until then you need to get hold of the book, http://www.oxbowbooks.com/oxbow/current-research-in-egyptology-2016.html, or send a request to the author.
Full text of the paper will be available on Academia.edu in three years’ time. Until then you need to get hold of the book, http://www.oxbowbooks.com/oxbow/current-research-in-egyptology-2016.html, or send a request to the author.
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On many hypocephali one of the pictorial registers shows the meeting of the solar and lunar boats. The analysis of the cosmographic scheme of these funerary objects and the comparison of the scene with other astronomical depictions... more
On many hypocephali one of the pictorial registers shows the meeting of the solar and lunar boats. The analysis of the cosmographic scheme of these funerary objects and the comparison of the scene with other astronomical depictions demonstrate that the encounter between the sun and the moon represents the situation when they are both dwelling in the liminal zones of the netherworld, close to the western and eastern horizons, respectively. The lunar boat is in fact a proxy playing the role of the morning barque of more traditional representations that show the two solar boats prow to prow.
Weblink: http://birminghamegyptology.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/The-encounter-between-the-sun-and-the-moon-on-hypocephali.pdf?06c46e
Weblink: http://birminghamegyptology.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/The-encounter-between-the-sun-and-the-moon-on-hypocephali.pdf?06c46e
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Besides the unambiguously identifiable depictions of the zodiacal belt, four conventional Egyptian asterisms, and the planets, the other signs that feature in the two Dendera zodiacs are shown to derive from traditional Egyptian... more
Besides the unambiguously identifiable depictions of the zodiacal belt, four conventional Egyptian asterisms, and the planets, the other signs that feature in the two Dendera zodiacs are shown to derive from traditional Egyptian representational systems. These images, together with the accompanying figures of the decans, are incorporated into the design of the monuments to record celestial events and related cultic acts that tell the story of Osiris’s death and resurrection, the conception of Isis from her deceased husband, and the nativity of their child, Horus. The astral aspects of these myths are connected with the phases of the moon, the yearly solar cycle, and the annual dawn rising of the star Sirius. The zodiacs are thus not catalogues of constellations but peculiar sky charts devised at specific moments of time that correspond to the coincidence of the full moon with the autumnal equinox in the years 52 BCE and 36 CE.
Keywords: Dendera, zodiacs, myth of Osiris, Isis, Horus, Khoiak mysteries, Plutarch, solar cycle, lunar cycle, heliacal rising of Sirius
Weblink: http://www.enim-egyptologie.fr/index.php?page=enim-8&n=9
Keywords: Dendera, zodiacs, myth of Osiris, Isis, Horus, Khoiak mysteries, Plutarch, solar cycle, lunar cycle, heliacal rising of Sirius
Weblink: http://www.enim-egyptologie.fr/index.php?page=enim-8&n=9
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Depictions of the entire lunar cycle in Graeco-Roman temples: the western and eastern walls of the pronaos at Edfu. [in Hungarian]
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The description of the land of Egypt found on the enclosure wall of the Edfu temple is shown to refer to a map of the country that was devised to bring a symbolic numbers game into play based on the golden ratio. The ultimate purpose of... more
The description of the land of Egypt found on the enclosure wall of the Edfu temple is shown to refer to a map of the country that was devised to bring a symbolic numbers game into play based on the golden ratio. The ultimate purpose of the description and the resulting map was therefore not to reflect the actual size of Egypt, but to mark out an ideal setting for the country in mythical space. For the reconstruction of the map the relevant documents of ancient Egyptian cartography are reviewed.
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"This paper presents a fresh rendering of Coffin Texts spell 155 based on the hieroglyphic text variant that is found on the coffin of a Deir el-Bersha official, Sen. It is argued that through references to an extensive body of lunar... more
"This paper presents a fresh rendering of Coffin Texts spell 155 based on the hieroglyphic text variant that is found on the coffin of a Deir el-Bersha official, Sen. It is argued that through references to an extensive body of lunar knowledge and wide-ranging associations this spell gives an elaborate – hitherto only partially understood – description of the period of time when the moon is not visible in its monthly cycle, i.e. astronomical new moon. "
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The ancient Egyptian astronomical diagrams often depict the figure of a sheep next to the constellation of the boat, which has recently been identified with the three brightest stars of the modern constellation of Libra. It follows from... more
The ancient Egyptian astronomical diagrams often depict the figure of a sheep next to the constellation of the boat, which has recently been identified with the three brightest stars of the modern constellation of Libra. It follows from this that the constellation of the sheep must be located in the sky in the immediate vicinity of Libra, among the star groups that rise after that constellation. Evidence shows that the Egyptians, like other ancient cultures, determined their constellations by looking out for the outlines of stars that resembled the shape of an object or animal. Therefore identifying the constellation of the sheep means finding a series of stars that form the shape of the animal further to the east from Libra. On these premises, the paper argues that the Egyptian sheep was a huge celestial figure that included certain stars from the modern constellations of Scorpio, Sagittarius, Corona Australis, Telescopium, Ara, Scutum, Serpens, Ophiuchus, Aquila, Aquarius, and Capricorn. Later, the zodiacs of the Graeco-Roman era do not include the sheep constellation, but associate part of it (Capricorn) with a goose. An explanation for this omission is offered by arguing that the homonymous Egyptian expressions for the two animals led to the transformation of the original constellation of the sheep into a goose. Visual and textual clues support these interpretations, greatly enhancing our understanding of the Egyptian celestial diagrams.
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The 104 amulets of Osiris are only described in the innermost western chapel of the god at Dendera, and their number does not tally with any other listings of funerary amulets. The peculiar number of amulets can be explained if the... more
The 104 amulets of Osiris are only described in the innermost western chapel of the god at Dendera, and their number does not tally with any other listings of funerary amulets. The peculiar number of amulets can be explained if the timeline of the Osiris mysteries is reconstructed from the inscriptions in the roof chapels at Dendera, and from Plutarch’s account of the myth of Osiris. Discussing the agricultural aspect of the myth, Plutarch relates that Osiris comes back to life when the corn sown in the earth begins to sprout on II Akhet 6, which event also signals the conception of Isis from her husband. The Dendera inscriptions, on the other hand, record that the corn specially cultivated for the mysteries is harvested on I Peret 20, thus ending the god’s life in his vegetal manifestation. Exactly 104 days elapse between these two dates, suggesting that the 104 amulets of Osiris at Dendera are intended to transfer the vegetal life force of the sacred corn onto the god’s lifeless, originally verdant, effigy kept for one year in the innermost western room. Since the date of II Akhet 6 also coincided with a significant astronomical event, the disappearance of the moon after the autumnal equinox, in the year when the mysteries best aligned with the overall seasonal changes (52 BCE), the presence of the 104 amulets indicates that the Ptolemaic priests, besides recording ancient traditions, were also enriching the mysteries of Osiris with new details. Their innovative approach provides further proof for the fact that they regarded the myth of Osiris as their own, as an integral part of their culture that was still very much alive and possibly capable of reasserting or strengthening Egyptian identity during foreign rule.
Research Interests:
The 104 amulets of Osiris are only described in the innermost western chapel of the god at Dendera, and their number does not tally with any other listings of funerary amulets. The peculiar number of amulets can be explained if the... more
The 104 amulets of Osiris are only described in the innermost western chapel of the god at Dendera, and their number does not tally with any other listings of funerary amulets. The peculiar number of amulets can be explained if the timeline of the Osiris mysteries is reconstructed from the inscriptions in the roof chapels at Dendera, and from Plutarch’s account of the myth of Osiris. Discussing the agricultural aspect of the myth, Plutarch relates that Osiris comes back to life when the corn sown in the earth begins to sprout on II Akhet 6, which event also signals the conception of Isis from her husband. The Dendera inscriptions, on the other hand, record that the corn specially cultivated for the mysteries is harvested on I Peret 20, thus ending the god’s life in his vegetal manifestation. Exactly 104 days elapse between these two dates, suggesting that the 104 amulets of Osiris at Dendera are intended to transfer the vegetal life force of the sacred corn onto the god’s lifeless, originally verdant, effigy kept for one year in the innermost western room. Since the date of II Akhet 6 also coincided with a significant astronomical event, the disappearance of the moon after the autumnal equinox, in the year when the mysteries best aligned with the overall seasonal changes (52 BCE), the presence of the 104 amulets indicates that the Ptolemaic priests, besides recording ancient traditions, were also enriching the mysteries of Osiris with new details. Their innovative approach provides further proof for the fact that they regarded the myth of Osiris as their own, as an integral part of their culture that was still very much alive and possibly capable of reasserting or strengthening Egyptian identity during foreign rule.
Research Interests:
Similarly to a few other coffins of the 26th dynasty, the interior surface of the lid of Peftjauneith's coffin records a concise version of the hour vigil of Osiris, which is essentially a visual list of the hour goddesses, together with... more
Similarly to a few other coffins of the 26th dynasty, the interior surface of the lid of Peftjauneith's coffin records a concise version of the hour vigil of Osiris, which is essentially a visual list of the hour goddesses, together with their names (twelve for the day, and twelve for the night). They flank the figure of Nut who is unusually depicted as swallowing the sun and giving birth to the moon. The paper argues that the whole scene refers to a detail of the hour vigil not documented elsewhere, namely, that it was performed at the time of the full moon. Furthermore, the even distribution of the hours implies that the ideal moment of the hour vigil was the day when the full moon coincided with the equinox. This was the time when Osiris was resurrected, and the paper also presents the hitherto untranslated texts in the interior of Peftjauneith's coffin to offer a number of clues in support of this interpretation.
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Apart from a well-defined sequence of spells (the Book of the Moon, spells 154–160) which catalogues the successive stages of the lunar cycle, at least one other spell of the Coffin Texts also describes a specific point in the moon’s... more
Apart from a well-defined sequence of spells (the Book of the Moon, spells 154–160) which catalogues the successive stages of the lunar cycle, at least one other spell of the Coffin Texts also describes a specific point in the moon’s journey through the sky. This is spell 246, a text that has been preserved on three coffins from Asyut. Its title, ‘Spell for entering into the fire and coming forth from the fire around the sky’, has obvious affinities with the designation of the invisible moon in spells 154 and 160: ‘He-who-is-in-his-fire’, i.e. the moon dwelling in the vicinity of the sun at the time of conjunction. As a whole, spell 246 offers yet another glimpse into the mythological associations and imagery which the Egyptians used to record and make sense of the monthly disappearance of the moon. In my presentation, I offer a fresh rendering of the text exploring its lunar connotations.
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Although it has long been accepted by modern researchers that the ancient Egyptians started their lunar month on the day when the waning crescent was no longer visible at dawn on the eastern horizon (last crescent invisibility), so far... more
Although it has long been accepted by modern researchers that the ancient Egyptians started their lunar month on the day when the waning crescent was no longer visible at dawn on the eastern horizon (last crescent invisibility), so far regretfully little attention has been paid to how this event was reflected in writing or by visual representations. The understanding of the descriptions and visual symbols of lunar invisibility is not only hampered by the often arcane allusions of the Egyptian sources, but also by our perception of the lunar cycle that – being a descendant of classical and Near Eastern lunar calendars – predominantly identifies its key moment as the appearance of the first crescent of the waxing moon after sunset over the western horizon. In my presentation I give an overview of the written accounts of lunar invisibility, especially focusing on the Book of the Moon (Coffin Texts spells 154–160) and Ptolemaic texts from Karnak, Edfu, and Dendera. I also present various scenes that depict lunar invisibility, starting from the New Kingdom hieroglyph of psDn.tjw to the zodiacs of the Graeco-Roman era. The mythological implications of these sources seem to be various. Because the moon was a prime symbol of resurrection, its period of invisibility often occurs in this framework, and is associated with the moment of divine conception. At other times, the invisible moon – as it is perceived being closest to its companion, the sun – may act as the enemy or the counterpart of the sun god.
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The analysis of two scenes in the tomb, the lunar and solar journey, stems from the novel interpretation of the Dendera zodiacs, and is eventually based on Plutarch's claim that Horus's conception and birth are related to the autumnal... more
The analysis of two scenes in the tomb, the lunar and solar journey, stems from the novel interpretation of the Dendera zodiacs, and is eventually based on Plutarch's claim that Horus's conception and birth are related to the autumnal equinox, winter solstice, and vernal equinox. The lunar scene on the east side shows the first conjunction of the sun and the moon after the autumnal equinox, and thus the procreation of Horus, while the solar scene depicts the appearance of the first crescent after the vernal equinox in the following year, that is Horus's birth. Since the scenes in Benaty's tomb predate their later parallels, the zodiacs found at Dendera and in the tomb of Petosiris (Dakhleh oasis), by some 500-600 years, they provide good evidence for the native origins of the astral myths about Osiris's resurrection (i.e. the birth of his son, Horus) that the Graeco-Roman artefacts also illustrate.
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Spells 154–160 do not only constitute a unified composition because they describe the bas of different localities but also because they give a chronologically organized account of the events that happen during the course of a lunar month,... more
Spells 154–160 do not only constitute a unified composition because they describe the bas of different localities but also because they give a chronologically organized account of the events that happen during the course of a lunar month, from one period of invisibility to the next one. Within the composition, which may be dubbed the Ancient Egyptian Book of the Moon, different units can be discerned through the analysis of the content of the texts. Thus spells 154, 157, and 158 clearly form a subsection that is bound together by the predominance of the sun god Re and the recurring aetiological motif. This grouping also implies that spells 155 and 156, in which the emphasis is on Thoth and Re is barely mentioned, were inserted into a previously existing text. The core text consisting of spells 154, 157, and 158 was also enlarged by the addition of two more spells at the end (spells 159 and 160) that likewise lack explanatory comments on how things came to exist. The identification of the different textual layers leads to the conjecture that the three core spells may have belonged to the corpus of royal funerary texts compiled prior to the Middle Kingdom in the Memphite area and then were later augmented in Hermopolis, the chief cult centre of the preeminent lunar god, Thoth. The composition as a whole gives us a unique chance to get a better understanding of how the collection of spells known as the Coffin Texts was developed and what role Hermopolis played in the process.
Research Interests:
Spells 154‒160 of the Coffin Texts have long been known to form a unified composition since most of them promise the knowledge of sacred localities. The main purpose of these spells is, however, not to draw up a mental map of places of... more
Spells 154‒160 of the Coffin Texts have long been known to form a unified composition since most of them promise the knowledge of sacred localities. The main purpose of these spells is, however, not to draw up a mental map of places of ritual import but to describe a more tangible yet still grandiose journey, the wanderings of the moon across time and space. After the introduction (spell 154) which explains the origins of the month, the separate texts represent the successive stages of the monthly cycle: the period of invisibility (spell 155), waxing (spell 156), events around the full moon (spell 157), waning (spell 158), the arrival of the last crescent to the eastern horizon (spell 159), and again the conjunction of the sun and the moon when a solar eclipse can occur (spell 160). The references to the moon in the texts are sometimes straightforward, while to grasp the lunar content of other passages a greater understanding of ancient Egyptian astronomical concepts is required. The spells present a hitherto unsuspected coherent account of lunar phenomena and can appropriately be dubbed the Ancient Egyptian Book of the Moon.
Research Interests:
The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Moon: Coffin Texts Spells 154–160 argues that Coffin Texts spells 154–160, recorded at around the beginning of the 2nd millennium BCE, form the oldest composition about the moon in ancient Egypt and in the... more
The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Moon: Coffin Texts Spells 154–160 argues that Coffin Texts spells 154–160, recorded at around the beginning of the 2nd millennium BCE, form the oldest composition about the moon in ancient Egypt and in the whole world. The detailed analysis of these spells, based on a new translation, reveals that the spells provide a chronologically ordered account of the phenomena that happen during a lunar month. It is argued that through a wide variety of mythological allusions, the separate texts – after an introduction which explains the origins of the month (spell 154) – describe the successive stages of the monthly cycle: the period of invisibility (spell 155), waxing (spell 156), events around the full moon (spell 157), waning (spell 158), the arrival of the last crescent at the eastern horizon (spell 159), and again the conjunction of the sun and the moon when a solar eclipse can occur (spell 160). After highlighting the possible lunar connotations of each spell, further chapters in the book investigate the origins of the composition, its different manuscripts preserved on coffins coming from Hermopolis and Asyut, and the survival of the spells in the later mortuary collection known as the Book of Going Forth by Day.