EGYPT
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EGYPT
ning of that Sothie period the first year of which fell on
19 July, 4241 b. c, when the summer solstice was on
25 July, and the inundation on 28 July. At the be-
ginning of the preceding period, 19 July, 2781 B. c,
the summer solstice had already retroceded to 13 July,
so that the inundation (16 July) preceded the heliacal
rising of Sirius, while at the beginning of the following
period, 19 July, 5701 B. c, the summer solstice was
due only on 6 August, and the inundation on 9 August,
or 21 days after the heliacal rising of Sirius (cf. Ginzel,
op. cit., 190; E. Mej'er, op. cit., 14 sqq.). The date
2781, as a possible date of the inauguration of the
Egyptian calendar, is also excluded by the fact that
the intercalary days (proving the use of the shifting
year of .300 plus 5 days) are mentioned in the so-called
Pyramid Texts, which are far older than the Fifth and
Sixth Dynasties, although they occur for the first time
on the monuments of these dynasties (E. Meyer, op.
cit., 40; Breasted, "Ancient Records of Egypt", I,
30). The date of the heliacal rising of Sirius varies
according to the latitude from which it is observed.
The fact that most of the classical writers and the
Egyptian documents fix that date at 19 July shows
that the Egyptians observed it from the 30th degree
of N. latitude, which points to one of the ancient
cities of the Southern Delta as the home of the Egyp-
tian year, probably Memphis or Heliopolis (E. Meyer,
op. cit., 41; Ginzel, op. cit., I, 186; Breasted, op. cit.,
I, sec. 45).
The following table exhibits the seasons and the 12 months of the Egyptian year with their Greek names (still in use with slight changes of orthography in the Coptic Calendar) and their respective dates of begin- ning according to the Julian Calendar, when I Thoth fell on the day of the heliacal rising of Sirius, i. e. at the opening of Sothie periods: —
n Thoth 19 July
Inundation J H^ P\^°P'^' 18 August
111 Athyr 17 September
I IV Choiac 17 October
rl Tybi 16 November
Sowing J" Mechir.. 16 December
111 Fhamenoth 15 January
llV Pharmouthi 14 February
il Pachon 16 March II Payni 15 AprU III Epiphi 15 May IV Mesori 14 June
The Five Epagomene days 14 July
The following table shows the correspondence of the present Egyptian (and Coptic) calendar, as reformed under Augustus, with our own calendar, both before and after intercalation: —
Thoth 1 29 Aug. After Intercalation. . .30 Aug.
Phaophi 28 Sept. " " ... 29 Sept.
Athyr 28 Oct. " " ...29 Oct.
Choiac 27 Nov. " " ... 28 Nov.
Tybi 27 Dec. " " ...28 Dec.
Mechir 26 Jan. " " ... 27 Jan.
Phamenoth 25 Feb. " " . . .26 Feb.
Pharmouthi ... 27 Mar. " " ... 28 Mar.
Pachon 26 Apr. " " ...27 Apr.
Payni 26 May " " ...27 May
Epiphi 25 June " " ... 26 June
Mesori 25 July " " ... 26 July
Epagomene day24 Aug. " " ...25 Aug.
Although the Egyptians kept track of the Sirius year, in so far as its beginning was the official New Year's day, they do not seem to have made use of it for chronological purposes. The same must be said of other methods of reckoning the year which may have been in use among some classes of the popula- tion, a-s, for instance, the natural year based on the recurrence of the natural seasons. It is not imcom- monly taken for granted or advanced that the Egyp- tian vague year of .365 days was preceded by a round year of 300 days, and that the former was obtained by
adding 5 days to the latter. Arguments in favour of
that view are few and not convincing. A year of 360
days neither lunar nor solar is hardly imaginable (cf.
Ginzel, op. cit., 69; E. Meyer, op. cit., 10). It is
more likely that, even before the arrangement of 360
plus 5 days, the Egyptian year (originally a lunar year)
had become luni-solar, and increased to 365 days,
either as a fixed number for every year by means of
intercalary days distributed over' the whole year (as
in the Julian year), or as an average number in a
series of years by process of embolism (as for instance
in the Hebrew year). Finally it was decided to adopt
the far simpler and more rational arrangement of 12
even rnonths followed by 5 intercalary days ; the dis-
tribution of the days was changed, not their number.
This recast of the calendar found expression at a
very early period, if not at the time when it took
place, in the following fable preserved by Plutarch
(De Iside et Osiride, xii), but undoubtedly very an-
cient, as we may judge from the fact that the divini-
ties mentioned in it belonged to the earliest stages of
the EgjTitian Pantheon. Rhea (Egyptian NM) hav-
ing had secret intercourse with Kronos (Geh). Helios
(Re) cast a spell upon her to prevent her from bringing
forth during any month of any year. But Hermes
(Thoth), who loved her, played liice with the Moon and
wori from her the 73d part (not 60th as Masp^ro,
"Histoireancienne", p. 87; nor 70th as E. Meyer, op.
cit., p. 9; nor 72d, as Ginzel, op. cit., p. 171) of her
courses (literally lights, ^lirwi'), which he added to the
(remaining) 360 days. During these five days Ndt
brought forth her children (Osiris, Horus, Set, I'sis, and
Nephthys).
The ancient Egyptians never had eras in the usual sense of this word, i. e. epochs from which all succes- sive years are counted regardless of political or other changes in the life of the nation. Instead of eras, during the first five dynasties, they used to name each civil year from some great political or religious event (a usage which had its parallel in Babylonia), as "the Year of the Smiting of the Troglodytes", " the Year of the Conquest of Nubia", "the Year of the Defeat of Lower Egypt", "the Year of the Worship of Horus"; or from some fiscal process recurring periodically, as "the Year of [or after] the Second Occurrence of the Census of all Cattle, Gold", etc. which was often ab- breviated to "the Year of the Second Occurrence of the Census", or, stUl more briefly, "the Year of the Second Occurrence". The census having become annual, each year of any given reign came to be identi- fied as the year of the first (or whatever might be the proper ordinal) census of that reign, a new series thus beginning with each reign. From the Eleventh Dy- nasty on, the years were always numbered from the first of the current reign, and the second year of the reign was supposed to begin with the first day of Thoth next following the date of the king's acces- sion, no matter how recent that date mightbe. The absence of eras in ancient Egypt is all the more re- markable as there were several periods which could easily have been utilized for that purpose, the Sothie period especially. (On other periods — Phoenix, Apis, etc. — mentioned by the classical writers, but not yet found on Egyptian monuments, as also on the so-called Great and Small Years and the supposed Nubti Era, see Ginzel, op. cit., I, sec. 38 and 45.)
In lat€r times several eras were created or adopted in Egypt, the principal of which was the Era of Alexan- dria. Its epoch, or starting-point, has been conven- tionally fixed at 30 (or 31) August of the first year of Augustus (Julian, 30 B. c), although, as we have seen, it did not acquire its intercalary character until 26, or even 23, b. c, so that its first years were ordinary Egyptian vague years (for further details see Ginzel, op. cit., I, pp. 224-28). The Philippic, or Macedonian, Era (more generally known as the Era of Alexander) was introduced into Egypt in the third century B. c,
