Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 5.djvu/382

 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,