Out of the Black Land - By Kerry Greenwood Page 0,191
lack of days of rejoicing, feasting and getting seriously drunk.
It was common for the calendar to get out of synch with the real world, but no one seems to have worried much, as long as the many festivals and the free beer arrived.
They were an admirably relaxed people in most matters.
Like the Roman hours, the day was divided into 12 hours of light and the night into 12 hours of darkness, measured by water clocks. In winter, of course, the night hours were longer than day hours, and vice versa in summer. The klepsydrae used to measure time were almost as accurate as the Chinese ones of the same date.
The hours seem to have had more of a religious or ritual use than an everyday one. Priests need to know when to change the God’s attendants and soldiers when to change guard. Peasants know when they can stop working and go home by the sun.
The Calendar
The year begins at Summer Solstice—the rising of Sothis/Isis/Sirius from 70 days absence in the underworld—and it is the occasion of the New Year Feast. It ends with the epagomenae.
AHKET: inundation/ flood
22 June-July Thoth New Year.
The Nile begins to rise.
Sothis rises 9th day; ‘eat fried fish at your door’ Festival of Hapi.
19th day Festival of Thoth.
July-August Paophi 19th day Opet Festival of Amen Re at Karnak & Luxor (at least a seven days festival, later extended to 22 days).
22nd day Festival of the Nativity of the Staff of the Sun.
The Nile is red.
August-September Hathor Amenhotep III’s Accession was the second day of Hathor.
The Nile becomes green and poisonous for a week, and drinking-water is stored until it becomes red again.
17th Festival of the Death of Osiris.
September-October Khoiak equinox
Birth of Osiris
18th to 30th Festival of the Opening of the Ways (sluices opened to flood inland plain)
PERET: spring/sprouting
October-November Tybi heb-sed (jubilee)
11th day Festival of the return of Isis from Phoenicia with the body of Osiris.
Ritual mating mystic marriage and, on the 19th day, hippo cakes for Horus’ victory over Set.
November-December Mechir Festival of Sekhet destroyer, the lioness in the mountains. Everyone drinks red beer in memory of salvation of humanity.
December-January Phamenoth
Sowing of seed in tears and mourning for the Feast of Dead Osiris Lamentation ‘come to thy house,’ branches of wormwood are carried, dogs lead the procession.
January-February Pharmuthi, Feast of Khons
Moonlight feasts, entry of Osiris into the moon.
SHEMU: harvest
February-March Pakhons, Festival of Rennutet (cobra lady) 19th Osiris is found.
March-April Paoni, Festival of Isis equinox 25th day feast of lights Fires in the streets because Sothis has sunk below horizon. Osiris in Field of Reeds.
April-May Ephipi Horus goes to Hathor, Feast of Apis (Osiris as bull) 7 days in Memphis: birthday of Horus’ eyes. Hot dry weather, khamsin.
May-June Mesor festivals first fruits (harvest) Grapes ripen; everyone gets thoroughly drunk. Very hot and dry.
EPAGOMENAE: the intercalary days
The five extra days of the calendar, are the birthdays of:
Osiris
Anubis/Horus
Set
This day is terribly unlucky and no one does anything on it, no contracts are signed and no work is done, especially by creators. A red-headed male child born on this day might well be killed. It was kept as a fast.
Isis
A very lucky day for weddings and births.
Nepthys
Also a lucky day for weddings.
The Gods
There are several trinities of gods, reflecting the thrifty way that the Egyptians never wasted a good deity but just incorporated them into the existing pantheon; a custom which the Romans later found useful.
When Upper (south) and Lower (north) Egypt joined, their gods were also combined; although the most important was always some form of the sun, Re (or Ra) or Amen; and, of course, briefly the Aten. Re could manifest in the form of a ram, a hawk or a dung-beetle.
Note also that nefer, the word for god, has no levels of importance; unlike the Hebrew scale of angels or the Christian’s ‘thrones dominations and powers.’ This makes it difficult to judge, just from the name, whether a nefer or nefert was a small local deity or a star in the state religion.
Iwnw or Heliopolitan Cosmogeny
Amen-Re began as Aten who emerged self-created from the primeval ocean Nun, took the form of the Bnbn—or the phoenix, a bi-sexual creature. It flew to the top of the Bennu stone, masturbated and from his swallowed sperm created Shu, god of air, and Tefnut, goddess of water/moisture/rain; who then produced Geb, the earth, and Nut, the sky; who in turn gave birth to the sun or Amen-Re. This was the cosmogeny adopted at Thebes and Karnak and was as close as Egypt