Solar Eclipse (Ancient Egypt)
| Solar eclipse in hieroglyphics | ||||||||||||
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| Greco-Roman time |
Am-ta-pet-pa-Aton ˁm-t3-pt-p3-Jtn The sky swallows the solar disk |
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A solar eclipse was mythologically considered a negative omen in ancient Egypt and was referred to as the swallowing of the sun from the sky .
Mythological connections
In particular a total solar eclipse was a possible omen for catastrophes, war and diseases. In the minds of the Egyptians, the greatest misfortune imaginable and to be assumed would occur if Isfet, as the embodiment of total darkness , let the sky fall to earth and chaos reigned.
The most important goal was therefore to secure and preserve the existing world order . Solar eclipses are very rarely documented in ancient Egyptian records and were mostly only mentioned in connection with negative occurrences.
Historical mentions
The subsequently documented solar eclipse of September 30th, 610 BC. Chr. Occurred in the year of death of Psammetichus I in the early morning of the 12th I Schemu . The special feature of this event is the simultaneous beginning of the Amun Re festival in Thebes , which is why the eclipse was retrospectively interpreted as a particularly negative omen .
See also
literature
- Ricardo A. Caminos: The Chronicle of Prince Osorkon (Analecta Orientalia 37) . Pontificium Institutum Biblicum, Roma 1958, p. 89.
- Rolf Krauss: Sothis and moon data: studies on the astronomical and technical chronology of ancient Egypt , Gerstenberg, Hildesheim 1985, ISBN 3-8067-8086-X , p. 174.