Day Selection Calendar (Ancient Egypt)

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The day selection calendar existed in ancient Egypt as a so-called fate calendar , which classified the months or anniversaries as omen-like positive or negative and sometimes also gave recommendations on behavior and prophecies for corresponding days . The special form of choosing the day merged with the Babylonian zodiac in the late period and, as an astronomical instrument, most likely laid the foundation for the later seven-day planetary week , which also makes astrological statements about the effects of activities on the relevant days, hours, months and years.

background

In ancient Egyptian history, the daily selection calendar can be assigned to the Middle Kingdom (2010 to 1793 BC) and, during the New Kingdom (1550 to 1069 BC), increasingly to the Ramesside period (1188 to 1076 BC). The calendar pTurin CGT 54016 vso from the Ramesside period with the title “from eternity to eternity” is the most completely preserved papyrus , consisting of three books. The second book lists all the days of the year, including the Heriu-renpet and the leap month .

The additional thirds of the days are based on Egyptian mythology , in which the three phases of change of the sun god Re play an important role in the daytime sky and Re made several manifestations during the day; shortly before sunrise as Horus in the horizon , with the first rays of the sun in the Mesqet as Chepri , at noon as Horus falcon and in the evening as the setting sun Atum . The night Re stayed inside the goddess Nut in the duat was always considered to be unfavorable. Every third of the day was provided with a prophecy that classified each period as “good” or “bad”.

The daily division was subject to individual celebrations of the gods, which were based on mythological stories and recommendations as well as fate predictions for the respective time period, which precisely regulated what to do and what to omit. At the beginning of each year, the relevant day selection calendar was presented. A well-known example is the fate calendar from the ninth year of the reign of Amenophis I , which compares the festive days and the associated beginnings of the months of the Egyptian lunar calendar with the corresponding days in the Egyptian administrative calendar .

The day selection calendar shows the relationship of the gods to the months and their assignments. The name of the respective deity therefore did not designate the month itself, but the festival that was dedicated to the gods. In the further course of ancient Egyptian history, these gods developed into "lords and patron gods of the months". Herodotus reports additionally confirm the content of the religious texts:

“Furthermore, it was first established by the Egyptians which month and day is sacred to the individual gods and which fate, which end and which character will have those born on this or that day. Greek poets have adopted these things as well. And the Egyptians found out the omens far more than any other peoples: if something conspicuous happens, they pay attention to its consequences and write it down. If a similar incident occurs in the future, they then believe that the same consequences must occur again. "

- Herodotus

Traditionally, the emergence of astrological concepts has been associated with Mesopotamia and Greece, but Egypt has been marginalized. The Egyptian textual material analyzed points in a different direction as does Herodotus' statements. The Mesopotamian writings first reached Egypt and mixed with religious and astronomical models from Alexandria . The Egyptian astrological terminology is very well attested in Demotic , Greek and Latin languages ​​as well as in Sanskrit . In the Mesopotamian area, however, these forms are unknown. Formulations and sentence structure also refer to the typical patterns in the pyramid texts . The finding of the groove book shows further similarities. In addition, there is the fact that the ancient astrological treatises also always trace the teachings back to Egyptian authors.

swell

See also

literature

  • Hans Bonnet : Lexicon of Egyptian Religious History (formerly: Reallexikon der Egyptischen Religionsgeschichte) , Nikol, Hamburg 2005, ISBN 3-937872-08-6 .
  • Friedrich Karl Ginzel : Handbook of mathematical and technical chronology, Vol. 1 - Time calculation of the Babylonians, Egyptians, Mohammedans, Persians, Indians, Southeast Asians, Chinese, Japanese and Central Americans - , German book export and import, Leipzig 1958 (reprinted Leipzig 1906 ).
  • Wolfgang Helck , Eberhard Otto : Kleines Lexikon der Ägyptologie , Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1999, ISBN 3-447-04027-0 .
  • Wolfgang Helck, Eberhard Otto: Lexikon der Ägyptologie, Vol. 6 , Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1986, ISBN 3-447-02663-4 .
  • Alexandra von Lieven : Floor plan of the course of the stars - the so-called groove book . The Carsten Niebuhr Institute of Ancient Eastern Studies (among others), Copenhagen 2007, ISBN 978-87-635-0406-5 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b cf. Alexandra von Lieven: Plan of the course of the stars - the so-called groove book . The Carsten Niebuhr Institute of Ancient Eastern Studies (inter alia), Copenhagen 2007, pp. 146–147.
  2. ↑ See Wolfgang Helck, Eberhard Otto: Kleines Lexikon der Ägyptologie , Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1999, pp. 241–243.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Cf. Wolfgang Helck, Eberhard Otto: Lexikon der Ägyptologie, Vol. 6 , Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1986, Sp. 153–154.
  4. ^ Wolfgang Helck, Eberhard Otto: Lexikon der Ägyptologie, Vol. 5 , Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1985, Sp. 1088.
  5. ↑ Cf. Friedrich-Karl Ginzel: Handbuch der Mathematischen und Technische Chronologie Vol. 1, p. 166.
  6. ↑ See Hans Bonnet: Lexikon der Ägyptischen Religionsgeschichte (formerly: Reallexikon der Ägyptischen Religionsgeschichte) , Nikol, Hamburg 2005, p. 470.
  7. ↑ See Herodotus Histories, II, 82.