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Late date of cippi of Horus.

Egypt respectively; under each serpent is a scorpion. The inscription reads, “Isis, lady of Cheb.”

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4. Crocodile-headed god Sebek seated. scene is rendered incomplete by a break in the cippus.

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5. Hawk-headed god wearing the crown of Lower Egypt, and holding a serpent in his hands; he is called

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"Horus, son of Osiris, born of Isis.”

6. Hawk of Horus, wearing horns and plumes, standing on; behind him is Q śen, and a goddess, wearing disk and horns, and having the body of a scorpion, called "Isis-Serqet"

7. Horus, in the form of a boy, holding over his left shoulder, seated on a crocodile, under a canopy formed by two serpents; the inscription reads,

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8. The goddess Uatchet, wearing crown of Lower Egypt, on a papyrus sceptre; behind her Hu

, each holding a knife.

and Sau

Above the two crocodiles on which Horus stands are two small scenes in each of which is a crocodile, one being on a stand; that to the right of Horus has on his head and

that on the left ; the former is called

"Hidden is his name," and the latter
in Uu."

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Horus

The inscription, which covers the front and base of the pedestal and back and sides of the cippus, contains an invocation to the god from whom the person for whom it was made seeks to gain power.

Cippi of Horus belong probably to the period which followed soon after the end of the rule of the XXVIth dynasty over Egypt, and the inscriptions on them are badly executed. They are generally found broken in half, or if not broken, the head of Horus has been hammered to deface the features; these injuries probably date from ancient times,

stele.

The largest and finest specimen of the cippi of Horus is The Metthat preserved in the Museum of Metternich Castle at Königs- ternich warth in Bohemia. It was found in the beginning of this century at Alexandria during the building of a fountain in a Franciscan convent there, and was given to Prince Metternich by Muḥammad 'Ali in 1828. It is made of a hard, darkgreen stone upon which the figures of the gods and the inscriptions are finely and beautifully cut. The inscriptions have much in common with the magical texts inscribed upon papyri in London, Turin, and Paris, and are of great interest; this stele was made for Nectanebus I., about B.C. 370. A fac-simile of the stele and the text was published with a German translation and notes by W. Golenischeff, Die Metternichstele.... zum ersten Mal herausgegeben, Leipzig, 1877. A long article is devoted to the consideration of the cippi of Horus by Lanzone, Dizionario, pp. 583-594; and see Birch in Arundale and Bonomi, Gallery of Antiquities, p. 39 ff.

THE EGYPTIAN YEAR.1

2

The ancient Egyptians had:-I. The vague, or civil year, which consisted of 360 days; it was divided into twelve months of thirty days each, and five intercalary days were added at the end. II. The Sothic year of 365 days. The first year of a Sothic period began with the rising of Sirius or the dog-star, on the 1st of the month Thoth, when it coincided with the beginning of the inundation. III. The solar year, which was practically the same as the civil year, and which was a quarter of a day shorter than the Sothic year, an error which corrected itself in 1460 fixed years or 1461 vague years. The true year was estimated approximately by the conjunction of the sun with Sirius. Dr. Brugsch

'The whole subject of the origin of the Egyptian year has recently been discussed with excellent results in Nature, Vol. XLV., 1892, p. 487, by Prof. N. Lockyer; and Vol. XLVI., p. 104 ff.

2 Called in Egyptian, "five days over the year.” The first was called the "birth of Osiris," the second "the birth of Horus," the third "the birth of Set," the fourth "the birth of Isis," and the fifth the "birth of Nephthys." The Greeks called these days, erayóμevai jμipai névre, and the Copts &от ПKоXI, “the little month."

thinks (Egypt under the Pharaohs, Vol. II., p. 17) that as early as B.C. 2500 four different forms of the year were already in use, and that the "little year" corresponded with the lunar year, and the "great year" with a lunar year having intercalated days. The divisions of time of the Egyptians were ant, "one-sixtieth of a second,"

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hat, "second,"

"hour," Ohru, “day,"

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abet, "month," forempit,

"year,"
"sed, "period of thirty years,"

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her,

heh,
ḥeḥ, “millions of years," ch, and

t'etta, "immeasurable time," or Egyptian week consisted of ten days on.

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1 See Lepsius, Die Chronologie der Aegypter, p. 147 ff.

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Months 1-4 of the season of Months 1-4 of the season coming forth, or growing.

of sowing.

Months 1-4 of the season

of inundation.

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Chensu.

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Σεθωρ

εθωρ

̓Αθύρ

هتور

Chenthi (a name of Horus).

Peteti.

Heru-xuti (Harmachis).

II Techt (Thoth).

Ptaḥ resu aneb-f (Ptaḥ of Memphis).

Het-Heru (Hathor).

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* The days for the beginnings of these months were first fixed at Alexandria about B.C. 30.

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Μεχίρ

طوبه

امشیر

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1 See Eisenlohr, Ein mathematisches Handbuch der alten Aegypter, Leipzig, 1877,

P. 15 ff.

2 For the variants see Stern, Koptische Grammatik, p. 131 ff.

.

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