Egyptian Astronomy

We are bounded in a nutshell of Infinite Space: Free Form #4: Egyptian Astronomy

One of the oldest human civilizations, the Ancient Egyptians made some of the greatest strides in the advancement of knowledge in the ancient world. Between developing a highly sophisticated writing structure to creating some of the greatest feats of construction in human history, these peoples ordered the world in their particular way, attributing deities and divine interventions to describe the commonplace events of every day. However, there was an incredible development of mathematics by the Egyptians which allowed them to find and describe much more than simply a Sun god racing across the sky every day. They understood that the day was approximately 365 days long, and so developed a calendar with 12 months, 30 days to each, and 5 extra ceremonial days. They also understood that every day was 24 hours long, and so divided the hours so as to be sure there would always be 12 hours of night and 12 of day. 

For the Egyptians, these numbers also had religious significance, as is the case of the hours in a day: these represent how Ra, the Sun, born from Mehet-Weret, the Sky (in ancient traditions), rode across the sky every day in his fiery chariot, to then sink into the Underworld every night, sailing across the Duat into the domain of Osiris, the god of the Underworld. During Ra’s battles at night, the Egyptians would see the stars, represented by the goddess of writing, Seshat, and the Milky Way itself was the birth of Ra by Mehet-Weret, while the moon was represented by the god of wisdom, Thoth. To think, the Egyptians were so transfixed by the stars that they built monuments to honor and mirror them. This is the case of the Great Pyramids in Giza, each of them corresponding to Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka (as we know them now), the three stars that make up Orion’s belt, or rather Osiris’s, according to Egyptian star charts.

Here is yet another interesting story, how when Osiris and his brother Set fought for control of Ancient Egypt, Set would finally defeat Osiris destroy his body and scatter it everywhere, including the constellation which would be named after him. Isis, Osiris’s sister and wife, would collect Osiris’s body and reconstruct him to bear their child, Horus, who would eventually defeat Set. Now, Osiris is never seen during the day, for that is Ra’s domain, but at night, when Ra crosses the Duat, Osiris is seen clear above the largest tombs ever constructed, the pyramids. Furthermore, there is an important aspect to the year and Egyptian Astronomy and religion which further explains the origin of the 5 extra days to complete the calendar. Nut, who inherits being goddess of the stars, moon, night, sky, astronomy, and the cosmos, wished to have children with her husband, Geb, the Earth, but Ra decreed she could not have them on any day of the year. Therefore, with Thoth’s help, Nut stole moonlight from its goddess, Khonsu, and used it to create 5 extra days in the year, thus allowing her to have her 5 children: Osiris, Isis, Set, Nephthys, and Horus (in some myths). 

Overall, the Egyptians had a deep reverence towards the celestial sphere, seeing in it their origins and their future, literally and figuratively. They recognized how the world was much more than themselves, and would later give rise to the most prolific ancient civilization, the Alexandrian scholars. 

References: 

http://www.pifeed.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Great-Pyramids-of-Giza.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f3/NutMAM.jpg

http://egyptianmythology.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Nun-Raises-the-Sun-BC.jpg

http://www.starteachastronomy.com/egyptian.html

https://explorable.com/egyptian-astronomy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_astronomy