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' Signs. I Paophi, or Faopi Foq/f Aries. 2 Athir, or Athyr TAour Taurus, 3 Chojae Chayk Oemmi* 4 Tybi Tab Cancer. 6 Meehir Meeheri Leo. 6 Pkametioth Famenoth Virgo. 7 Parmuthi, or Farmuthi Farmout EquaUty. 8 Pachon Bachomy Scorpio. 9 Payni Fayni Sagittarius. 10 Ep^ki HMib Capricorn. 11 Me^ori Mesour Aquarius. 12 Thoth TouhoHt ^ Puces. 8° 34' 34" 27 43 21 The month Thoth begins the Egyptian year ; but the names are here arranged according to the signs of the ecliptic, beginning with Aries^ as the first. Now the question is, when did the Egyptian months coincide with those signs of the ecliptic after which they are named ? When Julius Caesar corrected the calendar, 44 B.C. the 30th oi Chojae coincided with the IstJanu- ary at noon, at which time the Sun's mean longitude was, meridian of Paris . ... . 9' Subtract motion for 89 days . 2 Remain sun's mean longitude 1st Paophi, (4th Oct. 45 B.C.) . 6 10 51 13 Substract this firom 12 signs, and we have . . . . . 5 19 8 47 the quantity by which the month Paophi had re- trograded, or fallen back, in respect of the sign Aries, from whence it derived its name. Now di- viding this quantity by the annual variation or dif- ference, we have ''""""' ^^ = 702 years ; to which adding 45 B. C. we get the 747th year B. C. for the time when the months and signs of the same name coincided, and which corresponds with the era of Nabonassar. The same thing might have been Digitized by Google OF THE HINDUS. 49 determined much easier from the Almagest ; for, at the era of Nabonassar, the Sun's mean longitude on the first of TAof A at noon, was .. . IP 0°45' To which add 30 days' motion, . 0 29 34 We get the sun's mean longitude 1st Paophi at noon, . . . 0 0 19 And as Paophi in the Egyptian language, meant Aries, both the sign and the month then coincided, or nearly so, there being only a difierence of 19 n^i- nutes. The whole of this, therefore, proves beyond a doubt, that the constellations were formed and completely finished at the era of Nabonassar, and not before ; and as this was the termination of the fictitious War between the Gods and the Giants in the West, neither Homer nor Hesiod could have written earlier than the year 746 B. C. I am aware of the extreme difficulty of removing modem prejudices in favour of extraordinary anti- quity, however unfounded the same may be. It may be said, that Hesiod's time must be known from the passage in his Works and Days, wherein he says : ** When fixtj dayA haye circled dace the snn Turned from his wintry tropic the itwr Arotnms, leayingr ocean's sacred flood, First whole apparent makes his erening rise." It may also be said, that the time of the War be- tween the Gods and the Giants was considerably an* terior to the era of Nabonassar ; for that the names of certain kmgs are mentioned in history^ at or near whose time this war is supposed to have taken place : and that from the positions of the Colures in the sphere of Chiron, as mentioned by Eudoxes and others, the time of the Argonautic expedition, and of the formation of the constellations, must be placed H Digitized by Google 50 THE AKCIENT ASTRONOMY several centuries before the era of Nabonassar: moreover, that the Egyptians and Chaldeans received their astronomy from Abraham, and were therefore possessed of that science long before the year 746 B. C. and even immensely long before the Hindus had any knowledge of it, if we are to place any credit in the supposed antiquity of the zodiacs at Tentyra or Dendera, which men of science have made out to be about 15,000 years old. I am perfectly aware of all these objections, likely to be made by persons who never gave themselves the trouble for a single moment to investigate the matter; but when all the circumstances and real facts are carefully and coolly examined without pre- judice, the whole of such objections will, I am per- suaded, fell to the ground^ as they will be found to rest either on misconception, or on the stories of the priests and poets of antiquity, who framed them on purpose to answer their own views, as I shall now endeavour to point out. First. — ^With respect to Hesiod, it is uncertain whether the rising of the star Arcturus meant the whole constellation, or the single star. It is also uncertain whether this" rising was observed in He- siod's own country, or even in Hesiod's time ; par- ticulars absolutely necessary towards making a just calculation. Moreover, the ancients were not very accurate in their observations of the solstices, which, in ititany instances, might differ a whole day or more from the truth, and thereby make a difference of up- wards of 70 years in the result. Besides all these, it appears to have been the practice for the ancients to have copied from each other, without any regard to the latitudes of places, and to continue to express, or mention the times of the risings and settings of Digitized by Google OF THE HINDUS, 61 the Stars that took place some centuries before them, as if actually occurring in their own times. Hesiod makes the acronycal rising oi Arctums sixty days after the winter solstice : Pliny, in particular, says the same. How can we then be certain hut that Hesiod may have borrowed it also from some one before him? Herodotus, who was bom B. C. 484, places Hesiod and Homer 400 years before his own time. But this, as well as what is said by others, and in the Ch)ronicle of the Marbles, amount to nothing more than mere assertions without proof; nor can they stand a single moment opposed to the astronomical facts above mentioned, coupled with those yet to be noticed. Secondly. — ^With respect to the War between the Gods and Giants, it is very easy to see the reason of its being placed some centuries farther back into an- tiquity than the real time of it. Were those who wrote first on this fictitious war, to state that it ocr curred between the years 756 and 746 B. C. which was the real time of it, they would be called im- postors, because all others living at that period, would also be able to see it, as well as the writers themselves, if it really had taken place. To avoid, therefore, this dilemma, they found it necessary to throw it back into antiquity, out of the reach of the memory of any one then living, by which means t:hey were enabled to establish it without fear of being contradicted, and to introduce into their re- ligions, under the venerable appearance and sanction oi antiquity y the idea of a place of punishment for the wicked, under the name of Tartarus. Thirdly. — ^With respect to the positions of the Colures at the Argonautic expedition, we are in- formed by Eudoxes and others, that the solstitial Digitized by Google 52 THE ANCIENT ASTRONOMY Colure cut the star S Cancriy called the southern Asellus ; consequently that star's longitude from the vernal equinoctial point, or beginning of the sign Aries, was then exactly three signs. In A. D. 1690, the longitude of the same star by the Brit. Cata- logue was 4* 4° 23' 4(f. The difference between the two longitudes was therefore V 4° 23' 40". Re- ducing this to time, at the rate of 1° in 72 years, we get 2476 years, from which deducting 1690, we have 786 years before Christ, which might be considered as sufficiently near the truth. But to be still more accurate, let us take the middle point, or 1238 years before A. D. 1690, it will be A. D. 452. The pre- cession, in the first century of the Christian era, was r 23' 6" 4, and increased at the rate of about 2' 27 each century : therefore, 2\ 27 x4=9" .08, to which add r 23' 6" 4, the sum is V 23' 15" 48, the preces- sion for the fifth century of the Christian era. Now as 1° 23' 15' 48 is to 100 years, so 34° 40', the whole precession, to 2478 years; from which taking 1690, leaves 788 B. C. for the time of the feigned Argonaut tic expedition; But the periods of the formation of the constellations, of the War between the Gods and the Giants, and of the Argonautic expedition, being all the same, and having reference to the time be- tween the autumnal equinox in the year 756, and the entrance of the sun into Pisces in 746 B.C., the above result differs from the truth only about 32 years; which is as near as can be expected from the observ- ations of the ancients.