and the Origins of Astronomy - Nr. 25
The oldest similar representation of heaven as containing dog-like animals is found in the Cucuteni Culture 4500-3500 B.C. (northeast Romania). As below, heavenly snakes or eels or worms are surrounded by four dogs. These dogs have substantial similarity with the later Seth in Egypt:[55]
Figure 18: Painted Conic Vessel, Cucuteni Culture, 4500-3500 B.C.
As noted by Richard Hinckley Allen, Seth also has been equated with the stellar constellation of Ursa Minor. Allen writes[56] that the old Egyptians equated the Jackal of Set with the circumpolar constellations "even as late as the Denderah zodiac". Seth is also portrayed in the Ramesseum.
Allen writes that the representation of the jackal in the Ramesseum has great similarity to Ursa Minor. Allen is of the opinion that Seth as a dog-like animal had something to do with the circumpolar stars for a long time prior to that. Plutarch equates Seth with "Anubis, Apap, Apepi, Bes, Tebba, Temha, and Typhoeus", pointing to a relation to the Dragon (lizard, snake), which in Egypt first was represented as a crocodile or serpent. Plutarch also notes that the Phoenicians called Seth Doube or Döbher. This would then perhaps have been Thuban in then Ursa Minor.
8. Khasekhemwy Carries out the required Calendar-Reform
Pharaoh Khasekhemwy understood that neither Seth nor Horus, the falcon, were responsible for the calendric difficulties of the Pharaohs, but rather the calendar-makers themselves. Accordingly, Khasekhemwy carried out the necessary calendric correction of adding 4 x 30 days.
He inserted the necessary 120 intercalary (leap) days as "year-days", symbolized through four purely monthly "calendric kings": Chaires, Nepercheris, Sesochris, and Cheneres, none of whom actually reigned in real life. That is why these kings are not found on the list of kings at Abydos and also are not archaeologically verifiable up to this day.
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[55] Marija Gimbutas, Die Sprache der Göttin: Das verschüttete Symbolsystem der westlichen Zivilisation, Zweitausendeins, Frankfurt, 1998, p.161, originally The Language of the Goddess: Unearthing the Hidden Symbols of Western Civilization.
[56] Richard Hinckley Allen, Star Names, Dover, NY, 1963, p. 450.
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