7 - The Cult of Horus
and the Origins of Astronomy - Nr. 7
Significant for our discussion of ancient celestial poles is the fact that the Arabic Bedouins in Egypt, instead of a dragon, saw a circle of camels at heaven’s center that was being attacked by hyenas.[16] We can thus understand why the Arabs have a heavenly "wolf" Al-Dhib (Thuban) where Ptolemy places the Draco the dragon. The Arabs did not originally have either dragon or falcon as symbols for heaven’s poles but rather visualized dog-like animals. Thuban (al-Dhib) did not belong to Draco, but rather marked the Arabic center of heaven as either a dog, wolf, jackal or hyena.
We have thus solved one of our two initial problems. The dragon of the ancients did not occupy both heavenly poles but only one pole, the pole of the ecliptic, without the star Thuban.
According to R.H. Allen and Patrick Moore,[17] Kochab and Pherkad, both neighboring stars in Ursa Minor and the brightest stars in the vicinity of the North Celestial Pole, were seen as "the guardians (or guards) of the pole". Kochab (magnitude 2.08), is virtually as bright as the present-day pole star Polaris (1.99). Pherkad has a magnitude of 3.05. In comparison, the more weakly shining Star Thuban has only a magnitude of 3.65. (The lower the magnitude number, the brighter the star.)
It is therefore astronomically understandable that Ursa Minor was seen as the "heavenly throne of the Thor" in Iceland and in Denmark.[18] Lockyer wrote that the traditions of Horus (the Egyptian falcon) and of the prehistoric people of "Hor-she-shu" - or "Schemesu-Hor"- (the Followers of Horus in predynastic Egypt) related in some manner to the stars of Ursa Minor.[19] Is there a connection between them?
In order to find that out, we must take our discussion to predynastic Egypt. Was it actually the falcon that marked the North Celestial Pole (the pole-star) in Egypt in ancient times?
B. The Falcon in Predynastic Egypt
The so-called "Followers of Horus" were the people who first occupied Egypt and who created Pharaonic Civilization, starting in the predynastic era. Horus, the Pharaonic falcon, was not only their "God of the Heavens" but also served as the symbol of the first Pharaonic kings, the Pharaohs, and their predecessors:[20]
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[16] Gerardus D. Bouw, Draco the Dragon, Biblical Astronomer, Number 100: "Thus, in Draco, instead of the head of a dragon, they saw a ring of mother camels ... surrounding a baby camel.... The camels were seen protecting the baby from a line of charging hyenas (Al Dhih, q, h, and z)."
[17] Patrick Moore, Grosser Atlas der Sterne, Naumann & Göbel, 2000.
[18] Richard Hinckley Allen, Star Names, Dover, NY, 1963, p. 450.
[19] Richard Hinckley Allen, Star Names, Dover, NY, 1963, p. 205.
[20] Alfred Grimm and Sylvia Schoske, Am Beginn der Zeit, Ägypten in der Vor- und Frühzeit; Ausstellungskatalog, Heft 9, Schriften aus der Ägyptischen Sammlung (SAS); München, Staatliches Museum Ägyptischer Kunst, 24.12. 2000 - 22.4.2001, pp. 2, 11.