14. The first glyph in line a2 evidently coincides with the heliacal rising of the Heavenly Gate (ζ Tauri) in 'June 13 (where we can count 61 * 3 = 183 and therefore imagine as the day halfway to 365¼):
Albatain 1 is the first day in the manzil period which probably refers to Atlas, the giant (pehaps Orion) who will raise the sky roof high. Perhaps he is doing it by propping up the sky with a djed pillar and perhaps this effort will be too much for him: ... In the beginning there was nothing but the sea, and above soared the Old-Spider. One day the Old-Spider found a giant clam, took it up, and tried to find if this object had any opening, but could find none. She tapped on it, and as it sounded hollow, she decided it was empty. By repeating a charm, she opened the two shells and slipped inside. She could see nothing, because the sun and the moon did not then exist; and then, she could not stand up because there was not enough room in the shellfish. Constantly hunting about she at last found a snail. To endow it with power she placed it under her arm, lay down and slept for three days. Then she let it free, and still hunting about she found another snail bigger than the first one, and treated it in the same way. Then she said to the first snail: 'Can you open this room a little, so that we can sit down?' The snail said it could, and opened the shell a little. Old-Spider then took the snail, placed it in the west of the shell, and made it into the moon. Then there was a little light, which allowed Old-Spider to see a big worm. At her request he opened the shell a little wider, and from the body of the worm flowed a salted sweat which collected in the lower half-shell and became the sea. Then he raised the upper half-shell very high, and it became the sky. Rigi, the worm, exhausted by this great effort, then died ... ζ Tauri (Heavenly Gate) is the star at the point of the southern horn of the Bull and 5 days later - at today's right ascension 6h (in June 20) - a vertical line of important stars are rising in Auriga. Of course I ought to add to my star list first of all π Aurigae, and also several other Greek lettered stars, but this is not the time nor the place to do so. Possibly the djed pillar refers to this starry line in the Charioteer (which constellation straddles the Milky Way). But at the time of ancient Egypt it would have risen heliacally much earlier than at 6h. It would have been at 0h around 4700 B.C.  I guess the figure in Ka2-6 could refer to the line of stars with Praja-pāti (δ Aurigae) at the top and γ Columbae at bottom:
... δ, 4.1, yellow, is on the head of the Charioteer. It is unnamed with us, but, inconspicuous as it is, the Hindus called it Praja-pāti, the Lord of Created Beings, a title also and far more appropriately given to Orion and to Corvus. The Sūrya Siddhānta devotes considerable space to it; but 'why so faint and inconspicuous a star should be found among the few of which Hindu astronomers have taken particular notice is not easy to discover.' ... |
