After the world was created and Shu divided heaven and earth, the ruler of the gods, Ra, shone on the earthly throne, marking the beginning of the Golden Age. He lived in Heliopolis, slept in a lotus flower at night, and in the morning soared into the skies and flew over his kingdom in the guise of a falcon. Sometimes it dropped too low, and then a drought began. This happened day after day, year after year.
In those days, the solar year had the same number of days as the lunar year - 360. God Thoth, the lord of time, divided the year into three parts and gave each of them a name: the Flood season, the Shooting season and the Harvest season. This is how the seasons came into being.
Then Thoth divided each season into four parts, 30 days each, and months appeared. The first month of the year was the first month of the Flood - the month of Thoth; it began on the summer solstice. It was followed by the remaining months: Paofi, Atir, Hoyak, Tibi, Mehir, Famenot, Farmuti, Pahon, Payni, Epiphi and Mesori.
The Sun God was very jealous. Having learned that although Shu, on his orders, separated heaven from earth, Nut still cohabited with Geb at night, Ra flew into a rage and imposed a curse on all 360 days of the solar year: from now on Nut could not give birth to children on any day.
The heavenly goddess called out to Thoth in desperation, pleading. about help. After listening to Nut’s plea, Thoth promised to help her.
But how could the promise be fulfilled? Well, whoever, and He knew better than anyone that no one. It is not given to any of the gods to reverse the curse imposed by the Sun God. Any spells and sorceries are powerless against the Word of Ra. And is it even possible to dare to do such a thing - to contradict the ruler? His anger is terrible.
But It was not for nothing that He was known as the wisest of the gods: after much thought, he finally found what to do. If the curses cannot be lifted, then there is only one thing left: to create new days on which Ra’s curse would no longer apply.
In the guise of an ibis, Thoth flew to visit the Moon and invited her to play senet for fun. But for the sake of excitement, to make it more interesting to play. Thoth and the Moon bet 1/72 of the “light” of each of the 360 days of the lunar year. The God of Wisdom easily won, and the Moon, willy-nilly, had to pay.
Thoth's winnings were exactly 5 days. He took them from the Moon - since then the lunar year lasts only 355 days - and added them to the solar year, which from now on became equal to 365 days. He called the 5 days won from the Moon “those above the year”: the five days before the New Year were not included in any of the months.
The difference between the length of the calendar year (30x12+5=365 days) and the astronomical solar year (365 1/4 days) was not taken into account in the ancient Egyptian calendar. Therefore, every 4 years the beginning of the calendar year and, accordingly, the calendar dates of all holidays shifted by 1 day, “lagging” behind the solar year. Thus, the first day of the first month of the Flood coincided with the summer solstice (June 22) and the beginning of the rise of water in the Nile once every 1460 years (Julian, = 1461 Gregorian years). During this cycle, each calendar day coincided once with each day of the solar year; Spring holidays fell in autumn, summer holidays in winter, etc. In 238 BC. The Greek king of Egypt, Ptolemy III, attempted to harmonize the calendar and astronomical chronology by issuing a decree introducing a leap year, but this reform met with decisive resistance from the priesthood and failed.
Such a calendar with a “wandering” year was official, administrative. Along with it, there was a “folk” calendar, in which there were months. and the days were counted according to agricultural periods, and holidays were timed to coincide with them (the rise of water, the beginning of harvest, harvest, etc.). (The above names of months are given according to festivals and refer to the “folk” calendar). In the official calendar, the months did not have names and were designated by numerals, and historical events were dated by the years of the reign of the ruling pharaoh (for example: “The year of the reign of His Majesty the Lord of the Two Lands Nebmaatr - may he live, may he live and may he prosper! - the tenth, sixteenth day of the second month of the Harvest”).
He immediately dedicated five new days - “those above the year” - to Ra: the Sun God would not curse, as he had previously cursed all 360 days, and the days dedicated to himself! And, of course, he will appease his anger after such a generous loyal gift!
He was not deceived in his calculations. The Lord forgave him, and the goddess of the sky could henceforth give birth to one child on each of the five days before the New Year. On the first day she gave birth to Osiris, on the second - Horus of Bekhdet, on the third - Seth, on the fourth - Isis and on the fifth - Nephthys.
This is how the four minor gods of the Great Nine were born - the children of Heaven. And in all subsequent years, when the days created by Thoth came, Nut gave birth to stars.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru