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The Egyptians divided the day into 24 parts, but not in the modern sense. Rather, their distinction was tied to observation, and did not embrace the abstract concept of a uniform hour. Day and night were treated as different entities. Each day was divided into 12 separate parts by observations made of the sun during the day, and each night was divided into 12 separate parts by observations made of the stellar constellations at the given part of the year. The methods of observation and measurement were different, so the time units were considered to be different. |
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A natural consequence of the Egyptian method is that the actual duration of an hour is variable. The day is shorter in the winter, so day hours are shorter than night hours. The situation reverses in the summer. The concept of a uniform hour, independent of the method and time of observation, was a later invention, although foreshadowed in Egypt. |
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The two types of hour are today distinguished as variable temporal hours and constant equinoctial hours. |
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Early agricultural societies make strong associations between their calendar and their religion. The calendar was part of the religion, since it explained certain aspects of the world. The religion was part of the calendar, since celestial, and hence divine, presences were associated with time and particularly with recurring events. This section is not an exhaustive list of all of the various associations but discusses the more important among them. The information for this section is largely derived from Budge's The Gods of the Egyptians (volume 2, pp. 291344). |
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There are 12 months of the year, and five epagomenal days. The deities of the months of the year are shown in Table 9.10. The deities associated with the five epagomenal days are |
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| Day | Deity | Type | Luck Value | | 1 | Osiris | God | Unlucky | | 2 | Horus | God | Lucky | | 3 | Set | God | Unlucky | | 4 | Isis | Goddess | Lucky | | 5 | Nephthys | Goddess | Unlucky |
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