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Venus and Sirius

The Greek version of the Canopus Decree speaks of the rising of the
star of lsis (to astron to tés Isios) as marking the beginning of the
new year; the hieratic and hieroglyphic versions, however, assign the
same role to Sothis, or Sirius.^1 Velikovsky, on the authority of
Pliny,^2 identifies the star of Isis as the planet Venus^3 and
explains that both Venus and Sirius had a role in the Egyptian
calendar, the real purpose of the Decree being to make the calendar
independent of Venus. Egyptologists generally consider both star of
Isis and Sothis to refer to Sirius. Of the arguments put forward by
Velikovsky against this interpretation, I consider the strongest to be
the fact that a calendar based on a fixed star would not result in
festivals moving through the seasonsonly if tied to the observations
of a planet, in this case Venus, would festivals originally celebrated
in the summer fall in midwinter.

That the star of Isis and Sirius are not one and the same is clearly
indicated in one of the Isis-Aretalogies from Memphis where Isis is
made to say: I am she who goes out to the Dog-Star.^4 Dieter Müller,
trying to find the meaning of this text, expresses his puzzlement: But
what can the foregoing sentence signify? That Isis goes out to the
constellation of the Dog-Star certainly cannot be meant, for they are
one and the same. Also that Isis is conceived of as dwelling in Sirius
appears not very enlightening; besides, one could think of the
depictions of Isis as riding on a dog...^^5 Miiller, puzzled, resorts
to an emendation, a favorite device of many scholars faced with
discordant data. Not finding enlightenment in his own field of
Egyptology, Müller does not even think to look for a solution in a
wholly different time or place. Yet, if the phenomena that so
fascinated the ancients were real eventsif, in this case, the fact of
Venus going out to Sirius is based on actual observationit is
legitimate to investigate the records of other civilizations to find
what light they may shed on the Egyptian text.

In the Soochow Astronomical Chart, an eight-centuries-old
inscription in stone, in a section that deals with past
irregularities in the heavens, there is the following statement:
Once Tai-Pai (Venus) suddenly ran into Lang Hsing (Wolf Star,
Sirius), though it is more than 40 degrees south of the Yellow
Road.^6 The Yellow Road is the ecliptic.^7 The same ancient
tradition was referred to by the early eighth-century A.D. Chinese
astronomer Y-hang. As told by Gaubil,^8 Y-hang wrote that in the
time of Tsin one saw the star Sirius eclipsed by the planet Venus.
Y-hang, after having reported this alleged observation, assures
that Sirius has 40 degrees south latitude, and that therefore
Heaven changed the course of this planet in the time of Tsin.

As the Chinese astronomer correctly observed, the ancient records of
Venus movements cited by him would require the planet to travel
outside of the ecliptic, on an orbit quite different from its present
course. Whereas the Soochow Astronomical Chart might leave the
impression of a one-time event, the more detailed records cited by
Y-hang tell of a regular phenomenon. The brightest of the planets
approaching the brightest of the fixed stars and merging its light
with it if that is the correct interpretation of the textsmust have
been an impressive sight. It may have given rise to the Egyptian
expression IsisothisVenus and Sirius shining as one.

Among the Babylonian astronomical texts the so-called Dilbat tablet
links the planet Venus with various fixed stars; it says that the Bow
Star [Sirius] is Dilbat [Venus] in the month ofAbu.^9 Dilbat, or
Venus, is linked with other fixed stars in other months of the year.
If we may interpret this text in the sense that Venus approached
Sirius in Abu and other fixed stars in other months of the year, the
tablet may help trace the planets ancient path.

Assurbanipal, in the seventh pre-Christian century, celebrated a
festival for Venus when Sirius was rising heliacally: In the month of
Abu, the month of the heliacal rising of the Bow Star, the festival of
the honored queen, the daughter [Ishtar] of Enlil, while, to render
homage to her great godhead, I sojourned in Arbela, her beloved city.
. .^10 This statement of Assurbanipal is interpreted as meaning that
the king considered Itar of Arbela the divine impersonator of
Sirius.^11 Itar of Elam and Itar of Babylon are also defined as the
Bow Star, or Sirius. This link of the Venus festival with Sirius
persisted until the Middle Ages among the Harranians.^12 The
celebration of the Assyrian and Harranian festivals to Venus when
Sirius was rising heliacally should not be neglected by students of
the Canopus Decree, and of Sothic chronology.
References

1. W. Spiegelberg, Der demotische Text der Priesterdekrete von
Kanopus und Memphis (Rosettana) (Heidelberg, 1922), p. 70.
2. Natural History 11. 37.
3. "Astronomy and Chronology", Supplement to Peoples of the Sea (New
York, 1977), pp. 205-244.
4. D. Müller, Aegypten und die griechischen Isis-Aretalogien" in
Abhandlungen der sachsischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu
Leipzig, phil.-hist. Klasse, 53.1 (Berlin, 1961), pp. 33ff.
5. Ibid., p. 34.
6. W. Carl Rufus and Hsing-Chih Tien, The Soochow Astronomical Chart
(Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1945), p. 5.
7. Ibid., p. 3.
8. P. Gaubil, Histoire de lAstronomie Chinoise in P. E. Souciet ed.,
Observations mathematiques, astronomiques, geographiques,
chronologiques et physiques tirées des anciens livres chinois
(Paris, 1732), p. 86.
9. H. Lewy, Itar-sad and the Bow Star", Studies in Honor of Benno
Landsberger on his Seventy-fifth Birthday, April 21, 1965;
Assyriological Studies 16, University of Chicago Press, pp. 275ff.
10. Ibid., p. 276 (Assurbanipals Cyl. B, col. v 16ff.)
11. Ibid., p. 277.
12. Ibid., p. 276. In Persia, Sirius and Venus also appear to be
linked in some way. There, the star Tistrya, many times mentioned
in the Zend-Avesta, is usually identified as Sirius. Velikovsky,
on the other hand, brings evidence to show that it is Venus (see
Worlds in Collision, p. 201, n. 10).
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