Egyptian Mythology :The Hour Watcher

The Hour Watcher

Mehetra was a young priestess in an ancient Egyptian temple. She had trained for years to become a priestess, and took her position very seriously.

Mehetra's main responsibility was to help another priestess in everyday matters. She also participated in the regular temple festivals. In festivals, Mehetra would follow the priestess, chanting and shaking her sistrum. 

When Mehetra was not busy, she liked to watch other people go about their duties in the temple.

There was one priest in particular who Mehetra liked to follow. His name was Amenemopet. Amenemopet was the 'Wenuty' ('hour-watcher') priest. He was in charge of making sure that temple rituals were performed on time during the day, night and throughout the year. 

During the day, Amenemopet watched the sun. He worked out what time of day it was by looking at the sun's position in the sky. Ordinary people worked out the time of day in the same way, but they had less experience and training than Amenemopet.

At night, Amenemopet carefully watched the water clock. As the evening fell, the clock was filled with water. During the night, the water dripped out a hole in the bottom. Amenemopet checked the water level during the night to work out when to perform nightly rituals.

How did the water clock work?

One day, Mehetra met Amenemopet walking across the courtyard of the temple.

When Mehetra greeted Amenemopet, he looked startled. 'The world is in chaos', he said. 'The stars and the earth are moving against each other. Sopdet has risen, but it is not yet the first month of the flood season.' 

Amenemopet shook his head. He pointed to the wall where Mehetra saw a list carved into the wall in hieroglyphs. 

'This calendar keeps track of all the days throughout the year. It tells me that it is not yet time for the New Year festival. But the star Sopdet has risen, and the flood is coming. I must consult the high priest'.

'Follow me!' he said to Mehetra. Amenemopet raced through the rooms of the temple. He stopped in front of a carved wall and pointed to a list of cartouches.

More about the King list

'This problem was first noticed when they were alive,' he pointed to a line of cartouches. 'That was many years ago, and the problem is only getting worse.'

Amenemopet shook his head again. Then, he turned to Mehetra and said, 'Go now, child. I must be alone to think...' With that, Amenemopet turned and walked away.

Mehetra studied the wall in front of her. Each cartouche contained the name of a pharaoh. Did this problem with the calendar really mean that the world was falling into chaos?

Then, Mehetra's eye fell upon a clear carving of a 'shen' sign. The shen stood for eternity. It had been carved into the wall to show that Egypt would continue forever. Mehetra knew that the priests would work out the problem so that the heavens and the calendar on the temple wall were in harmony.

More about the shen (The shen sign)

The ancient Egyptians had a sign to represent eternity or infinity. They believed that after a person died they could live in the next life forever. The shen sign frequently appears on coffins or funerary objects.)

Mehetra turned away from the wall and walked out into the temple courtyard. The sun was shining down brightly. As Mehetra began to do her duties, she wondered if Amenemopet would know what was happening the next time she saw him.

                                                              The End

What was happening?

This is a fictional story. However, it is based on something we know actually happened in ancient Egypt.

The ancient Egyptians used two different calendars. One was the agricultural calendar. The other was a man-made administrative calendar.

The agricultural year was based on the observation of the stars. Every year, the star 'Sopdet' appeared at dawn in the middle of July, signalling the new year and the start of the flood season.

The administrative calendar was a fixed calendar. The ancient Egyptians created this calendar by observing the movement of groups of stars called 'decans'.

Every ten days, a new decan appeared on the horizon. There were 36 decans in a year, making 360 days per year. Then, the ancient Egyptians added on five days at the end of the year as the birthdays of the gods Osiris, Isis, Nephthys, Seth and Horus.

Since a year is actually about 365.25 days, this calendar was just a little bit off every year. The ancient Egyptians knew the calendar was not accurate, and that every year the problem was getting worse. However, it was a fixed calendar, (one that had even been carved onto the walls of temples), and it was not easy to change.

However, over many hundreds of years, the calendar was so far off that the summer and winter months were reversed. This calendar had to be adjusted many times throughout ancient Egyptian history to keep it accurate.