Sah
The god Sah personified the
constellation of Orion - the most distinctive of all the
constellations in the night sky. While not part of the
'imperishable' circumpolar stars, the constellation became
important in Egyptian mythology especially as it rose
directly before the adjacent star Sirius (the Egyptian
Sothis) - the brightest fixed star which was utilized in the
calculation of the Egyptian calendar. The constellation god
was thus connected with the start Sothis from an early date
and the two came to be viewed as manifestations of Osiris
and Isis respectively.
Sah is mentioned quite frequently in the Pyramid Texts where he
is called 'father of the gods' (PT 408), and the deceased king
is said to enter the sky 'In the name of the Dweller in Orion,
with a season in the sky and a season on earth' (PT 186). The
association of Sah with Sothis is also clear in these early
texts where the king is told, 'You shall reach the sky as
Orion, your soul shall be as effective as Sothis' (PT 723). In
the funerary texts ofthe New Kingdom Orion is said to row
towards the stars in a boat and Sah is sometimes depicted in
this manner in representations found in temples and tombs - as
a god surrounded by stars who sail across the sky in a papyrus
skiff.
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