East/West

Repost of an article in alt.archaeology August 23, 1998.

Offered by Christer.

There is testimony from all parts of the world that the side which is now turned toward the evening once faced the morning.

In the second book of his history, Herodotus relates his conversations with Egyptian priests on his visit to Egypt some time during the second half of the fifth century before the present era. The priests asserted that within historical ages and since Egypt become a kingdom, four times in this period (so they told me) the sun rose contrary to his wont; twice he rose were he now sets, and twice he set where he now rises.(1)

The Magical Papyrus Harris speaks of a cosmic upheaval of fire and water when the south becomes north, and the Earth turns over.(2)

In the Papyrus Ipuwer it is similarly stated that the land turns round (over) as does a potter´s wheel and the Earth turned upside down.(3)

The texts found in the pyramids say that the luminary ceased to live in the occident, and shines, a new one, in the orient.(4)

In the tomb of Senmut, the architect of Queen Hatshepsut, a panel on the ceiling shows the celestial sphere with the signs of the zodiac and other constellations in a reversed orientation of the southern sky.(5) The center of this panel is occupied by the Orion-Sirius group, in which orion appears west of Sirius instead of east. The orientation of the southern panel is such that the person in the tomb looking at it has to lift his head and face north, not south. With the reversed orientation of the south panel , Orion, the most conspicuous constellation of the southern sky, appeared to be moving eastward, i.e., in the wrong direction.(6)

Plato wrote in his dialog, The Statesman (Politicus): I mean the change in the rising and setting of the sun and the other heavenly bodies, how in those times they used to set in the quarter where they now rise, and used to rise where they now set... the god at the time of the quarrel, you recall, changed all that to the present system as a testimony in favor of Atreus. At certain periods the universe has it´s present circular motion, and at other periods it revolves in the reverse direction. Of all the changes which take place in the heavens this reversal is the greatest and most complet.(7) The reversal of the movement of the sun in the sky was not a peaceful event, it was an act of wrath and destruction. Plato proceeded: There is at that time great destruction of animals in general, and only a small part of the human race survives.(15)

Caius Julius Solinus, a Latin author of the third century wrote of the people living on the southern borders of Egypt: The inhabitants of this country say that they have it from their ancestors that the sun now sets where it formerly rose.(8)

The Chines say that it is only since a new order of things has come about that the stars move from east to west.(9)

In the Syrian city Ugarit (Ras Shamra) was found a poem dedicated to the planet-godess Anat, who massacred the population of the Levant and who exchanged the two dawns and the position of the stars.(10)

The hieroglyphics of the Mexicans describe four movements of the sun, 'nahui ollin tonatiuh'. The Indian authors translate 'ollin' by 'motions of the sun.' When they find the number 'nahui' added, they render 'nahui ollin' by the words 'sun (tonatiuh) in his four motions.'(11) These four motions refer to four prehistoric suns or world ages, with shifting cardinal points.(12)

The Eskimos of Greenland told missionaries that in ancient time the earth turned over and the people who lived then become antipodes.(13)

The Koran speaks of the Lord of two easts and two wests.(14)

References:

(1) Herodotus, Bk. ii, 142 (transl. A. D. Godley, 1921).
(2) H.O.Lange, "Der Magische Papyrus Harris," K. Danske Videnskabernes Selskab (1927), p.58.
(3) Papyrus Ipuwer 2:8. Cf Lange´s (German) translation of the papyrus (Sitzungsberichte d. Preuss. Akad. der Wissenschaften (1903), pp. 601-610).
(4) L. Speelers, Les Textes des Pyramides (1923), I.
(5) A. Pogo, "The Astronomical Ceiling Decoration in the Tomb of Senmut (XVIIIth Dynasty)," Isis (1930), p. 306.
(6) Ibid, pp. 306, 315, 316.
(7) Plato, The Statesman or Politicus (transl. H.N. Fowler, 1925), pp.49, 53.
(8) Solinus, Polyhistor, xxxii.
(9) Bellamy, Moons, Myths and Man, p. 69.
(10) C. Virolleaud, "La déesse Anat," Mission de Ras Shamra, Vol. IV (1938).
(11) Humboldt, Researches, I, 351.
(12) Seler, Gesammelte Abhandlungen, II, 799
(13) Olrik, Ragnarök, p 407.
(14) Koran, Sura LV.