The second season was Proyet (Emergence) which lasted from roughly 21 October until 21 February.
Proyet included the months of Phaophi (October-November), Hathyr (November-December), Choiak (December-January), and Tybi (January-February).
And the final season was Shomu (Summer) which lasted from roughly 21 February till 21 June.
Shomu included the months of Mechir (February-March), Phamenoth (March-April), Pharmouthi (April-May), and Pachon (May-June).
The five epogamenal days fell between the end of Shomu and the beginning of Akhet.
AKHET – Flood Season | PROYET –Emergence | SHOMU -Summer |
Payni (June-July) | Phaophi (October-November) | Mechir (February-March) |
Epiph (July-August) | Hathyr (November-December) | Phamenoth (March-April) |
Mesore (August-September) | Choiak (December-January) | Pharmouthi (April-May) |
Thoth (September-August) | Tybi (January-February) | Pachon (May-June) |
The Egyptians were great mathematicians and correctly calculated the Solar year to 365 days, but they missed the extra 1/4 day, so that in time their Solar calendar began to fall out of synch with the actual Solar year. After 1460 years the calendar had became so out of synch that it was practically useless –to rectify this the Egyptian mathematicians added a special intercalary year which pulled the calendar back into line with the natural year. This proved crucial to the history of the calendar in the western world because, just as they were conquering the Mediterranean world, the Romans were inspired by this Egyptian achievement to reform their own terribly out-of-synch calendar.
The earliest Roman calendar began the year at the Spring Equinox –a system still in place in Astrology, where the year begins with Aries, and in some branches of Wicca whose origins are Mediterranean rather than Northern European. At first this calendar had only ten months of 29 or 30 days each for a total of 304 days –the remaining 61 days of winter being unnamed and unnumbered. The great reformer King NUMA POMPILLIUS (c. 550 Aries / c. 650 BC) added two months to the calendar so that it included the winter period and had a total of 12 months, but only 355 days –which of course was totally our of synch with the actual Solar year.
The original months of the Roman calendar were Martius (Mars), Aprilis (Opening), Maius (Maia – Venus), Junius (Juno), Quintilis (5th), Sextilis (6th), September (7th), October (8th), November (9th), and December (10th) followed as stated by an uncounted period of winter. King Numa added February (Februus – Dis Pater), and January (Janus) which were later reversed. In the early empire the senate changed the month of Quintilis to July to honor Julius Caesar and Sextilis to August to honor his successor Augustus, thus creating the modern month system we use in the West today.
As their 355 day Solar calendar became more and more out of synch with the 365 and 1/4 day Solar year the Romans responded by adding an intercalary 13th month consisting of 22 or 23 days to every other year, and an additional intercalary month every 24 years. As might be expected, they could not keep up with this rather complex system, and it soon became a mess again.
Another great reformer, Julius Caesar, took on the issue of this unwieldy and almost useless calendar. Seeing how the Egyptians had fixed their calendar problem, Caesar called in an Egyptian mathematician, Sosigenes, to help Rome with its calendar.
Sosigenes correctly calculated the year to 365 and 1/4 days and thus created a 365 day year with a “leap year” every fourth year. This made for the most accurate Solar calendar so far, and became standard throughout the Roman empire and its descendants under the name “Julian Calendar.”
However Sosigenes made one minor error, miscalculating his year by 11 minutes. Over time, the 11 minutes added up, and by the 1100s Pisces (1500s AD) the Julian calendar was about 10 days off from the actual Solar year. Pope Gregory XIII (R. 1172 - 1185 Pisces / R. 1572 – 1585 AD), then Paramount High Priest of the Catholic Tradition of the Christian religion, made the final alteration to the Julian calendar, arranging that centenary years (1600, 1700, 1800, etc) would not be counted as leap years unless divisible by four. Thus was created the Gregorian calendar used by most of the world today.
Meanwhile in Asia an entirely different form of calendar was developing, which we will discuss below under the heading “Asian Calendar” and in the Americas the Native peoples had developed their own complex calendar system, discussed below under “Central American Calendar.”
Dating Systems
We have now discussed the development of the Solar calendar in the West at length. However how these peoples dated events varied considerably. The Egyptians and most other ancient peoples dated events according to the reign of monarchs: for example “The fifth year of King Djoser,” or “The 13 year of King Amenhotep III.” Consequently they spoke more easily in terms of the number of years past rather than of dates as we know them.