Imperishable Stars

egyptian: iḫmw-sk

Definition

The Imperishable Stars are the northern circumpolar stars — the stars that, seen from Egypt, never dip below the horizon, and so seem never to die. The Egyptians called them iḫmw-sk (Ikhemu Sekiu, "those that do not perish"), a separate category from the ikhemu-wred ("the unwearying ones," the planets). The constellation Meskhetyu — the Bull's Foreleg, our Big Dipper — serves as their canonical anchor at the northern celestial pole.

In Tradition

In ancient Egyptian star-religion the Imperishable Stars are a permanent region of the sky — one of the recognised places the king's soul could go after death, alongside the solar barque and the Osirian Duat (the underworld). Egyptian astronomer-priests treat this imperishable region as a fixed northern anchor in their map of the sky, set apart from the rising-and-setting belt of decans that paces the night-hours.

In Practice

Egyptian temple-builders aimed their axes at the Imperishable Stars. The 2nd-Dynasty substructure of Hotepsekhemuy at Saqqara (azimuth 1.5° east of true north) and the 4th-Dynasty pyramids of Sneferu at Dahshur and Khufu at Giza were all given internal access corridors sloped toward the northern circumpolar sky, to help the king ascend after death. The pedj-shes ("stretching-of-the-cord") foundation ceremony used the Bull's Foreleg constellation, Meskhetyu, as the sighting target for fixing a temple's meridian — attested at Edfu and other Ptolemaic temples. In the Egyptian star-lists the Imperishable Stars are kept distinct both from the planets (ikhemu-wred) and from the decanal stars, whose successive heliacal risings — first pre-dawn appearances — mark the night-hours.

Historical Origin

The Imperishable Stars appear in the Pyramid Texts of the 5th-6th Dynasty (Old Kingdom, c. 2400-2200 BCE) — including PT 684 (the king made one with their "iron bones") and PT 570 §1456 ("imperishable gods of the undersky," nTrw njwtjw jxmw-skjw) — and in Coffin Texts Spell 115. Modern treatments: Belmonte & Lull (*In Search of Cosmic Order*, 2009), who call Meskhetyu "the imperishable par excellence"; Clagett (*Ancient Egyptian Science* Vol II, 1995); Krauss, *Astronomische Konzepte und Jenseitsvorstellungen in den Pyramidentexten* (1997).

Definition

In Tradition

In Practice

Historical Origin

Further Reading