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[[File:Egypt_Rert_stellarium-RSC.jpg|thumb|Egyptian constellation Reret, The Female Hippotamus, identified with Ramesside Star Clocks, mapped to Stellarium (CC BY Petrie 1940, SMH 2026). For this screenshot the time and date settings are Alexandria -1180. ]]
 
Reret, ''rrt'', The Hippotamus, is an Egyptian constellation, preserved in the 2nd millennium BCE. Based on Ramesside Star Clocks,<ref>Neugebauer, O. and Parker, R. A., 1969. ''Egyptian Astronomical Texts'', vol. III. Providence: Brown University.</ref><ref>Leitz, Ch., 1995. Altägyptische Sternuhren. OLA, 62. Leuven: Peeters.</ref> it is known that it covers ... RA-hours.<ref>Petrie W.M.F. (1940). Wisdom of the Egyptians. London.</ref>
[[File:Hippo-hi Zodiaque de Dendéra - Musée du Louvre Antiquités Egyptiennes D 38 ; E 13482.gif|thumb|Detail from the circular zodiac of Dendera with the Hippo Goddess next to the Bull's Thigh (photo: Musée du Louvre, GIF SMH).]]
[[File:Taweret Amulet MET 21.6.47 EGDP021762.jpg|thumb|Taweret Amulet MET 21.6.47 EGDP021762 (CC0, wikicommons)]]
Reret, ''rrt'', The Hippotamus, is an Egyptian constellation, preserved in the 2nd millennium BCE. It is also called Isis Djamet. Based on Ramesside Star Clocks,<ref>Neugebauer, O. and Parker, R. A., 1969. ''Egyptian Astronomical Texts'', vol. III. Providence: Brown University.</ref><ref>Leitz, Ch., 1995. Altägyptische Sternuhren. OLA, 62. Leuven: Peeters.</ref> it is known that it covers 5 RA-hours.<ref name=":1">Petrie W.M.F. (1940). Wisdom of the Egyptians. London.</ref> Reret / Isis-Dajamet is one of the most important constellations of ancient Egyptian skies present in all celestial diagrams and in mythology, as in the Book of Day and Night in the vault of the burial chamber in the tomb of Ramesses VI where teh texts mention Isis in the form of Reret handling two mooring posts, where Meskhetyu (the leg of Seth) is fixed with two chains of gold so that it can not travel through the sky. 


==Concordance, Etymology, History==
==Concordance, Etymology, History==
Reret is depicted as a bipedal hippopotamus in a fashion virtually identical to Ipy or Taweret, from whom she is distinguished by her astral associations. She is a goddess of fertility and childbirth. [[File:Reret IsisDjamet.png|thumb|Reret in hieroglyphs]]
'''Variants'''  
'''Variants'''  


Line 12: Line 15:


=== Sources ===
=== Sources ===
[[File:Stars in Nekhet Belmonte2003-tab2 RSC.png|thumb|Stars in the Egyptian constellation The Giant, Nekhet, mentioned in the RSCs (CC BY Belmonte 2003<ref name=":0">Belmonte, J. A., 2003. The Ramesside star clocks and the ancient Egyptian constellations. In M. Blomberg, P. E. Blomberg and G. Henriksson (Eds.), ''Calendars, Symbols, and Orientations: Legacies of Astronomy in Culture'' (pp. 57–65). ''Uppsala Astronomical Observatory report'', 59. Uppsala Ocarina Books.</ref>, tab. 2).]]
[[File:RamesssideStarClocks-schemaBelmonte2003.jpeg|thumb|Ramessside Star Clocks schematically, fig. 1 in Belmonte (2003)<ref name=":0" />]]
Ramesside Star Clocks (RSC) are ceiling paintings in some tombs in the Valley of Kings, Egypt, from the Ramesside Period.<ref>Marshall Clagett (1989). Ancient Egyptian Science: Calendars, clocks, and astronomy. American Philosophical Society.</ref> They are not actually used star clocks but information on stars in transit (probably through the meridian) provided in tabular layout.  
[[File:Rrt-hippoGoddess sarcophagus NeuesMusBerlin.jpg|thumb|Constellation "'''Reret'''" depicted on a sarcophagus, represented by 9 asterisks (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Ägyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung, ÄM 7.)]]
[[File:Stars in Reret+itsPole Belmonte2003-tab2 RSC.png|thumb|Stars in the Egyptian constellation Reret mentioned in the RSCs (CC BY Belmonte 2003<ref name=":0">Belmonte, J. A., 2003. The Ramesside star clocks and the ancient Egyptian constellations. In M. Blomberg, P. E. Blomberg and G. Henriksson (Eds.), ''Calendars, Symbols, and Orientations: Legacies of Astronomy in Culture'' (pp. 57–65). ''Uppsala Astronomical Observatory report'', 59. Uppsala Ocarina Books.</ref>, tab. 2).]]
The constellation is mentioned in the Ramesside Star Clocks (RSC) and identified by right ascension. Ramesside Star Clocks (RSC) are ceiling paintings in some tombs in the Valley of Kings, Egypt, from the Ramesside Period.<ref>Marshall Clagett (1989). Ancient Egyptian Science: Calendars, clocks, and astronomy. American Philosophical Society.</ref> They are not actually used star clocks but information on stars in transit (probably through the meridian) provided in tabular layout. It was assumed that they depict a practice in ancient Egypt to measure time by the, most likely, meridian or close to meridian transit of stars. These hour stars were single stars in a few cases or belong to constellations, some of them very large, of Egyptian sky maps.
 
There has been two dedicated approaches including an attempt to identify these hour stars: Leitz (1995)<ref name=":02">Leitz, Ch., 1995. Altägyptische Sternuhren. OLA, 62. Leuven: Peeters.</ref> and Belmonte (2003)<ref name=":12">Belmonte, J. A., 2003. The Ramesside star clocks and the ancient Egyptian constellations. In M. Blomberg, P. E. Blomberg and G. Henriksson (Eds.), ''Calendars, Symbols, and Orientations: Legacies of Astronomy in Culture'' (pp. 57–65). ''Uppsala Astronomical Observatory report'', 59. Uppsala Ocarina Books.</ref>. Pioneers Neugebauer and Parker (1969)<ref>Neugebauer, O. and Parker, R. A., 1969. ''Egyptian Astronomical Texts'', vol. III. Providence: Brown University.</ref> thought this was a worthless exercise.
 
Leitz (1995)<ref name=":02" /> followed N&P hypothesis of stars transiting close to the southern horizon and reached a solution which for Belmonte (2003) was not satisfactory for various reasons. These are amply discussed in Lull and Belmonte (2006 & 2009)<ref name=":2">Belmonte, J.A. andd Lull, J., 2023. Astronomy in ancient Egypt: a cultural perspective. Cham: Springer.</ref>. This new hypothesis suggests that several RSC constellations were located in the northern skies such as the Giant (Nekht), the She-Hippo (Reret), the Mooring Post (Menyt) and the Bird (Apdu), among others of lesser entity (see also Davies, 1985<ref>Davis, V. L., 1985. Identifying Ancient Egyptian Constellations. ''Journal of the History of Astronomy'', ''16'', 102–104.</ref>).


There are 16 stars related to Nekht named in the Ramesside Star Clocks (RSC)<ref name=":0" />.
=== Individual Stars / Body Parts ===
Belmonte and Lull (2023)<ref name=":22">Belmonte, J.A. andd Lull, J., 2023. Astronomy in ancient Egypt: a cultural perspective. Cham: Springer.</ref> suggest the identification of Reret with a "Large area near the Pole covering from Lyra to Boötes Vega is a form of Isis". There are 9 stars related to Reret named in the Ramesside Star Clocks (RSC)<ref name=":0" />.  
 
Nine star names are given in the RSC and nine stars are drawn for Reret on the sarcophagus in Berlin (see image on the right).
{| class="wikitable"
{| class="wikitable"
|+
|+
!Star / Asterism Name  
! colspan="2" |Star / Asterism Name  
(transliteration)
(transliteration)
!Translation
!Translation
Line 25: Line 37:
!ident. (Belmonte 2003)
!ident. (Belmonte 2003)
|-
|-
|''rd n rrt''
|
|
|Predeccesor of the giant’s 2 feathers
|Foot of the hippopotamus
|260
|17.3
|[[Altair]] (17.1)
|-
|
|
|The 2 feathers of the giant
|273
|18.4
|[[Sualocin]] -alf Del- (18.1)
|-
|
|
|Head of mace (or Crown) of giant
|rho Boo
|
|
|[[Sadalsuud]] (18.5)
|-
|-
|''rdwy n rrt<sub>4</sub>''
|
|
|Mace (or Crown) of the giant
|Feet of the hippopotamus
|
|180
|
|12.0
|Area of [[Aquarius]] ?
|[[Izar]] -eps Boo- (12.1) & rho Boo (11.9)
|-
|-
|''pd n rrt''
|
|
|Head of the giant
|Knee of the hippopotamus
|
|198
|
|13.2
|Area of [[Equuleus]]
|[[Alphecca]] (13.5),
|-
|-
|''ḥry-ỉb mnty=s''
|
|
|Nape of his neck
|Middle of her thighs
|280
|206
|18.7
|13.7
|[[Enif]] -alf Peg- (18.8)
|[[Alphecca]] (13.5) & CrB
|-
|-
|''b3ḥ n rrt<sub>5</sub>''
|
|
|Neck of the giant
|Vulva of the hippopotamus
|280
|211
|18.7
|14.0
|[[Enif]] -alf Peg- (18.8)
|Between [[Corona Borealis|Corona Bor]] & [[Hercules]]
|-
|-
|
|''ḫpd n rrt<sub>4</sub>''
|His breast
|Khepedenreret
|290
|Buttocks of the hippopotamus
|19.3
|219
|tet Peg (19.2) or iot Peg (19.5)
|14.6
|eps Her (14.8) & zet Her (14.5)
|-
|-
|''mndt nt rrt6''
|
|
|Hip of the giant
|Breast of the hippopotamus
|300
|228
|20.0
|15.2
|[[Markab]] -alf Peg- (20.2)
|pi Her (15.3)
|-
|-
|''ns=s''
|
|
|His shank
|Her tongue
|304
|240
|20.2
|16.0
|[[Scheat]] -bet Peg- (20.3)
|[[Rastaban]] - bet Dra- (16.2)
|-
|-
|''šwty nt rrt<sub>6</sub>''
|
|
|Knee of the giant
|The 2 feathers of hippopotamus
|309
|250
|20.6
|16.7
|Area of the Square of [[Pegasus]]
|[[Lyra]] with [[Vega]] (16.7)
|-
|
|His foot
|317
|21.1
|alf And (21.3)
|-
|
|Pedestal
|317
|21.1
|alf And & gam Peg (21.3)
|-
|
|The one coming after his pedestal
|327
|21.8
|del And (21.8)
|-
|
|star of the back of the pedestal
|
|
|Area of [[Andromeda]]
|}
|}


=== Identification(s) ===


* "From Aquila to the Pegasus Square. Including his Feathers, Mace (or Crown) and Pedestal" (Belmonte 2003)<ref name=":0" />
=== Other Identification(s) ===
* "From Aquila to the Square of Pegasus" (Belmonte & Lull 2023)<ref>Belmonte, J.A. andd Lull, J., 2023. Astronomy in ancient Egypt: a cultural perspective. Cham: Springer.</ref>
 
* "..." (Belmonte 2003)<ref name=":0" />
* "..." (Belmonte & Lull 2023)<ref>Belmonte, J.A. andd Lull, J., 2023. Astronomy in ancient Egypt: a cultural perspective. Cham: Springer.</ref>
* Petrie's drawing also extends across this area  
* Petrie's drawing also extends across this area  
* The circular zodiac in Dendera the image is drawn above the "Duck" in Aquila. An accurate identification is not possible but it matches the suggestions above.
* The circular zodiac in Dendera the image is drawn .... An accurate identification is not possible but it matches the suggestions above.
 
=== Transformations & Image Variants ===
<gallery>
File:Eg const pole1250BCE stellarium.jpg|Hippopotamus of Denderah, (probably wrongly) coloured image, mapped to the Stellarium star chart
File:Fig 4 45 Petrie1940 sky.jpg|Star map of the Egyptian Sky for the Ramesside Star Clocks. Petrie W.M.F. (1940)<ref name=":1" />. Wisdom of the Egyptians. London, fig. 4.45.
File:Egypt_Rert_stellarium-RSC.jpg|Egyptian constellation Reret, The Female Hippotamus, identified with Ramesside Star Clocks, mapped to Stellarium (CC BY Petrie 1940, SMH 2026). For this screenshot the time and date settings are Alexandria -1180.
</gallery>


==Mythology==
== Religion/ Tales/ Mythology ==


==IAU Working Group on Star Names==
==IAU Working Group on Star Names==
The name "Reret" suggested to be considered by the IAU WGSN in 2023. Reret extends for ... hours of RA (from the RSCs).
The name "Reret" suggested to be considered by the IAU WGSN in 2023. Reret extends for four hours of RA (from the RSCs) and is probably close to the celestial north pole in the late 2nd millennium BCE. The figure is huge and no single (faint) star can be justified to bear this culturally very important name. Hence, the WGSN chose to represent the figure with a more specific name     


The WGSN chose ... (not to apply/ to apply the name to a neighbouring star/ to ...) in the IAU-CSN.
... (not to apply/ to apply the name to a neighbouring star/ to ...) in the IAU-CSN.


== Weblinks ==
== Weblinks ==


*  
* [https://www.smb.museum/museen-einrichtungen/aegyptisches-museum-und-papyrussammlung/sammeln-forschen/sammlung/ Staatliche Museen zu Berlin - Ägyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung]


== Reference ==
== Reference ==

Latest revision as of 17:57, 1 May 2026

Authors: Susanne M Hoffmann, Juan Antonio Belmonte Avilés

Detail from the circular zodiac of Dendera with the Hippo Goddess next to the Bull's Thigh (photo: Musée du Louvre, GIF SMH).
Taweret Amulet MET 21.6.47 EGDP021762 (CC0, wikicommons)

Reret, rrt, The Hippotamus, is an Egyptian constellation, preserved in the 2nd millennium BCE. It is also called Isis Djamet. Based on Ramesside Star Clocks,[1][2] it is known that it covers 5 RA-hours.[3] Reret / Isis-Dajamet is one of the most important constellations of ancient Egyptian skies present in all celestial diagrams and in mythology, as in the Book of Day and Night in the vault of the burial chamber in the tomb of Ramesses VI where teh texts mention Isis in the form of Reret handling two mooring posts, where Meskhetyu (the leg of Seth) is fixed with two chains of gold so that it can not travel through the sky.

Concordance, Etymology, History

Reret is depicted as a bipedal hippopotamus in a fashion virtually identical to Ipy or Taweret, from whom she is distinguished by her astral associations. She is a goddess of fertility and childbirth.

Reret in hieroglyphs

Variants

  • rrt
  • Reret
  • Rert

Sources

Ramessside Star Clocks schematically, fig. 1 in Belmonte (2003)[4]
Constellation "Reret" depicted on a sarcophagus, represented by 9 asterisks (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Ägyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung, ÄM 7.)
Stars in the Egyptian constellation Reret mentioned in the RSCs (CC BY Belmonte 2003[4], tab. 2).

The constellation is mentioned in the Ramesside Star Clocks (RSC) and identified by right ascension. Ramesside Star Clocks (RSC) are ceiling paintings in some tombs in the Valley of Kings, Egypt, from the Ramesside Period.[5] They are not actually used star clocks but information on stars in transit (probably through the meridian) provided in tabular layout. It was assumed that they depict a practice in ancient Egypt to measure time by the, most likely, meridian or close to meridian transit of stars. These hour stars were single stars in a few cases or belong to constellations, some of them very large, of Egyptian sky maps.

There has been two dedicated approaches including an attempt to identify these hour stars: Leitz (1995)[6] and Belmonte (2003)[7]. Pioneers Neugebauer and Parker (1969)[8] thought this was a worthless exercise.

Leitz (1995)[6] followed N&P hypothesis of stars transiting close to the southern horizon and reached a solution which for Belmonte (2003) was not satisfactory for various reasons. These are amply discussed in Lull and Belmonte (2006 & 2009)[9]. This new hypothesis suggests that several RSC constellations were located in the northern skies such as the Giant (Nekht), the She-Hippo (Reret), the Mooring Post (Menyt) and the Bird (Apdu), among others of lesser entity (see also Davies, 1985[10]).

Individual Stars / Body Parts

Belmonte and Lull (2023)[11] suggest the identification of Reret with a "Large area near the Pole covering from Lyra to Boötes Vega is a form of Isis". There are 9 stars related to Reret named in the Ramesside Star Clocks (RSC)[4].

Nine star names are given in the RSC and nine stars are drawn for Reret on the sarcophagus in Berlin (see image on the right).

Star / Asterism Name

(transliteration)

Translation RA (degr) RA (h) ident. (Belmonte 2003)
rd n rrt Foot of the hippopotamus rho Boo
rdwy n rrt4 Feet of the hippopotamus 180 12.0 Izar -eps Boo- (12.1) & rho Boo (11.9)
pd n rrt Knee of the hippopotamus 198 13.2 Alphecca (13.5),
ḥry-ỉb mnty=s Middle of her thighs 206 13.7 Alphecca (13.5) & CrB
b3ḥ n rrt5 Vulva of the hippopotamus 211 14.0 Between Corona Bor & Hercules
ḫpd n rrt4 Khepedenreret Buttocks of the hippopotamus 219 14.6 eps Her (14.8) & zet Her (14.5)
mndt nt rrt6 Breast of the hippopotamus 228 15.2 pi Her (15.3)
ns=s Her tongue 240 16.0 Rastaban - bet Dra- (16.2)
šwty nt rrt6 The 2 feathers of hippopotamus 250 16.7 Lyra with Vega (16.7)


Other Identification(s)

  • "..." (Belmonte 2003)[4]
  • "..." (Belmonte & Lull 2023)[12]
  • Petrie's drawing also extends across this area
  • The circular zodiac in Dendera the image is drawn .... An accurate identification is not possible but it matches the suggestions above.

Transformations & Image Variants

  • Hippopotamus of Denderah, (probably wrongly) coloured image, mapped to the Stellarium star chart
    Hippopotamus of Denderah, (probably wrongly) coloured image, mapped to the Stellarium star chart
  • Star map of the Egyptian Sky for the Ramesside Star Clocks. Petrie W.M.F. (1940)[3]. Wisdom of the Egyptians. London, fig. 4.45.
    Star map of the Egyptian Sky for the Ramesside Star Clocks. Petrie W.M.F. (1940)[3]. Wisdom of the Egyptians. London, fig. 4.45.
  • Egyptian constellation Reret, The Female Hippotamus, identified with Ramesside Star Clocks, mapped to Stellarium (CC BY Petrie 1940, SMH 2026). For this screenshot the time and date settings are Alexandria -1180.
    Egyptian constellation Reret, The Female Hippotamus, identified with Ramesside Star Clocks, mapped to Stellarium (CC BY Petrie 1940, SMH 2026). For this screenshot the time and date settings are Alexandria -1180.

Religion/ Tales/ Mythology

IAU Working Group on Star Names

The name "Reret" suggested to be considered by the IAU WGSN in 2023. Reret extends for four hours of RA (from the RSCs) and is probably close to the celestial north pole in the late 2nd millennium BCE. The figure is huge and no single (faint) star can be justified to bear this culturally very important name. Hence, the WGSN chose to represent the figure with a more specific name

... (not to apply/ to apply the name to a neighbouring star/ to ...) in the IAU-CSN.

Reference

  1. ↑ Neugebauer, O. and Parker, R. A., 1969. Egyptian Astronomical Texts, vol. III. Providence: Brown University.
  2. ↑ Leitz, Ch., 1995. Altägyptische Sternuhren. OLA, 62. Leuven: Peeters.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Petrie W.M.F. (1940). Wisdom of the Egyptians. London.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Belmonte, J. A., 2003. The Ramesside star clocks and the ancient Egyptian constellations. In M. Blomberg, P. E. Blomberg and G. Henriksson (Eds.), Calendars, Symbols, and Orientations: Legacies of Astronomy in Culture (pp. 57–65). Uppsala Astronomical Observatory report, 59. Uppsala Ocarina Books.
  5. ↑ Marshall Clagett (1989). Ancient Egyptian Science: Calendars, clocks, and astronomy. American Philosophical Society.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Leitz, Ch., 1995. Altägyptische Sternuhren. OLA, 62. Leuven: Peeters.
  7. ↑ Belmonte, J. A., 2003. The Ramesside star clocks and the ancient Egyptian constellations. In M. Blomberg, P. E. Blomberg and G. Henriksson (Eds.), Calendars, Symbols, and Orientations: Legacies of Astronomy in Culture (pp. 57–65). Uppsala Astronomical Observatory report, 59. Uppsala Ocarina Books.
  8. ↑ Neugebauer, O. and Parker, R. A., 1969. Egyptian Astronomical Texts, vol. III. Providence: Brown University.
  9. ↑ Belmonte, J.A. andd Lull, J., 2023. Astronomy in ancient Egypt: a cultural perspective. Cham: Springer.
  10. ↑ Davis, V. L., 1985. Identifying Ancient Egyptian Constellations. Journal of the History of Astronomy, 16, 102–104.
  11. ↑ Belmonte, J.A. andd Lull, J., 2023. Astronomy in ancient Egypt: a cultural perspective. Cham: Springer.
  12. ↑ Belmonte, J.A. andd Lull, J., 2023. Astronomy in ancient Egypt: a cultural perspective. Cham: Springer.
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