erah. Brugsch tells us that the place on the
roof of the Hathor temple, where the celebration of the Sed festival took
place, is specially designated as "the place of the first feast" and in
many cases this is shown to have been the small open temple, whose roof is
supported by four columns (fig. 70, 2 and 3). In one passage it is
expressly stated that "she, Isis-Sothis, consorts with her father, the
sun, at 'the place of the first feast,' " represented by a picture of the
said temple (fig. 70, 6).

It is interesting to compare the following passage with the successive
one, as they exhibit different phases of religious cult. "In solemn
procession statues of the god Ra and of Hathor-Isis (Sothis-Sirius) were
carried up the stairs from the interior of the temple to its roof (the
tep-hat or head of the house) where, under the open sky or in the small
open temple on the roof designated as Hait at Denderah, the idols were
unveiled at a given time...." "On the morn of the New Year Isis-Sothis
'beheld her father on the beautiful day of the birth of the disk'
(mas-aten) or 'the birth of the sun' (mas-ra)." It is described how "the
goddess was led upon the roof so that she might behold the rays of her
father on his rising.... She is sometimes addressed directly, being told
'that thou shouldst see thy father on the day of the New Year.' " In other
texts allusion is made to the approach of Sirius to the sun on New Year's
day: "her rays join (heter) with those of the radiant god on that
beautiful day of the birth of the sun's disk in the morning of New Year's
day:" or "thou consortest with thy father Ra in thy open temple, thy
beautiful face being turned towards the south;" and elsewhere, "she comes
on her beautiful festival of the New Year, to unite her greatness in
heaven with that of her father; the gods are festive and the goddesses are
full of joy when the right eye (Sirius) unites itself with the left eye
(the sun). She rests upon her throne in the place where the disk of the
sun can be seen and the radiant one (Isis-Sothis) combines herself with
the radiant one (the sun)."

On one of the columns of the roof-temple at Denderah, the following text
is inscribed: "This temple of Rekhit flourishes in possession of a lion
(mahes) and of his daughter ... of the Horus of the east and of the
goddess Khont-abut. They assume her heavenly form on New Year's day and
each one consorts with his neighbor." Preceding inscriptions are made mo