It would of course be entirely ludicrous to imagine that the ancient Egyptians ever considered the Constellation Orion in the same manner as it is currently presented, derivative of the giant with club figure from the Classical Period of Greece, some several thousand years later than there own cultural development, and not surprisingly no such evidence is found in Egyptian art or literature.

It is thus an open question as to how the anceint Egyptians percieved the stars in that region, and what associations they made regarding them, and in what manner they illustrated them. Greek writers of the Classical period made comparison between their own understanding of Orion with regards to Horus or Osiris, but of course they approached this consideration from their own perspective that the Constellation represented a giant warrior/human figure.

Suggestions from Egyptology are that the culmination of the Khoiak Feast of Sokar correlated with the periodics of the Constellation Orion , and that thus Sokar can be associated with Orion, (and thus also Osiris in terms of Sokar-Osiris).



The Sokar Feast was celebrated every year at the setting (disappearance from the night sky) of the constellation Orion, which was a symbolic death of Ptah-Sokar-Osiris. The rites center around the preparation of his body, actually a corn Osiris which would later sprout after watering, and its placement into a tomb, but the culmination of the ceremonies involved the resurrection of the god in the form of the full moon rising on the lotus of Nefertum. This is why these scenes show Nefertum holding the Eye-of-Horus, which was the full moon in Egyptian thought.

Ptah-Sokar-Osiris was aided by many gods during these proceedings. The principal actors on his behalf were Sekhmet (and various others of her avatars such as Hathor, Wedjoyet, Neith, etc.), Nefertum, and Thoth. Other deities who form part of the background for this cult are Nun, Tatjenen, and various manifestations of the underworld sungod. This is because Orion (Ptah-Sokar-Osiris) had to return to the uncreated world to be regenerated.



[www.rostau.org.uk]



[www.osirisnet.net]




Also it can be considered that the seasonal timing of Khoiak would be at the time of year when the Sun was rising at around the rising place of Orion, midway between the equinox and winter solstice points, and the essential aspect of the Feast is of regeneration through the Earth.


The question then is how did this association of Orion with Sokar present itself in terms of developments in iconography, and what elements of the stars in the vicinity of the Orion constellation were represented. From examination of the primary evidence these would be my considerations;



[img354.imageshack.us]



Essentialy the 'Belt stars' were seen as the wing of Sokar, translated in terms of rising and setting positions of these lends itself to the concept of 'Sokar with both wings open', these three stars in all probabiliy could also be seen as related to the Barque of Sokar.


The Belt/Wing stars appear to have been considered as within a rectangle created by four stars of the constellation Orion, this the 'House of Sokar', and the ideogram of the Serakh;




The Serekh (henceforth s.) is a roughly rectangular stylized representation of a niched-façade building (or part thereof).

The Egyptian word for "srkh" is only later attested and its meanings are generally based on the terms which indicate: a banner for the Horus-name, a throne, a palace façade, a memorial (stela); alternatively the word etymology has been related to the causative of the verb rekh, (srkh, 'cause to know', 'to display', 'to learn about').[5]


[xoomer.alice.it]



Sokar was representative of the nocturnal Falcon giving rise to the Diurnal Falcon Horus, commonly place upon the top of the Serakh.



The region then of the Constellation Orion i would suggest as relative to the region of the Duat known as 'The House of Sokar', with the Belt stars seen as the Wing of Sokar...actually quite a simple identification.



Morph.