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Authoring a PhD Thesis How to Plan Draft Write and
Finish a Doctoral Dissertation 1st Edition Patrick
Dunleavy Digital Instant Download
Author(s): Patrick Dunleavy
ISBN(s): 9781403905840, 1403905843
Edition: 1
File Details: PDF, 2.39 MB
Year: 2003
Language: english
 Authoring a PhD
How to plan, draft, write and finish
a doctoral thesis or dissertation

Patrick Dunleavy
Authoring a PhD
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Authoring a PhD
How to plan, draft, write and finish
a doctoral thesis or dissertation

Patrick Dunleavy
© Patrick Dunleavy 2003
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
publication may be made without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted
save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence
permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,
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Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication
may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The author has asserted his right to be identified
as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
First published 2003 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
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PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Dunleavy, Patrick.
Authoring a PhD : how to plan, draft, write, and finish a doctoral
thesis or dissertation / Patrick Dunleavy.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1–4039–1191–6 – ISBN 1–4039–0584–3 (pbk.)
1. Dissertations, Academic–Authorship–Handbooks, manuals, etc.
2. Academic writing–Handbooks, manuals, etc. I. Title: Authoring a Ph. D.
II. Title.
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10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03
Printed in China
 For Sheila and Rosemary
Thanks for the encouragement
All rules for study are summed up in this one:
learn only in order to create.
Friedrich Schelling
 Contents

List of figures and tables ix

Preface x

1 Becoming an author 1
Authoring is more than just writing 2
Different models of PhD and the tasks of
authoring 5
Managing readers’ expectations 11
2 Envisioning the thesis as a whole 18
Defining the central research questions 18
Doing original work 26
3 Planning an integrated thesis:
the macro-structure 43
The whole and the core 44
Focusing down or opening out 53
Four patterns of explanation 62
4 Organizing a chapter or paper:
the micro-structure 76
Dividing a chapter into sections 76
Devising headings and subheadings 84
Handling starts and finishes 89
5 Writing clearly: style and referencing issues 103
The elements of good research style 104
Effective referencing 120

VII
VIII ◆ CONTENTS

6 Developing your text and managing the

writing process 134
Drafting, upgrading and going public 135
Remodelling text 143
Organizing the writing process 148
7 Handling attention points: data, charts
and graphics 157
Principles for presenting data well 159
Handling tables 165
Designing charts and graphs 172
Other techniques for data reduction 185
Using diagrams and images 192
8 The end-game: finishing your doctorate 197
From a first full draft to your final text 199
Submitting the thesis and choosing examiners 209
The final oral examination (viva) 217
9 Publishing your research 227
Writing and submitting journal papers 227
Re-working your thesis as a book 251

Afterword 264
Glossary of maxims, terms and phrases 266
Notes 277
Further reading 287
Index 291
List of Figures and Tables
Figures

3.1 Interrelating the whole and the core 50

3.2 The focus down model 55
3.3 The opening out model 59
3.4 The compromise model 61
3.5 Three ways of viewing my home study 64
3.6 Examples of a matrix structure 74
4.1 The tree structure of a chapter 102
5.1 How PhD students’ writing can develop 105
7.1 Eight main types of chart (and when to use them) 173
7.2 How health boards compare 182
7.3 How Scotland’s health boards compared in treating
cataracts, 1998–9 financial year 183
7.4 An example of a box-and-whisker chart comparing
across variables 189
7.5 An example of median-smoothing 191
8.1 Integrating themes 200
9.1 An example of a journal article evaluation form 236

Tables

5.1 How different pressures on authors improve

or worsen the accessibility of their text 107
7.1 How health boards compare 166
7.2 How Scotland’s health boards compared in
treating cataracts, 1998–9 financial year 167

IX
Preface

T he conservative political philosopher Michael Oakeshott

once argued that:

A university is an association of persons, locally

situated, engaged in caring for and attending to
the whole intellectual capital which composes a
civilization. It is concerned not merely to keep
an intellectual inheritance intact, but to be
continuously recovering what has been lost,
restoring what has been neglected, collecting
together what has been dissipated, repairing what
has been corrupted, reconsidering, reshaping,
reorganizing, making more intelligible, reissuing
and reinvesting. 1

Even if we leave aside Oakeshott’s evident antiquarian bias

against any genuine or substantive innovation here, this ‘mis-
sion statement’ is extensive enough. Indeed it is far too large to
be credible in the era of a ‘knowledge society’, when so many
other people (working in professions, companies, cultural and
media organizations, governments, civil society groups or as
independent writers and researchers) also attend to ‘the intel-
lectual capital [of] a civilization’.
This book is written in the hope of somewhat assisting any
of these people who produce longer creative non-fiction texts.
It is especially directed to research students and their advisers
or supervisors in universities. In undertaking or fostering the

X
 PREFACE ◆ XI

doctorate they still pursue the most demanding ideal of original

research. ‘Nothing was ever yet done that someone was not the
first to do,’ said John Stuart Mill, and that is what the doctoral
ideal always has celebrated and always should.2 Each doctoral
dissertation or thesis is to a large extent sui generis. But this book
reflects a conviction that in the humanities, arts and social
sciences research students also need to acquire a core of generic
authoring skills that are substantially similar across diverse
disciplines and topics. While research skills training has been
formalized a great deal in the last two decades, these ‘craft’
skills of authoring have been relatively neglected and left
unsystematized.
For Oakeshott and other traditionalists my enterprise here
will seem no more than another brick in the wall, a further step
towards the bureaucratization of modern society foreseen by
Max Weber.3 But I believe that learning the craft of how to plan,
draft, write, develop, revise and rethink a thesis, and to finish it
on time and to the standard required, is too important and too
often mishandled a set of tasks to be left to the somewhat erratic
and tangential models of induction and training that have pre-
vailed in the past. There is a long and honourable tradition now
of scholarship reflecting upon itself. It stretches back through
Friedrich Schelling’s idealist vision in On University Studies, to
Francis Bacon’s musings in The Advancement of Learning, and
before him to some significant reflective writings of the
medieval thinkers and the ancient Greek philosophers.4 Now, as
in those earlier times, scholars and students are not (cannot be)
immune to external influences and rationalization processes. In
modern conditions universities can privilege their existing
modes of generating and transmitting knowledge only so long
as they are demonstrably the best of available alternatives.
Of course, completing a doctoral dissertation is also too per-
sonal and too subtle a process, too dependent upon students
and supervisors or advisers, too variable across thesis topics, dis-
ciplines and university contexts, for any generic advice to
encompass more than a tiny proportion of what a given doc-
toral student needs to help her develop as an author. But cover-
ing this fraction in a systematic way can still be very valuable,
time-saving and perhaps inspiring. PhD students know their
own situation better than anyone else in the world. They can
XII ◆ PREFACE

build on a small amount of ‘ready-made knowledge’ (as

Schelling termed it),5 picking and choosing those elements of
this text that are relevant for their problems. I hope that this
book may also help thesis advisers (with knowledge of a range
of doctoral projects in their own discipline) to extend and sys-
tematize their thinking and guidance to students about author-
ing issues. So this book is written as a foil for students and their
supervisors, as a grid or a framework which they can set against
their own situations and experiences.
I have written up this advice in a modest but not a tentative
way, because I know no other style that will seem honest or
convincing. For some readers there is a risk that my suggestions
may come across as overly slick or didactic, as if I am seeking to
dictate what squads of PhD students should do. But I am
acutely aware that readers always will and always should con-
struct their own personalized versions of this text, adapting and
domesticating what works for them, and setting to one side
what does not fit. I have written like someone devising a menu
for a restaurant, wanting to offer a treatment that is challeng-
ing and convincing, and an experience which is consistent and
as complete as possible. But I am conscious that no one (in their
right frame of mind) will pick up and consume more than a
fraction of this menu at a time.
Lastly let me stress that this book is to a large extent a con-
duit for the ideas of many student and staff colleagues, whose
wisdom and suggestions I have jotted down, adopted, tried out
and probably shamelessly purloined over the years. I owe my
heaviest debt to some 30 people who have worked with me on
their own doctorates across two and a bit decades. They have
taught me so much as they developed their ideas, not just about
their thesis topics but also about our joint profession.6 In dif-
ferent ways, each of them will know the frailties and limitations
of supervisors all too well, and I can only ask their tolerance of
any gloss on their experience which this volume inadvertently
gives. My next biggest debt is to colleagues at the London School
of Economics and Political Science who have co-supervised
PhDs with me or co-taught the School-wide seminar on PhD
writing.7 From their very different styles of teaching and encour-
aging, I have learned much. I am grateful also to a wide range of
other colleagues, who may recognize their own ideas and inputs
 PREFACE ◆ XIII

scattered across these pages. Lastly I would like to thank the stu-
dents from 18 disciplines who attended my PhD writing course
at LSE over more than a decade. Their questions, challenges and
innovations have consistently stretched my knowledge, and
convinced me that we could do more to help.
I hope that the enterprise of gathering these ideas together in
one volume will seem justified for most readers, and that if it
does you will contribute to the book by e-mailing me your com-
ments, criticisms and suggestions for changes or additions. For
me, even in our rationalized times, the doctorate still remains a
crucial vehicle for developing new and original thought in the
humanities and social sciences, especially amongst young peo-
ple, who (as Plato said) are ‘closer to ideas’.8 If this book strikes
even a few positive chords among new generations of scholars
and supervisors, then writing it will have been worthwhile.

Patrick Dunleavy January 2003

London School of Economics and Political Science

London
[email protected]
This page intentionally left blank
1
Becoming an Author

In writing a problem down or airing it in

conversation we let its essential aspects emerge.
And by knowing its character, we remove, if not
the problem itself, then its secondary, aggravating
characteristics: confusion, displacement, surprise.
Alain de Botton 1

T he authoring process involves all the component parts of

producing a finished piece of text, that is: envisaging what
to write, planning it in outline, drafting passages, writing the
whole thing, revising and rewriting it, and finishing it in an
appropriate form, together with publishing all or parts of your
text. At every stage a complex mix of intellectual and logistical
issues can crop up. As de Botton suggests of problems in gen-
eral, often there are genuine (permanent) dilemmas surrounded
by more resolvable delaying or distracting factors. Neither the
fundamental problems nor their penumbra of aggravations
may be straightforward to resolve, but we can often make
progress on the latter by making the issues involved more
explicit. My aim here is to shed light on common authoring
problems and to point out solutions which others have found
helpful and that may also work for you.
I begin by discussing the importance of authoring as a generic
set of skills at the doctoral level. A thesis or a long dissertation
(I use these words interchangeably from here on) forms a criti-
cal element in all the main models of PhD education. Some key
authoring principles have important application across many

1
2 ◆ AUTHORING A PHD

humanities and social science disciplines. The second section

considers the varying authoring tasks involved in the ‘classical’
model of PhD and newer ‘taught PhD’ models. The third
section looks at a foundation skill for becoming a good author,
which is to actively manage your readers’ expectations.

Authoring is more than just writing

To write is to raise a claim to be read, but by

whom?
C. Wright Mills 2

To do authoring at doctoral level is to become a qualified (and

hopefully published) academic writer. It involves acquiring
a complete set of ‘craft’ skills, a body of practical knowledge that
has traditionally been passed on by personal contacts within
university departments from supervisors to students. A basic
theme of this book is that authoring skills are a crucial element
to completing a successful doctorate. They are fundamental
in achieving a coherent, joined-up argument for your thesis.
Proficiency in authoring can also help you meet the require-
ments of ‘originality’ and making a substantive contribution to
the development of a discipline, which are still key criteria
for awarding a doctorate in good universities. And acquiring
authoring capabilities is very important in finishing a doctorate
on time and avoiding the long delays for which PhD students
were once notorious.
Yet PhD students are only rarely taught authoring skills in an
explicit way in universities. The knowledge involved has not
often been codified or written down. Great effort is normally put
into communicating to students the substantive knowledge of
each discipline, with an intense socialization and training in its
research methods. By comparison the teaching or training of stu-
dents in authoring has been given little attention. Partly this
reflects a widespread conviction amongst academic staff that at
the PhD level becoming an effective writer is completely bound
up with becoming a good researcher, and with mastering the sub-
ject matter of one individual academic discipline. Authoring a
doctorate has often been seen as too diffuse an activity to be
 BECOMING AN AUTHOR ◆ 3

legitimately or usefully studied in universities. Many, perhaps

most, working academics might doubt that much useful can be
said about the generic skills involved in authoring – outside the
context of each particular discipline. Hence in offering advice
about authoring to their students most university teachers and
supervisors have had few credible resources to hand. Many
advisers must draw largely on their own experience, of super-
vising earlier students, or perhaps of being a PhD student them-
selves up to three decades ago. This neglect of authoring skills
is not universal. The editors of academic journals and most
publishers of university-level books can and do draw a distinc-
tion between people’s prowess in a discipline and their profi-
ciency as writers. They recognize that good researchers can be
bad writers, and that uninspiring researchers can still be good
writers, interpreters and communicators. But the thrust of
much doctoral education none the less remains that if you get
the research right then the writing aspect will somehow just fall
naturally into place.
This conventional approach assumes that beginning PhD stu-
dents will be sustained by discipline-specific study skills incul-
cated in their earlier education, at first degree or masters level. As
their research goes on they will presumably learn how to produce
good (or at least acceptable) writing in the style of their discipline
via a process of trial and error, ‘learning by doing’ over successive
drafts – first of papers, then of chapters, and ultimately of a com-
plete thesis. Doctoral students are mentored intensively and
hence should get detailed criticisms and individual advice from
their supervisors and perhaps other colleagues. This advice is
always text-specific and discipline-specific, focusing on this or
that substantive argument or piece of research, on whether a par-
ticular point has been proved sufficiently, or whether a given
way of expressing an argument is legitimate or appropriate in its
context, and so on. From many repeated instances of these com-
ments and interactions the hope is that students will progres-
sively build up their own sense of what can and cannot be said,
how it may be said, and how other professionals in their subject
will interpret and react to their text.
In undertaking research and in developing disciplinary
knowledge the craft approach to PhD education still works well,
even though it has been extensively supplemented in modern
4 ◆ AUTHORING A PHD

times by much more formalized, extensive and lengthier

processes of advanced instruction. And on authoring issues,
many students will perhaps be lucky and have sympathetic staff
as their supervisors, people who are themselves skilled and
experienced authors and who are also prepared to devote a lot
of time and effort to inculcating similar authoring skills via
individual working with students. In these circumstances the
by-product approach can still deliver outstanding results.
But normally the by-product model of how students learn
and develop is far more problematic in relation to authoring
skills. In modern universities the pressures of teaching, research,
publishing and administration on qualified staff frequently
cause this model to break down in one or several respects.
Doctoral instruction via individual supervision is costly and
time-consuming. One of the reasons for a more formal and col-
lective trend in doctoral education has been to reduce the
amount of individual teaching needed, with peer group semi-
nars used more to help students to develop their ideas and com-
munication skills. Even in the most traditional view of PhD
education, which still stresses one-to-one induction of each stu-
dent by a single supervisor, the transmission of authoring skills
is vulnerable. Some supervisors may be indifferent writers, or
not very interested in or proficient in developing other people’s
authoring capabilities. Their students can find themselves with-
out any fall-back source of guidance. Above all, the by-product
way of doing things can be very time-consuming and erratic,
hence worrying and psychologically taxing for students.
Informal or ‘trial and error’ methods may unnecessarily stretch
out the period people take to complete a doctorate. And it may
make the process of becoming a competent and talented author
in your own right more problematic than it need be.
Here is where this book aims to be useful, in helping PhD stu-
dents and their advisers to think more systematically about
authoring skills. On the basis of supervising my own students
over the years, and of teaching a large and intensive course on
PhD drafting and writing at my university for more than a
decade, I take what might be labelled an ‘extreme’ view by
more conventional colleagues. I believe that in most of the
social sciences and all of the humanities disciplines, a set of
general authoring skills determine around 40 to 50 per cent of
anyone’s success in completing a doctorate. Of course, your
 BECOMING AN AUTHOR ◆ 5

ability to complete doctoral-level work will be primarily condi-

tioned by your own research ideas and ‘native’ originality, and
your hard work, application and skill in acquiring specific
knowledge of your discipline and competence in its methods.
But unless you simultaneously grow and enhance your author-
ing abilities, there are strong risks that your ideas may not
develop sufficiently far or fast enough to sustain you through
to finishing your thesis at the right level and in a reasonable
time. Doing good research and becoming an effective author
are not separate processes, but closely related aspects of intel-
lectual development that need to work in parallel. I also believe
that authoring skills are relatively generic ones, applicable in a
broadly similar way across a range of disciplines at doctoral
level. Hence this book draws on a wide range of previous writ-
ings and insights by earlier generations of university scholars.

Different models of PhD and the tasks

of authoring

In contemporary universities there are a number of different

models of what a doctorate consists of. The way in which you

Model of PhD Supervision Thesis Found in

requirement

Classical Either one or Big book British-

model two supervisors thesis: an influenced
focuses on (UK); or a small integrated set and European-
thesis writing supervisory of chapters influenced
throughout, committee usually university systems,
with only (Europe) around and more
preliminary 80,000 to text-based
training 100,000 words disciplines
or coursework long

Taught PhD Main adviser, Papers model American-

model plus minor dissertation: influenced
The first stage adviser, plus four or five university systems,
involves rest of publishable and more
coursework dissertation quality papers, technical
assessed by a committee around 60,000 social sciences
general words elsewhere
examination.
The second stage
is a dissertation
Other documents randomly have
different content
 Now, if we take the opposite side, that is the north-west corner,
we find that we have to do chiefly with the opposite part of the sky,
including the signs of the Lion, the Scales, and Sagittarius, and
below them other stars are represented as mythological personages
in boats. The courses of the sun and moon are next given, and some
of the lunar mythology is revealed to us. We see Osiris represented
by the moon, and by an eye at the top of fourteen steps, which
symbolise the fourteen days of the waxing moon.
In the square zodiac, then, there is an immense amount of
astronomy. In the round zodiac, found in another temple (see p. 18),
there are some points which at once claim our attention. There is,
first, a mythological figure of a cow in a boat, and, near it, another
mythological figure, which the subsequent reading of inscriptions has
proved to represent the constellation Orion. In the centre of the
zodiac we have a jackal, and there is very little doubt that it
represents the constellation which we now call the Little Bear, which
then, as now, was near the pole. Not far away, we get the leg of an
animal; this, we now know, was a constellation called the Thigh, and
there seems to be absolutely no question that it represents the
constellation which we now call the Great Bear. Again, close by is
another mythological form, which we know represents the
Hippopotamus. This was made up out of some of the group of stars
which forms the present constellation Draco. There are also two
hieroglyphs which subsequent research has proved to represent
setting stars and rising stars, so that, whatever may have been the
date of this round zodiac of Denderah, it is clear that we are dealing
with a time when the stars had been classed in constellations, one of
which, the constellation Orion, even survives to our own day.
It is little to be wondered at that, when these revelations first
burst upon the scientific world, great excitement was produced. It
was obvious that we had to do with a nation which had very definite
ideas of astronomy, and that the astronomy was very closely
connected with worship. It was also certainly suggested by so many
animal forms, that we had to do with a people whose condition was
not unlike that of the American Indians—to take a well-known
instance—at the beginning of this century, one in which each tribe,
or clan, had chosen a special animal totem.
It so happened that, while these things were revealing
themselves, the discussions concerning them, which took place
among the scientific world of France, were partly influenced by the
writings of a man of very brilliant imagination and of great erudition.
I refer to Dupuis, according to whose views an almost fabulous
antiquity might be assigned to ancient traditions in general and
astronomical traditions in particular. It is needless to say, however,
that there were others to take the extreme opposite view—who held
the opinion that his imagination had run away with his learning.
With all this new work before them, and with a genius like
Champollion's among them, it was not long before the French
savans compelled the hieroglyphs to give up some of their secrets.
First one word gave two or three letters, then another two or three
more, and finally an alphabet and syllabary were constructed. So it
was not long before some of the inscriptions at Denderah were read.
Then it was found that the temple, as it then stood, had certainly
been, partly at all events, embellished so late as the time of the
Roman Emperors. Naturally there was then a tremendous reaction
from the idea of fabulous antiquity which had been urged by the
school of Dupuis. There were two radically opposed camps, led by
Letronne, a distinguished archæologist, and Biot, one of the most
eminent astronomers of his day, and both of these savans brought
papers before the Academy of Inscriptions. Biot's first paper was
read in 1822, and was replied to by Letronne in 1824; Biot wrote his
next paper in 1844, in which he held to everything that he had
stated in his first memoir; and this was replied to, the next year, by
Letronne.
 SIRIUS AND ORION (18TH DYNASTY). (From Brugsch.)

Biot had no difficulty whatever in arriving at the conclusion that,

precisely as in the case of the sphere of Eudoxus, a prior bone of
contention, however true it might be that, the circular zodiac had
been sculptured in the time of the Roman emperors, still it certainly
referred to a time far anterior; and he suggested that we have in it
sculptures reproducing very old drawings, which had been made
long before on parchment or on stone. He pointed out that in the
condition of astronomy one would expect to be extant in ancient
times, it was far easier to reproduce old drawings than to calculate
back what the positions of the stars had been at some prior date, so
that in his magnificent summing-up of the case in his last paper, he
rested his scientific reputation on the statement that the sculptures
of Denderah represent the celestial sphere on a plane round the
north pole of the equator at a year not far removed from 700 b.c.
More than this, he stated that the time of the year was the time of
the summer solstice, and the hour was midnight. He also showed
that, calculating back what the position of the stars would have been
at midnight on the 20th of June (Gregorian), 700 b.c., the
constellations, and even many of the separate stars shown in the
medallion, would occupy exactly the places they did occupy in the
projection employed.
 ASTRONOMICAL DRAWINGS FROM BIBÂN EL-MULÛK (18TH DYNASTY). (From
"Description de l'Égypte.")

Let us then, for the moment, assume this to be true. What does it
tell us? That 700 years b.c. in Egypt the solstice was recognised; a
means of determining the instant of midnight with more or less
precision was known; observations of the stars were regularly made;
the risings of some of them were associated with the rising of the
sun, and many of them had been collected into groups or
constellations.
This is a wonderful result. I suppose that Biot is universally held to
have proved his case; in fact, Brugsch, who is now regarded as one
of the highest authorities in Egyptian history, has shown that almost
every detail seen in the zodiac of Denderah reproduces inscriptions
or astronomical figures, unearthed since the date of Biot's memoir,
which, without doubt, must be referred to the time of the Eighteenth
Dynasty—that is, 1700 b.c. or thereabouts; so that practically the
Egyptologist has now chapter and verse for many things in the
zodiac of Denderah dating 1,000 years before the period assigned to
it by Biot.
The next point to notice is connected with the astronomical
drawings which have been found in the Ramesseum at Thebes—
drawings which also have very obvious connections with the zodiac
of Denderah. On these we find the hieroglyphics for the different
months—the constellations Orion, Hippopotamus, and Jackal, as we
saw them at Denderah, and another form of the constellation of the
Thigh. There is certainly the closest connection between the two
sets of delineations.

RUINS OF THE RAMESSEUM, WHERE THE MONTH-TABLES WERE FOUND.

Biot set himself to investigate what was the probable date to

which the inscriptions in the Ramesseum referred. When we have
the months arranged in a certain relationship to certain
constellations we have an opening for the discussion of the
precessional movements; in other words, for the consideration of the
various changes brought about by the swinging of the pole of the
equator round the pole of the ecliptic. Here, again, there was no
uncertain sound given out by the research. Biot pointed out that we
are here in presence of records, no longer of a summer solstice, as
in the case of Denderah, but of a spring equinox, the date being
3285 b.c. He further suggested that, in all probability, one of the
mythological figures might be a representation of the intersection of
the ecliptic and the equator in the constellation Taurus at the date
mentioned. This undoubtedly, to a large extent, justifies what Dupuis
had long before pointed out—that the perpetual reference to the Bull
found in ancient records and mythologies arose from the fact that
this constellation occupied an important position at a critical time in
the year, which would indicate a very considerable lapse of time.
This idea was justified by the researches of Biot, because we are
driven back by them to a date preceding 3000 years b.c. We find in
the table at the Ramesseum distinct references to the Bull, the Lion
and the Scorpion, and it is also clearly indicated that at that time the
star Sirius rose heliacally at the beginning of the Nile-rise.
The month-table at Thebes tells us that the sun's journey in
relation to some of the zodiacal constellations was perfectly familiar
5000 years ago.
 CHAPTER XIV.
THE CIRCUMPOLAR CONSTELLATIONS: THE
MYTH OF HORUS.

There was to all early peoples all the difference in the world, of
course, between day and night, while we, with our firm knowledge,
closely associate them. There was no artificial illumination such as
we have, and the dark night did not so much typify rest as death; so
that the coming of the glorious morning of tropical or sub-tropical
climates seemed to be a re-awakening to all the joys and delights
and activities of life; thus the difference between night and day was
to the ancient Egyptians almost the difference between death and
life. We can imagine that darkness thus considered by a
mythologically-thinking people was regarded as the work of an
enemy, and hence, in time, their natural enemies were represented
as being the friends of darkness.
Here a very interesting astronomical point comes in. With these
views, there must have been a very considerable difference in the
way the Egyptians regarded those stars which were always visible
and those which rose and set.
The region occupied by the stars always visible depends, of
course, upon the latitude of the place. Taking Thebes, with its
latitude of 26°, as representing Egypt, the area of stars always
visible was about one-fourth of that visible to us, so that there would
be a very sharp distinction between the stars constantly seen at
night, and those which rose and set, the rising stars being regarded
as heralds of the sunrise. It seems very probable that the
circumpolar stars were quite early regarded as representing the
powers of darkness, because they were there, visible in the dark,
always disappearing and never appearing at sunrise. If that were so,
 no doubt prayers would be as
necessary to propitiate them as those
powers or gods which were more
beneficent; and, as a matter of fact,
one finds that the god Set—identified
sometimes with Typhon, Anubis, and
Tebha—was amongst the greatest
gods of ancient Egypt.

THE GOD OF DARKNESS—SET.

VARIOUS FORMS OF ANUBIS.

 The female form of Typhon—his wife—was called Taurt or
Thoueris, represented generally as a hippopotamus.

FORMS OF TYPHON.

It is probable that the crocodile was a variant of the hippopotamus

in some nomes, both having reference to our modern constellation
Draco.
 If we return for a moment to the zodiac of Denderah, we find that
the constellations which I indicated—the Thigh, the Hippopotamus
and the Jackal—represent our present constellations of the Great
Bear, Draco, and the Little Bear, which were all of them circumpolar;
that is, they neither rose nor set at the time of the inscription of the
zodiac of Denderah. It therefore will not surprise us, with the above
suggested explanation in mind, to hear that the Hippopotamus was
called the Wife of Set, the Thigh the Thigh of Set, and the Jackal the
Jackal of Set.
In the Book of the Dead, Chapter XVII., we read the following
reference to some of the northern stars and constellations:
"The gods Mestha, Hāpi, Tuamāutef, and Qebhsennuf
are those, namely, which find themselves behind the
constellation of the Thigh in the northern heavens."

MESTHA. HĀPI. TUAMĀUTEF. QEBHSENNUF.

Again, inscribed in the kings' graves at Thebes we read:

 "The four Northern Genii are the four gods of the
follower [some constellation]. They keep back the conflict
of the terrible one [Typhon]. He is a great quarreller. They
trim the foresail and look after the mizen in the bark of
Rā, in company with the sailors, who are the four
constellations[41] [aχemu-sek], which are found in the
northern heavens. The constellation of the Thigh appears
at the late rising. When this constellation is in the middle
of the heavens, having come to the south, where Orion
lies [Orion typifying the southern part of the skies], the
other stars are wending their way to the western horizon.
Regarding the Thigh; it is the Thigh of Set, so long as it is
seen in the northern heavens there is a band [of stars?] to
the two [sword handles?] in the shape of a great bronze
chain. It is the place of Isis in the shape of a
Hippopotamus to guard."
In the square zodiac at Denderah we find an illustration of the
Hippopotamus and the Thigh, and the chain referred to in the
inscription is there also. It will be quite worth while to see whether
this chain is not justified by some line of stars between the chief
stars in Draco and those in the Great Bear.
Let us now turn to the associated mythology. We see that the
astronomical ideas have a most definite character; we learn also
from the inscriptions dating from the Eighteenth Dynasty, that the
Egyptians at that time recognised three different risings. There was
the rising at sunset, the rising at midnight, and the rising at dawn.
Plutarch says that the Hippopotamus was certainly one of the forms
of Typhon, and a reference to the myth of Horus, so beautifully told
twenty years ago and illustrated by Naville by the help of inscriptions
at Edfû, will show how important this identification is.
Naville rightly pointed out how vital the study of mythology
becomes with regard to the advancement of any kind of knowledge
of the thoughts and actions of the ancient Egyptians. Mythology, as
Bunsen said, is one of the poles of the existence of every nation;
hence it will be well not to neglect the opportunity thus afforded of
studying the astronomical basis of one of the best-known myths.
First a word about the mythology of Horus. Generally we begin
with the statement usually made that Horus meant the young (or
rising) sun. But inquiry shows that Horus was something more than
this; the Egyptians were great generalisers.
If we put the facts already known into diagrammatic form, we find
that the condition of things is something like the following:—
HORUS = Sun, Planet, or Constellation Rising.
Sun. Planets. Constellations.
Horus Mars as Orion Northern constellations
Hor-χuti Sah-Horus Set-Horus.
(Laughing Horus)
(Red Horus)

The table shows that, although the Egyptians undoubtedly called

the rising sun Horus, the planets and constellations when rising were
in certain cases called Horus too. We do not get any individual star
rising referred to as Horus; they were always considered as
goddesses. Hence, Horus seems to include constellations—that is,
groups of stars rising—but not single stars.
Since the northern constellations were symbolised by the name of
Set, the god of darkness, we should take Set-Horus to mean that the
stars in the Dragon were rising at sunrise. This may explain the
meaning of a remarkable figure which has set Egyptologists thinking
a great deal. It is the combination of Horus and Set—a body of
Horus with two heads, those of the hawk and jackal.
Now then for the myth. The reason why Naville went to the
temple of Edfû for his facts is that in the later-time temples—and
this is one of them—the inscriptions on the walls have chiefly to do
with myth and ritual, whereas in the period covered by the earlier
dynasties the temple inscriptions related chiefly to the doings of the
kings. When we come to read the story which Naville brings before
us, it looks as though the greatest antiquity must be conceded to it
from the fact that the god Horus—the
rising sun—is accompanied by the Hor-
shesu, the followers or worshippers of
Horus. These people are almost
prehistoric, even in Egyptian history. De
Rougé says of them, as I have previously
pointed out, C'est le type de l'antiquité la
plus reculée. They represent, possibly, the
old sun-worshippers at a time when as yet
there was no temple of the sun. Now, in
this famous myth of Horus, Horus,
accompanied and aided by the Hor-shesu,
does battle with Typhon, the god of
darkness, who had killed his father Osiris,
and Horus avenges his father in the
manner indicated in the various
inscriptions and illustrative drawings given
in the temple of Edfû. How does he do it?
We find that in this conflict to revenge his
SET-HORUS.
father Osiris, he is represented in a boat
killing a hippopotamus with ten darts, the
beast being ultimately cut up into eight pieces. In some drawings it
is a hippopotamus that he is slaying; in others, possibly for some
totemic reason, a crocodile has been selected, but we can only see
that it has been a crocodile by the fact that a little piece of the tail
remains. Doubtless the reference had been found objectionable by
some crocodile-worshipping people.
In very many inscriptions the constellation which, as I have stated,
represents the hippopotamus, is really represented as a crocodile, or
as a crocodile resting on the shoulders of a hippopotamus, so that
there is no doubt that the crocodile and the hippopotamus were
variants; and we can quite understand, further, that the
hippopotamus must have been brought into Egypt by a tribe with
that totem, who must have come from a very long way up the Nile,
since the hippopotamus was never indigenous in the lower reaches
of the river; so that we have in the myth to do with a hippopotamus-
worshipping tribe, which, for that reason, probably came from a
region very far to the south. There is evidence of local tribes in
Egypt among which the crocodile was sacred.

ILLUSTRATION FROM A THEBAN TOMB, SHOWING THE ASSOCIATION OF THE

CROCODILE AND HIPPOPOTAMUS, AND HORUS SLAYING THE CROCODILE,
AND THE CONSTELLATION OF THE THIGH.

The astronomical explanation of this myth is, I think, very clear.

The inscriptions relating to one of the very earliest of the illustrations
refers to Horus, "the great god, the light of the heavens, the lord of
Edfû, the bright ray which appears on the horizon." The myth,
therefore, I take it, simply means that the rising sun destroys the
circumpolar stars. These stars are represented in the earliest forms
of the myth either by the crocodile or the hippopotamus; of course
they disappeared (or were killed) at sunrise. Horus, the bright ray on
the horizon, is victorious by destroying the crocodile and the
hippopotamus, which represent the powers of darkness.
This is a general statement. I should not make it if I could not go
a little further. There is an astronomical test of its validity, to which I
must call attention. The effect of precession is extremely striking on
the constellations near the pole, for the reason that the pole is
constantly changing, and the changes in the apparent position of the
stars there soon become very obvious. The stars in Draco were
 HORUS AND CROCODILES.

circumpolar, and could, therefore, have been destroyed (or rendered

invisible), as the hippopotami were destroyed in the myth by the
rising sun, about 5000 years b.c.; and be it noted that at that time
there was only one star in the Great Bear (or the Thigh) which was
circumpolar. But at 2000 years b.c. the stars in Ursa Major were the
circumpolar ones, and the chief stars in the constellation Draco,
which formed the ancient constellation of the Hippopotamus, rose
and set; so that, if there is anything at all in the explanation of the
myth which I have given, and if there is anything at all in the idea
that the myth is very ancient and refers to the time when the
constellation of the Hippopotamus was really circumpolar—a time
7000 years ago—we ought to find that as the myth existed in more
recent times, we should no longer be dealing with Draco or the
Hippopotamus, because Draco was no longer circumpolar.
As a matter of fact, in later times we get Horus destroying no
longer the Hippopotamus or the Crocodile, but the Thigh of Set;
and, as I have said, 2000 years b.c. the Thigh occupied exactly the
same position in the heavens with regard to the pole as the
Hippopotamus or the Crocodile did 3000 years before.
Thus, I think, we may claim that this myth is astronomical from
top to bottom; it is as old as, and probably rather older than, Naville
thought, because it must certainly have originated in a period
somewhere about 5000 years b. c., otherwise the constellation of the
Hippopotamus would not have figured in it.
The various illustrations of Horus on the crocodiles are a reference
to the myth we have just discussed.
It is easy to understand that if the myth were astronomical in
origin there was no reason why it should be limited to Horus
representing the rising sun; we accordingly find it extended to the
god Ptah.
But although I hold that the astronomical meaning of the myth is
that the rising sun kills the circumpolar stars, I do not think that is
the last word. A conflict
is suggested between a
people who worship the
rising sun and another
who worship the
circumpolar stars. I
shall show in the sequel
that there is an
astronomical suggestion
of the existence of two
such distinct races, and
that the companions of
the sun-god of Edfû
must probably be
distinguished from the
northern Hor-shesu.

HORUS AND CROCODILES.

 PTAH AND CROCODILES.

Here we may conclude our reference to the stars which, in the

latitude of Egypt, do not rise and set—or, rather, did not rise and set
at the epochs of time we have been considering.
 CHAPTER XV.
TEMPLES DIRECTED TO THE STARS.

I have now to pass from the circumpolar stars to those which both
rise and set. The difference between the two groups—those that do
not rise and set and those which do—was fully recognised by the
Egyptians, and many references are made to the fact in the
inscriptions.
In a previous chapter I have given reasons to show that some of
the earliest solar temples in Egypt were not oriented to the solstice.
The temple of Amen-Rā at Karnak, however, and others elsewhere
were built in such a manner that at sunset at the summer solstice—
that is, on the longest day in the year—the sunlight entered the
temple and penetrated along the axis to the sanctuary. I also
pointed out that a temple oriented in this manner truly to a solstice
was a scientific instrument of very high precision, as by it the length
of the year could be determined with the greatest possible accuracy,
provided only that the observations were continued through a
sufficient period of time.
All the temples in Egypt, however, are not oriented in such a way
that the sunlight can enter them at this or any other time of the
year. They are not therefore solar temples, and they cannot have
had this use. The critical amplitude for a temple built at Thebes so
that sunlight can enter it at sunrise or sunset is about 26° north and
south of east and west, so that any temples facing more northerly or
southerly are precluded from having the sunlight enter them at any
time in the year.
It is imperative to be perfectly definite and clear on the question
of the amplitudes above 26° at Thebes. I repeat, therefore, that any
amplitude within 26° means that up to that point the sun at sunrise
or sunset could be observed some day or days of the year—once
only in the year if the amplitude is exactly at the maximum, twice if
the maximum is not reached. But in the case of these temples with
greater amplitudes than 26°, it is quite clear that they can have had
nothing to do with the sun.
This being so, we have the problem presented to us whether or
not temples were built so that starlight might fall along their axes in
exactly the same way that the sunlight could fall along the axes of
the solar temples when the sun was rising in the morning or setting
in the evening.
It is abundantly clear that temples with a greater amplitude than
26° were oriented to stars if they were oriented at all by
astronomical considerations. How can this question be studied?
What means of investigation are at our disposal?
Suppose that the movements of the stars are absolutely regular;
that there is no change from year to year, from century to century,
from æon to æon; then, of course, the question as to whether or
not these temples were pointed to a star, at rising or setting, would
be easily and sufficiently settled by going to see; because if the stars
did not change their apparent places in the heavens—accurately
speaking, their declinations—and, therefore, the amplitudes at which
they appear to rise and set, then, of course, a temple consecrated to
Sirius ten thousand years ago would view the rising or setting of
Sirius now as it did then.
But, as a matter of fact, astronomy tells us, as we have seen, that
the apparent positions of the stars are liable to change. The change
is much greater in the case of the stars than it is in the case of the
sun, referred to in Chapters VI. and XI.; but still we have seen that
the latter is one which has to be reckoned with the moment it
becomes a question of inquiry into any time far removed from the
present.
Hence, although in the case of the sun, there is, of course, no
processional movement, and although a temple once oriented to the
sun would remain so for
a long time; still, after
some thousands of
years, the change in the
obliquity of the ecliptic
would produce a small
change in the amplitude
at which a solstice is
observed.
But while, in the case
of the sun, we have to
deal with a change of
something like 1° in
seven thousand years;
we have to face in the
case of the stars a
maximum change of
something like 47° in a
period of thirteen
thousand years. The
change of declination
must be accompanied
by a change of
amplitude, and
therefore by a change
in the direction of the
temples.
Hence, when we get
a temple of known date,
with an amplitude which
has been accurately
measured, we can
determine from that GROUND PLAN OF EDFÛ.
amplitude the exact
declination of the body the temple was intended to observe,
supposing, of course, that the temple was oriented upon any
astronomical considerations at all. If the declination of the body
turns out to be 23° 30′ or less, the temple may have been, in all
probability was, a solar one; if the declination is greater it cannot
have had anything to do with the sun directly.

GROUND PLAN OF THE TEMPLE OF HATHOR AT PLAN OF THE TEMPLE OF SETI AT

DENDERAH. ABYDOS.

This being so, it will be understood why in an inquiry of this kind it

is obviously desirable to begin with a region in which the number of
temples is considerable. Such a condition we have in the region near
Thebes; and the directions of the axes of the different temples—that
is, the orientation of each of them, or, in other words, the amplitude
of the direction in which each temple points—have all been
tabulated. Chief among these we have the large temple of Karnak,
showing that the amplitude of its orientation is 26° north of west,
and the temple of Mut, showing that its orientation is 72½° north of
east. There is a temple at right angles to the temple at Karnak, and
again another with an amplitude of 63° south of west, and so on.

PLAN OF THE TEMPLE OF RAMSES II. IN THE MEMNONIA AT THEBES (FROM

LEPSIUS) SHOWING THE PYLON AT THE OPEN END AND THE SANCTUARY AT
THE CLOSED ONE.

It may be stated generally that at Karnak itself, not to go farther

afield, there are two well-marked series of temples which cannot, for
the reason given, be solar, since one series faces a few degrees from
the north, and the other a few degrees from the south. There are
similar temples scattered all along the Nile valley.
When we come to examine these non-solar temples, the first
question is, Do they resemble the solar ones in construction? Are the
horizontal telescope conditions retained? The evidence on this point
is overwhelming. Take the Temple of Hathor at Denderah. It points
very far away from the sun; the sun's light could never have
enfiladed it; in many others pointing well to the north or south the
axis extends from the exterior pylon to the Sanctuary or Naos, which
is found always at the closed end of the temple; we have the same
number of pylons, gradually getting narrower and narrower as we
get to the Naos, and in some there is a gradual rise from the first
exterior pylon to the part which represents the section of the Naos,
so that a beam of horizontal light coming through the central door
might enter it over the heads of the people flocking into the outer
courts of the temple, and pass uninterruptedly into the Sanctuary.
In this way the Egyptians had, if they chose to use it, a most
admirable arrangement for observing, with considerable accuracy,
either the rising or the setting of any celestial body, whether it were
sun or star, and especially the possibility of observing a cosmical
rising, as the eye was shielded from the sunrise light, and the place
of rising was completely indicated.
In these, as at Karnak, we have a collimating axis. We have the
other end of the temple blocked; we have these various diaphragms
or pylons, so that, practically, there is absolutely no question of
principle of construction involved in this temple that was not
involved in the great solar temple of Amen-Rā itself.
We made out that in the case of the temples devoted to sun-
worship and to the determination of the length of the year, there
was very good reason why all these attempts should be made to cut
off the light, by diaphragms and stone ceilings, because, among
other things, one wanted to find the precise point occupied by the
sunbeam on the two or three days near the winter or summer
solstice in order to determine the exact moment of the solstice.
But if a temple is not intended to observe the sun, why these
diaphragms? Why keep the astronomer, or the priest, so much in the
dark? There is a very good reason indeed.
From the account given by Herodotus[42] of the ceremonials and
mysteries connected with the temple of Tyre, it is suggested that the
priests used starlight at night for some of their operations, very
much in the same way as they might have used sunlight during the
day. According to Herodotus, in the temple in question there were
two pillars—the one of pure gold, and the other of an emerald stone
of such size as to shine by night.[42] Now, there can be little doubt
that in the darkened sanctuary of an Egyptian temple the light of α
Lyræ, one of the brightest stars in the northern heavens, rising in
the clear air of Egypt, would be quite strong enough to throw into an
apparent glow such highly-reflecting surfaces as those to which
Herodotus refers.
Supposing such a ceremonial as this, the less the worshippers—
who, reasoning from the analogy of the ceremonial termed the
manifestation of Rā,[43] would stand facing the sanctuary, with their
backs to the chief door of the temple—knew about the question of a
bright star which might probably produce the mystery, the better.
Again, the truer the orientation of the temple to the star, and the
greater the darkness the priest was kept in, the sooner would he
catch the star quivering in the light of either early or late dawn.
In the first place, the diaphragms would indicate the true line that
he had to watch; he would not have to search for the star which he
expected; and obviously the more he was kept in the dark the
sooner could he see the star.
Is there any additional line of evidence beyond the structural
conditions of the temples that the Egyptians used these temples to
observe the stars? Here a very interesting question comes in: a
temple built at one period to observe a star could not go on for ever
serving its purpose, for the reason that the declination of the star
must change, as we have seen, by precession. Therefore a temple
built with a particular amplitude to observe a particular star at one
period would be useless later on.
We have here possibly a means of testing whether or not any of
these temples were used to observe the stars. In those very early
days, 3000 or 4000 years b.c., we must assume that the people who
observed the stars had not the slightest idea of these possible
precessional changes; they imagined that they were just as safe in
directing a temple to a star as they were in directing a temple to the
sun. But with a star changing its declination in an average way, the
same temple could not be used to observe the same star for more
than 200 or 300 years; so that at the end of that time, if they still
wished to observe that particular star, they must either change the
axis of the old temple, or build a new one. I have mentioned an
average time as the change of the star's declination is involved.
Now this change of direction is one of the most striking things
which have been observed for years past in Egyptian temples.
As a matter of fact, we find that the axes of the temples have
been changed, and have been freely changed; that there has been a
great deal of work done on many of the temples which are not
oriented to the sun, in order to give them a twist.
Once a solar temple, a solar temple for thousands of years; once a
star temple, only that star temple for something like 300 years, so
that the conditions were entirely changed.
We get cases in which the axis of a temple has had its direction
changed, and others in which, where it has been difficult or
impossible to make the change in a temple, the change of amplitude
has been met by putting up a new temple altogether. We are
justified in considering such temples as a series in which, instead of
changing the orientation of a pre-existing temple, a new temple has
been built to meet the new condition of things. That, I think, is a
suggestion which we are justified in making to Egyptologists on
astronomical grounds.
For an instance, I may refer to the well-known temple at Medînet-
Habû. We have there two temples side by side—a large temple,
which was built later, with its systems of pylons and sanctuaries; a
smaller temple, with outside courts, and, again, a sanctuary built
much earlier. The direction of these two temples is very different;
there is a difference of several degrees. It is very difficult indeed to
understand why these two structures should have been built in that
way if there were not some good reason for it. The best hitherto
found is the supposed symmetrophobia of the Egyptians.
We find the same thing in Greece. There is the old Parthenon, a
building which may have been standing at the time of the Trojan
war, and the new Parthenon, with an outer court very like the
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