There are two stories came from this competition about why cats hate rate and why they hunt them. The first one is because the rate and the cat were the worst once in swimming, so they asked from the ox to take them on his back and he agreed, and before the end of the race the rate pushed the cat from the ox back and jumped in order to win the race. The second one is that the day before the competition the cat and the rate agreed that the one who wake up first awake the other, and the next; the day of the competition the rate woke up first and went to the race without waking the cat. () (3)
Egyptian Astrology:
Ancient Egyptians had horoscopes different from ours these days; their horoscopes used to tell them what to do each day in the year, but it was used to tell everyone not only an individual person. For example if the horoscope tell not to go out then everyone stay at home. Each of the 12 signs is ruled by God, and the one born under this sign is affected by the strength and the weaknesses of this God.
( ) (4)
- "SHU (God of air) (24 Jan-24 Feb)
- Isis (God of feminine forces) (25 Feb-26 March)
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- Osiris (God of netherworld) (27 March-25 April)
- Amun (God of creation) (26 April-25 May)
- Hathor (God of love) (26 May-25 June)
- Phoenix (God of immortality) (25 June-24 July)
- Anubis (God of the future) (25 July-28 August)
- Thoth (God of wisdom) (29 August-27 September)
- Horus (God of the rising sun) (28 September-27 October)
- Wadjet (God of justice) (28 October-26 November)
- Sekhmet (God of War and Conquest) (27 November-26 December)
- The Sphinx (God of the Nile) (27 December-25 January)"
()
The modern astrology in Egypt started when Alexander the Great conquered Alexandria in 331 BC. During this time, the Babylonians astrology merged with the Egyptian one forming a new system called "horoscopic astrology". The attempt of this new system was to know the horoscope of the person by studying the position of the planets and stars at the same time this person was born. This new system was then distributed to other part of the world as Europe, Middle East and India. () (5)
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Indian Astrology:
Greek astrology was transmitted to India in the 2nd and 3rd centuries by means of several Sanskrit translations, of which the one best known is that made in AD 149/150 by Yacanesvara and versified as the Yavanajataka by Sphujidhvaja in AD 269/270. The techniques of Indian astrology are thus not surprisingly similar to those of its Hellenistic counterpart. But the techniques were transmitted without their philosophical underpinnings, and the Indians modified the predictions to be applied to Greek and the Roman society. In particular, they took into account the caste system, the doctrine of metempsychosis (transmigration of souls), the Indian theory of five elements (earth, water, air, fire, and space), and the Indian systems of values. (6)
The number of subdivisions of the zodiacal signs was increased by the addition of the horas (15 each), the saptamasas (4 2/7 each), and the navamsas (3 20' each); the number of planets was increased by the addition of the nodes of the Moon (the points of intersection of the lunar orbit with the ecliptic), and of a series of upagrahas, or imaginary planets. Besides genethlialogy, the Indians particularly cultivated military astrology and a form of catarchic astrology termed muhurta-sastra. (7)
In Sasanian Iran. Shortly after Ardashir the Sasaian Empire in AD 226, a substantial transmission of both Greek and Indian astrology to Iran took place. There were Pahlavi (Iranian language) translations of Dorotheus of Sidon, Vettius Valens, Hermes, and an
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Indian called (in the Arabic sources) Farmasp. Since the Pahlavi originals are all lost, these translations provided the only knowledge of the Sasanian science. Genethialogy in Iran was essentially an imitation of the Hellenistic which were grafted some Indian features. The most influential and characteristic innovation of the Sasanian astrologers was the development of the theory of astrological history-that is, the writing of history, both past and future. (8)
In Islam. Astrology entered Islamic civilization in the 8th and 9th centuries in three simultaneous streams-Hellenistic, Indian, and Sasanian. Arabic translations from the Greek and Syriac represented the Hellenistic science, from Sanskrit the Indian version, and from Pahlavi the Sasanian combination of the two. But to these influences Islamic astrology, though the work of Abu Ma'shar, an astrologer of the 9th century, added the Harranian adaptation of the Neopaltonic definition of the mode of astral influences in terms of Aristotelian physics. Abu Ma'shar further elaborated Sasanian astrological history and greatly expanded the number of lots that an astrologer had to take into consideration. Much attention was paid by the Muslims to catarchic and interrogatory astrology rapidly declined in its appeal to Muslim intellectuals after the Mongol invasions of the 13th century, though not before its influence had spread in India, the Latin West, and Byzantium. (Encyclopaedia Britannica) (9)
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Prague's astronomical clock:
The astronomical clock goes back to the 15th century. It is located in The Old Town Hall Tour in Prague. It started to be built in 1338 and finished in 1410. The clock consists of three main parts; the astronomical dial representing the position of the sun and the moon, calendar that has been added to the clock in 1870 representing the months and figures of the Apostles and other moving sculptures. The background represents the earth; the upper blue part is the sky above the horizon and the yellow and black part represent the sky below the horizon. "During the day time the sun site over the blue part, during the night it site over the black part and in dawn or dusk the position of the sun is over the yellow part."
As moving from inside to outside, first to meet is the black circle that represents the 12 zodiac signs. Then the background that have curved lines that divide the circle into 12 parts and 1/12 of these hours represent the different time between sunrise and sunset also in this background there is numbers written in Roman form and with gold. Finally a black edge that having numbers from 1 to 24 also written in gold. There is a small sun attached to a golden hand. This sun represents time in three different ways. First when the sun is over the outer black edge it gives Old Czech Time. Second when the sun is over the curved lines in
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the background it gives unequal hours. Finally when the sun is over the numbers written in Roman in the background it gives the current time in Prague.