Akhet

Akhet (plural Akhets)

1. (Egyptology) the region in the sky in which the sun tarries just before it rises or after it sets
   • 2000, James P. Allen, Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs, page 21:

     The concept of the Akhet was a practical explanation of why light fades gradually after sunset and appears gradually before sunrise, instead of disappearing and reappearing with the sun all at once.

   • 2006, Peter Robinson, “The Locational Significance of Scatological References in the Coffin Texts”, in Current Research in Egyptology 2006: Proceedings of the Seventh Annual Symposium, page 147:

     Within the tomb, indeed within the coffin, the ‘house of life’, the deceased lay facing the east and the world of the living, the Akhet, and the rising sun.

   • 2007, trans. James P. Allen, The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts, p.221:

     Recitation. The sky’s two reedfloats have been set by the Dayboat for the Sun, that the Sun might cross on them to where Horus of the Akhet is, to the Akhet.

   • 2008, Zahi A. Hawass, Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs, page 33:

     To the east and west were the akhets, or horizons — liminal zones in which the sun god and the dead king were prepared, either for rebirth into the upper world on the east or for successful entry into the other world on the west, the place of death and burial.

   • 2010, Pat Remler, Egyptian Mythology, A to Z, page 6:

     The heretic king Akhenaten believed the akhet appeared on the horizon to show him where to build Akhet-Aten, his new city in the desert… Amulets in the shape of the akhet represented Re the sun god and provided powerful protection to the wearer.

Akhet

1. (Egyptology) One of the three seasons of Ancient Egypt, coming after Shemu and before Peret; Inundation.
   • 2003, Koen Donker Van Heel, B. J. J Häring, Writing in a Workmen's Village: Scribal Practice in Ramesside Deir El-Medina:

     As Janssen noted, the information covering the first five days of III akhet is not quite the same in both ostraca.

   • 2003, The synchronisation of civilisations in the Eastern Mediterranean in the second millennium B.C. II: proceedings of the SCIEM 2000—EuroConference Haindorf, 2nd of May-7th of May 2001:

     The lunar month in question would have started on II Akhet 17.

   • 2009, Terry Deary, Egyptian Tales: The Plot on the Pyramid, page 5:

     I mean it’s the time of the year — Akhet. The time when the river rises.… Akhet brings us food.

   • 2013, Koenraad Donker van Heel, Djekhy & Son: Doing Business in Ancient Egypt:

     Favorite dates were the first month of the akhet season and the third month of the peret season.

   • 2014, Wendy Wallace, The Sacred River: A Novel:

     He was moving from Shemu to Akhet. But what had he harvested, in this last hard year?

• hekat