Fresco of sky goddess Nut arched over her brother, god of the earth Neb, held up by their father Shu.(De Agostini Picture Library via article https://www.newsweek.com/exciting-new-insight-ancient-egyptian-astronomy-mythology-1889076)

 

Life

Aganice or Athyra lived in Middle Kingdom Egypt in around 1900 BCE. She was the daughter or sister of King Sesostris. Little is known about her work except that she used celestial globes and her knowledge of constellations* to predict the future. ¹

* Constellations in the form of Western Zodiacs were not incorporated into Egyptian astronomy until the Hellenistic period (305 BCE)

 

Possible Work – Ancient Egyptian Divination

Among the many forms of astronomic divination, a major one – covered in over 35 astronomy papyri – is Sothis (Egyptian name for the star Sirius) divination, a form of fortune telling using the star’s positions during its annual heliacal risings. The earliest records of Sothis heliacal risings date back to the 25th century BCE, a few centuries before Aganice’s time, but there is only evidence for the use of Sothis as a fortune-telling tool from the New Kingdom (1550-1077 BCE) onwards. ² Aganice’s work with using the stars to predict the future may be a close predecessor to Sothis Divination.

 

Experience and Legacy as an Ancient Egyptian woman in Astronomy

Egyptian women of higher class had been educated in at least reading since 4 centuries before Aganice’s time, according to a source from the Fifth Dynasty. However, most records of women scientists at the time were doctors. Since the goddess Isis was celebrated as “the greatest of physicians”, women could attend medical schools, which are often exclusively female schools hosted in temples like the one in Saïs. ³

Since the invention of “Western science” like astronomy is generally attributed to the Greeks, Aganice is often confused with the Greek astronomer Aglaonike of Thessaly, who is not even from the same time period.  ⁴ There is also much debate about whether Ancient Egyptian cosmology originated from indigenous beliefs and practices or from Greek and Babylonian ones. 

 

Bibliography

Bernardi, Gabriella. 2016. “Aganice (XX Bc).” In The Unforgotten Sisters: Female Astronomers and Scientists before Caroline Herschel, by Gabriella Bernardi, 1st ed. Springer Science+Business Media. https://search.credoreference.com/articles/Qm9va0FydGljbGU6NDQ2MDI3Nw==?aid=99238.

Ogilvie, Marilyn B. Women in Science: Antiquity Through the Nineteenth Century : a Biographical Dictionary with Annotated Bibliography. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1986.

Schiødt, Sofie, Amber Jacob, and Kim Ryholt. Scientific Traditions in the Ancient Mediterranean and Near East: Joint Proceedings of the 1st and 2nd Scientific Papyri from Ancient Egypt International Conferences, May 2018, Copenhagen, and September 2019, New York. New York: NYU Press, 2023.