Note 678 — Chapter VI · LUNAR CALENDARS AND THE WEEK

Herodotus (ii, 109) says explicitly that the Greeks learned from the Babylonians to divide the day into twelve parts. This statement agrees with the evidence from the cuneiform records, which show that it was the Babylonian custom to divide the nycthemeron, or cycle of night and day, into twelve kaspu, corresponding to two of our equinoctial hours. On the other hand the Egyptians from very early times were familiar with a division into twenty-four hours, twelve for the night and twelve for the natural day. It is not improbable, therefore, that the astrological use of the twenty-four hours was remotely derived from Egypt. On the entire subject of hour deities see W. Gundel, “Stundengötter,” Hessische Blätter für Volkskunde, 1913, xii, 100-131.