For you, Zopyrus, I have a golden chain; I have witnessed that you are the most faithful of friends; and we Egyptians are accustomed to place cords and bands in the hands of our lovely Hathor, the goddess of love and friendship, as symbols of her captivating and enchaining attributes.

As Darius has studied the wisdom of Egypt and the signs of the starry heavens, I beg him to take this circlet of gold, on which a skilful hand has traced the signs of the Zodiac.
[Diodorus (I.49.) tells, that in the tomb of Osymandyas (palace of Rameses II.

at Thebes) there lay a circle of gold, one ell thick and 365 ells in circumference, containing a complete astronomical calendar.

The circle of the zodiac from Dendera, which is now in Paris,--an astronomical ceiling painting, which was believed at the time of its discovery to be of great age, is not nearly so ancient as was supposed, dating only from the end of the Ptolemaic dynasty.
Letronne was the first to estimate it correctly.

See Lepsius, Chron.