La distinta naturaleza del día y la noche en la antigüedad, y sus divisiones en horas

Abstract

In this article, I attempt to explain the religious differences between the day and the night because the ancients never understood both of them as a unit. I study the features of the day and especially the features of the night in several cultures of the Ancient World (Sumerian, Babylonian, Egyptian, Hebrew, Greek, Roman and Celtic). So, we can notice the day is always a moment of life while the night is often a moment of death and fear. For this reason, the day wasn’t divided into 24 hours; it was actually divided into 12 hours of darkness and 12 hours of daylight.