Asteras Eipein: An Archaic View of the Constellations from Halai (original) (raw)
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MYTHOLOGICAL ORIGIN OF CONSTELLATIONS AND THEIR DESCRIPTION: ARATUS, PSEUDO-ERATOSTHENES, HYGINUS
Publications of Astronomical Society "Rudjer Bošković", 2020
Didactic poem, Phaenomenа writen by Aratus of Soli, Catasterismi (Καταστερισμοί) the only surviving scripture associated before with Eratosthenes of Cyrene and De Astronomica, also known as Poeticon Astronomicon, attributed earlier to the Roman historian Gaius Julius Hyginus, and their translation to Serbian, have been considered.
The origins of ‘Western’ constellations
The development of the 48 Greek constellations is analyzed as a complex mixture of cognitive layers deriving from different cultural traditions and dating back to different epochs. The analysis begins with a discussion of the zodiacal constellations, goes on to discuss the stellar lore in Homer and Hesiod, and then examines several theories concerning the origins of the southern non-zodiacal constellations. It concludes with a commentary concerning the age and possible cultural significance of stars of the Great Bear constellation in light of ethnohistorical documentation, folklore, and beliefs related to European bear ceremonialism.
In exploring the figures of the constellations on the celestial globe held by the so-called 'Farnese Atlas', this article reflects upon Ptolemy's comment that '…in many cases our descriptions [of the constellations] are different because they seem to be more natural and to give a better proportioned outline to the figures described'. 1 It suggests that, whereas most scholars writing on the history of constellation imagery tend to focus on two areas to support their findings-scientific data gleaned from early descriptions and depictions of the stars and iconographical details derived from Graeco-Roman mythology -more attention should be paid to the largely independent pictorial tradition that also helped to shape the heavens. By examining a wide range of visual sources, such as Greek vase painting, coins and sculptural reliefs, one can conclude that, in many cases, the role of the artist is neither as an inventor nor as a scientific draughtsman, but as a torch-bearer for the continuity of a specific set of widely accepted pictorial formulae. Working from this, I tentatively propose a new avenue of exploration for the mysterious grid-like figure on the Farnese Globe, often misidentified as the 'Throne of Caesar'.
How Cuneiform Puns Inspired Some of the Bizarre Greek Constellations and Asterisms
2016
Many of the Greek constellations catalogued in Claudius Ptolemy's mid-second century Almagest originated in Mesopotamia. Yet numerous other Greek constellations and asterisms do not correspond to Mesopotamian prototypes, and simultaneously display bizarre or incongruous features. This is especially apparent in Pegasus, a winged Horse severed at the navel; Crater, the "Wine-Bowl" stationed upon the back of Hydra, the "Water-Snake"; Cancer, a "Crab" that carries a "Manger" and "Donkeys" upon its shell; and Argo, the "Swift" Ship that sails backwards through the night sky without a prow. Because the aforementioned star-figures cannot be traced to Mesopotamian originals most historians of astronomy have assumed they are either indigenous Greek inventions or the creations of seafaring civilization that had direct contact with Greece. This article presents seminal research that offers a more elegant possibility, namely, that the origin of the aforementioned constellations and asterisms was indeed Mesopotamia, and can be traced to arcane precepts that informed the astronomers of that land. Cuneiform texts confirm that Mesopotamian astronomers were literally "writers" who envisioned the starry sky as "heavenly writing" that divulged inviolable truth through the medium of wordplay. In Mesopotamia the Pegasus Square was known as the "Field," and puns encrypted in its cuneiform spellings divulged that the Field be "changed into" a "flying horse severed at the navel"; wordplay in Hydra's cuneiform title disclosed that a "wine-bowl" be "placed upon the back of the "water-snake"; double entendre in Cancer's cuneiform appellative imparted that a "manger" and "two donkeys" be "placed between the shoulders of the crab"; and punning in the Mesopotamian prototype for Argo divulged that these stars were a "divine ship named 'Swift'" which had its "prow cut off" and sailed "backward" through the southern sky. Circumstantial evidence implies that the Mesopotamian perception of the stars as a divine "text" that divulged enlightenment via puns had been transmitted directly to the Hellenic world at the inception of Greek alphabetic writing in the mid-eighth century BC. And it was this Mesopotamian celestial wisdom that inspired Greek astronomer-poets to reconfigure the preceding star-figures into the irrational images described by the puns.
The Celestial River: Identifying the Ancient Egyptian Constellations
Sino-Platonic Papers, 2014
WHILE the descriptions of many of the Greek constellations found in the works of Eudoxus (366 BC) and in The Phaenomena of Aratus (275 BC) may have originated from an Assyrian source circa 1100 BC (Schaeffer, 2006), many of the Greek constellations do not have a clear Mesopotamian precedent (Rogers, 1998b). They may have been created around 2800 BC (±300 years) (Ovenden, 1966) by a culture of “navigators” that could determine the cardinal directions by observing the circumpolar constellations (Rogers, 1998b). Due to the paucity of reliable astronomical data on the constellations of ancient Egypt (V. L. Davis), there is no consensus on their identity (DeYoung, 2000). This paper proposes that a new opportunity has arisen for deciphering the ancient Egyptian night sky, based on parallels between the iconography of the list of nomes, or administrative districts of Egypt, and the classical constellations visible in Egypt circa 3100 BC. This astronomical study of the night sky in ancient ...
Macedonian Folk Constellations
2008
Ethno-astronomical researches started to be performed on the territory of the Republic of Macedonia in 1982 and since then they are constantly carried out. Information gathered directly from the elderly inhabitants of around 130 villages all over the country, enlighten the folk presentation of sky, division of the stars and constellations, but also provided a vast scope of myths, beliefs and rituals linked to the sky, stars, and constellations. More in-depth analyses of the gathered data lead to the reconstruction of the ancient stars map of the Macedonian people. Due to the fact that in the past people recognized only two seasons, most of the stars and constellations are presented on the so-called winter and summer sky. People were also familiar with the part of the sky around the Polaris and knew about the constellations that did not rise and set, but are special part of the folk sky map. The mentioned study provides a comparative analysis of the folk constellations known among the Macedonian people and folk constellations know among the others, mos tly neighbouring people living on the Balkan Peninsula.
The Constellations of the Egyptian Astronomical Diagrams Gyula Priskin
2019
Representations of how the ancient Egyptians saw the sky have come down to us in the form of astronomical diagrams that are known from tombs, memorial temples, water clocks, and coffins. An emphatic element of these catalogues of celestial phenomena, comprising both textual and visual information, was the drawings of constellations. They appeared in two groups in the southern and northern panels of the astronomical diagrams. Two different strands of tradition existed about the northern constellations, exemplified by the astronomical diagrams in the tombs of Senenmut and Seti I. Based on the analysis of the arrangement of the constellation figures within these documents, and through the examination of a wide range of relevant sources, the paper – using the principle of visual resemblance and the help of planetarium software – identifies the star patterns in the sky from which the ancient Egyptian constellations were derived. ENiM – Une revue d’égyptologie sur internet. http://www.eni...
The Unbelievable Stories of Palaiphatos and the Etymology of Orion or Urion
Ancient stories may interpret the etymology of “URION“ as the early version of “Orion”. A chapter titled “Orion” in the original versions of Palaiphatos, On Unbelievable Stories, describe this remarkable etymology, which is based on a hunter, whose birth is initiated by impregnating a bull-hide with three gods' urine. Orion's name is derived from the ancient Greek word oros "mountain" or from ourios "URINE". This story may be found in Hyginus Fabulae 195 & Astr 2.34, Ovid Fasti 5.493, Servius ad Aeneid 10.763, Nonnus Dionysiaca 13.96)2. The abundantly spread story may be based on three pentagrams “URION“ (the hunter Orion), "URINE" (the semen) and the bull “BISON” or “WISENT”. Orion may be the most important prominent constellation located on the celestial equator and visible throughout the world. Orion is found as a chapter in the original Greek version of Palaiphatos, On Unbelievable Stories (Παλαίφατος - Περὶ ἀπίστων). The collection of 52 unbelievable stories may help us to find a etymological rule, which may explain a number of etymologies in archaic legends. In the chapters of On Incredible Tales (Palaiphatos) we may identify a number of powerful animals as the bison, lion, bear, bull, horse, lynx and various monsters. The Centaurs may be interpreted as “cowboys”, who are riding horses, but are hunting “bulls” (the “taurus” in Centaurs). The documented overview of the powerful animals (bison, wisent, horses and cows) and pentagrams Thebes (ΘΉΒΑΙΣ), WISENT, BISON, MINOS, CETUS, SKÚLLA, URION, URINE are identified in the chapters of On Incredible Tales (Palaiphatos).
2020
Since the time of their appearance on the Earth, humans have been interested in the cosmos and the discovery of the secrets of the sky. The emergence of Islam and the tendency of the Islamic Khalifas towards the science of astronomy and astrology led to the growth and development of this branch of natural sciences, especially between the 3rd and 9th centuries AH. In the present study, astronomical concepts and beliefs in the Islamic era have been identified and extracted in order to compare them with the astronomical motifs of the two illustrated versions of Book of Fixed Stars (820 AH) by Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi, the original version of which belongs to the 4th century AH and Nativities (700 AH) by Abu Ma'shar Balkhi. The present research aimed to find out how the components of astrology and constellations are depicted in the two illustrated versions of Nativities (700 AH) and Book of Fixed Stars (9th century AH) and whether the images of the Nativities were influenced by the ref...