In Saturday a variant of hua poporo with 5 'droplets' appears:
One of the names of Saturn was 'Dripping Water' (in Hawaii according to Makemson), and at least some of the Polynesians regarded the planet to be a weather indicator. Trying to express 'Dripping Water' in Polynesian, I would say: Poporo. Why did the creator of Hb9-54 choose to illustrate a variant of hua poporo with 5 'droplets' instead of the normal 4? There are 5 planets (in addition to the special 'planets' sun and moon), and Saturn represents the dark 'new' phase after which a new week will arrive. Therefore Saturn could be the odd 5th 'droplet' at bottom, as if it was the 'nut' from which the new week will grow. The middle 'stem' looks like a canoe and it leans slightly backwards, possibly to indicate the week now ending (cfr Ca1-19). Wood is miro and wood comes from a tree. Furthermore, miro also means canoe. The text in Large St Petersburg Tablet has another variant of hua poporo in the parallel Pb11-103:
The glyphs are here partly destroyed, yet we can see 3 'droplets' instead of the normal 2 at the top. Presumably the bottom (destroyed) part had 2 'droplets'. |
