5. We can remember how the 'Woman in Chains' (Andromeda) was secured to a rock and that α Andromedae is the same star as β Pegasi. Now we have another such instance, when a star is shared by two constellations:
... Possibly its 'marine' character came from its location at the end of the River, and from its being given in the various editions of the Syntaxis and in the Alfonsine Tables as common to both constellations ...
The idea could be to define a star which stood with 'one foot in the past and one in the future' so to say. If I am right, then Rigel should be of importance for determining the correct timing of the seasons and we ought to find some sign of it in the G text. Let us therefore incorporate also Rigel in our investigation of the stars of Eridanus:
My guess is that Rigel marks a cardinal point in time-space, and this conjecture is strengthened by 14 as the ordinal number of the corresponding glyph in the line and by how Ga1-15--16 evidently are located at the beginning of 280 days:
Gb3-5 is glyph number 66 on side b, which becomes 130 if we add 64 (because 360 = 64 + 230 + 66). Gb3-4 is glyph number 767 (= 472 + 295) which (of course) is equal to 2 * 383½. Toliman is another 'foot star' and we have earlier noted a possible connection with Sirius and Spica (cfr e.g. at Ana-roto):
630.2 - 472 = 158.2 and glyph number 158 (in the 25th henua period) is another hanau glyph, though here with a maro (final) sign in front:
158 + 64 = 222 could be a hint that the hanau ('birth') type of glyph coincides with stars signifying birth:
And we can in Ga6-19 see a resemblance with a special kind of hanau bird at the beginning of the 3rd hour:
Alamak is γ Andromedae and the position is her left foot:
The connection with ostriches is confirmed by Allen (but see also at Alamak): "Muhammād al Achsasi al Muwakkit designated γ as Al Hāmis al Na'āmāt, his editor translating this Quinta Struthionum, the 5th one of the Ostriches ..." (Allen) The distance from Alamak to Rigel is 487.1 - 438.7 = 48.4 days, possibly an allusion to glyph number 484:
But we must count more precisely to be sure:
Thus it seems probable that they counted in minutes, because 191.64 is close to 192. 192 / 4 = 48 and this number probably is alluding to the number of constellations: "Centaurus ... is a bright constellation in the southern sky. One of the largest constellations, Centaurus was included among the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy, and it remains one of the 88 modern constellations ..." (Wikipedia) 24 right ascension hours for a full cycle will give 24 * 60 / 48 = 30 minutes (half an hour) for each constellation if they are distributed evenly. In order to increase 48 to 88 constellations we have to add 40, and 24 * 60 / 40 = 36 minutes. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
