2. In Babylonia the constellation was named Apin and it included Alamak (γ Andromedae):
Apin means Plough, and I suppose the fields (cfr 1-iku) had to be plowed at the beginning of the agricultural year - not only the fields down on earth but also the fields in the sky. This hard work should have been facilitated by a pair of water-buffaloes:
Remarkably, in the round reconstruction of the Babylonian zodiac a Plough constellation has been put not where Triangulum (Apin) can be expected but close to the north pole:
For some reasons the north pole seems to have been connected with the beginning of the year. But visualizing the sky roof as a kind of Chinese Mill (with a horizontal axle instead of a vertical) makes it easy to understand - also Polaris is close to 02h. Perhaps one Plough was close to the north pole and another (Apin) further down. Maybe this was a sign of the width of the enormous field the Bull of Heaven (Taurus) had to turn over, perhaps the whole sky from the tropic of Cancer to the polar circle. |
