2. The type of glyph in Gb8-30 I have named puo:
I have counted its ordinal number 472 from Gb8-30 in order to reach a time cycle covering 16 synodical lunar months:
This is longer than a year, but it can be explained in various ways. For instance is it possible that the Moon 'year' which corresponded to the Sun year was based on number 20, because both the Gilbertese Polynesians and the Mayas counted their months as 20 nights. A vigesimal system is convenient when the climate allows you to count both on toes and fingers. A 'greater month' (a 'year') would then be 20 * 20 = 400 days long, although the Mayas made an exception from their vigesimal time system in order to define their Sun year as 18 * 20 + 5 = 365 days long. 16 can similarly be regarded as a 'compromise' between 12 months and 20 months, a number which lies halfway between the short Sun year with 12 months and the Moon year with 20 months. Sun has only '1 limb' and by counting the year as 16 months it will cover also the 'night' (winter). The 'day' ('summer year') could then be counted as 12 * 20 = 240 days and the 'night' ('winter year') as (16 - 12) * 20 = 120 days, resulting in a standardized Sun year with 240 + 120 = 360 days. This kind of year is supported by evidence in the text of G. From this perspective we can imagine the glyph in Gb8-30 to illustrate the 'compromise' between the year of Sun and the year of Moon. There are 2 oval components but they are fused into a single entity, a year with 16 synodic lunar months. A rounded form (circle, oval, etc) was probably used for a time cycle, we can assume from the reasoning above and what we can read in Martin P. Nilsson's Primitive Time-Reckoning: ... Among the Nahyssan of S. Carolina time was measured and a rude chronology arranged by means of strings of leather with knots of various colour, like the Peruvian quipos. The Dakota use a circle as the symbol of time, a smaller one for a year and a larger one for a longer period: the circles are arranged in rows, thus: OOO or O-O-O. The Pima of Arizona make use of a tally. The year-mark is a deep notch across the stick ... The word puo means to be covered up (as by a blanket or by earth):
Given the role of Saturn as the important generator of a new fire at the beginning of the year we can expect time to begin in total darkness, just as if the whole world had been covered up (puo). At the very end of the text on the back side of the G tablet puo is a reasonable interpretation of the glyph. Saturn, who owns the fire, will in just a moment remove the 'black cloth' of death. I need to use the old pictorial mythical language in order to reach the meaning of the glyphs - they too are pictorial. That which is covered up (hilled up) evidently is the 'head' of the time cycle (an oval form). The beginning of time is its 'head' (or its 'egg' etc): ... According to an etiological Hawaiian myth, the breadfruit originated from the sacrifice of the war god Ku. After deciding to live secretly among mortals as a farmer, Ku married and had children. He and his family lived happily until a famine seized their island. When he could no longer bear to watch his children suffer, Ku told his wife that he could deliver them from starvation, but to do so he would have to leave them. Reluctantly, she agreed, and at her word, Ku descended into the ground right where he had stood until only the top of his head was visible. His family waited around the spot he had last been, day and night watering it with their tears until suddenly a small green shoot appeared where Ku had stood. Quickly, the shoot grew into a tall and leafy tree that was laden with heavy breadfruits that Ku's family and neighbours gratefully ate, joyfully saved from starvation ... Ku left his family - just as Old Sun of the past year should do at winter solstice - in order to save his children from further hunger. I.e. by leaving his family he made room for a new Sun ('Son') who could generate the necessary new greenery (uri). He returned to save them in form of a new Tree of Life (breadfruit, kuru) which grew from his head. Ku covered himself up (puo), hid himself, in order to be able to come back revitalized. Old fires must be stamped out before a new fire (life) can be alighted (can grow): ... Behold what was done when the years were bound - when was reached the time when they were to draw the new fire, when now its count was accomplished. First they put out fires everywhere in the country round. And the statues, hewn in either wood or stone, kept in each man's home and regarded as gods, were all cast into the water. Also (were) these (cast away) - the pestles and the (three) hearth stones (upon which the cooking pots rested); and everywhere there was much sweeping - there was sweeping very clear. Rubbish was thrown out; none lay in any of the houses ... (Anthony F. Aveni, Skywatchers.) Saturn is the dark planet, the oldest of them, moving only feebly and suitable for impersonating the end of the Sun year. However, his importance is due to his capacity of generating a new fire, a new Sun cycle. Therefore it is reasonable to have him at the beginning (the 'alpha' position) of the year (and also at the beginning of the week) rather than at the end ('omega') The Polynesians had some difficulty in distinguishing between Saturn and Jupiter, which - I guess - probably was due to Jupiter as the planet representing 'omega', the end of the rule of Old Sun (like Ku when he decided to give up his life to save his children), whereas Saturn stood for 'alpha' the following darkness in which new life was 'ignited'. The new life was 'Jupiter' (literally 'Father Sun') returning as a little child.(the Son).
In Gb8-30 we can count 8 * 30 = 240 as a possible sign for the beginning of a new summer, a new season of plenty lying 'ahead'. In short we can defined the meaning of puo as follows:
The double ovals are united because they are the same, the old cycle and the new cycle are the same, just a repetition. Jupiter, the 'old calabash', will return anew in the form of his son. Popol Vuh explains it pregnantly: ... The state of the tree loomed large in their thoughts, because it came about at the same time the head of One Hunaphu was put in the fork. The Xibalbans said among themselves: 'No one is to pick the fruit, nor is anyone to go beneath the tree', they said. They restricted themselves, all of Xibalba held back. It isn't clear which is the head of One Hunaphu; now it's exactly the same as the fruit of the tree. Calabash came to be its name, and much was said about it. A maiden heard about it, and here we shall tell of her arrival. And here is the account of a maiden, the daughter of a lord named Blood Gatherer. And this is when a maiden heard of it, the daughter of a lord. Blood Gatherer is the name of her father, and Blood Moon is the name of the maiden. And when he heard the account of the fruit of the tree, her father retold it. And she was amazed at the account: I'm not acquainted with that tree they talk about. It's fruit is truly sweet! they say, I hear, she said. Next, she went all alone and arrived where the tree stood. It stood at the Place of Ball Game Sacrifice. What? Well! What's the fruit of this tree? Shouldn't this tree bear something sweet? They shouldn't die, they shouldn't be wasted. Should I pick one? said the maiden. And then the bone spoke; it was there in the fork of the tree: Why do you want a mere bone, a round thing in the branches of a tree? said the head of One Hunaphu when it spoke to the maiden. You don't want it, she was told. I do want it, said the maiden. Very well. Stretch out your right hand here, so I can see it, said the bone. Yes, said the maiden. She stretched out her right hand, up there in front of the bone. And then the bone spit out its saliva, which landed squarely in the hand of the maiden. And then she looked in her hand, she inspected it right away, but the bone's saliva wasn't in her hand. It is just a sign I have given you, my saliva, my spittle. This, my head, has nothing on it - just bone, nothing of meat. It's just the same with the head of a great lord: it's just the flesh that makes his face look good. And when he dies, people get frightened by his bones. After that, his son is like his saliva, his spittle, in his being, whether it be the son of a lord or the son of a craftsman, an orator. The father does not disappear, but goes on being fulfilled. Neither dimmed nor destroyed is the face of a lord, a warrior, craftsman, an orator. Rather, he will leave his daughters and sons. So it is that I have done likewise through you. Now go up there on the face of the earth; you will not die. Keep the word. So be it, said the head of One and Seven Hunaphu - they were of one mind when they did it ... Often I have used the words of Metoro (when he read the texts A, B, C, and E, for Bishop Jaussen) in order to put names on my glyph types, but here I have not relied fully on him. It is, however, instructive to see where Metoro said puo. In all he mentioned puo 14 times:
Only Aa6-21 is a variant of puo. The other glyphs apparently indicate a completed time cycle (e.g. Rogo in Bb12-2 and Eb7-1) or a dark time (mea ke):
We can also look at the reverse picture, viz. what words he used when he saw glyphs of the type which I have named puo:
Ipu (cfr Aa2-72) is the Tahitian word for gourd (hipu) and henua (cfr Ab2-66) is earth. Hua ('fruit') means offspring in general. Also the other words seem to point at a common denominator, which I interpret as the dark time when earth is covered as by a blanket awaiting the rebirth of spring. If I had not already used hua ('son') as the name for another glyph type I could have used it for puo:
Therefore there is hardly any compelling reason to understand puo in Gb8-30 as an attempt to illustrate a 'compromise' between a 12-month long year of Sun and a 20-month long year of Moon. The pair of oval components are presumably instead fused into a single entity because the new 'year' is the same as the old, a repetition in the 'Son' (hua) of the 'Father' (the 'bone' according to Popol Vuh). |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
