4. We must leave Peacock in order to move on with Atlas. But let us conclude by stating that the creator of the G text evidently has seen some connection between the end of side b and its beginning, because the 6 'egg-headed' manu rere (the first of which stands in position 2 * 230 = 460) have their tails drawn down in front and they are therefore in 'opposition' to the single one in Gb1-12 who has its tail open in front:
My conjecture is that Gb1-12 is meant to coincide with α Pavonis. Counting from Gb8-22 (464) to Gb1-12 (242) there are 8 + 242 = 250 glyphs:
The peacock is a symbol for the opposite of total darkness, viz. a creature who has been created for visual display and who is 'all eyes'. Allen: "... this bird has long been a symbol of immortality, fancifully said to be from the annual renewing of its feathers; but this is common to all birds, and the symbolism probably is from the fact that its starry tail rendered the peacock sacred to Juno, the immortal queen of the heavens, and thus in classical times, as in the days of chivalry, an object of adjuration. This bird was still further astronomical in originally having been Argos, the builder of the ship Argo, who was changed by Juno to a peacock when his vessel was transferred to the sky ..." My model for translating the right ascension positions of stars to glyphs in the G text clearly is basically correct, although there still are details to be worked out. And we can suspect the star which was 'struck by lightning' is related to Peacock: ... Celaeno, or Celeno, has been called the Lost Pleiad, which Theon the Younger said was struck by lightning! |