3. Allen: "Pavo, the Peacock, lying south of Sagittarius and the Southern Crown, is one of Bayer's twelve [southern new] constellations, and the Italian Pavone, the French Paon, the German Pfau. ["Pavo is a constellation in the southern sky. Its name is Latin for peacock. It is one of twelve constellations created by Petrus Plancius from the observations of Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman and it first appeared on a 35-cm diameter celestial globe published in 1597 (or 1598) in Amsterdam by Plancius with Jodocus Hondius. The first depiction of this constellation in a celestial atlas was in Johann Bayer's Uranometria of 1603." (Wikipedia)] The title is an appropriate one for enduring stars, as this bird has long been a symbol of immortality, fancifully said to be from the annual renewal 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. [Enduring stars, as Allen says, probably refers to the fact that circumpolar stars never sets (nor ever are born). Thus they were immortal.] 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, where he has since rejoined her. In China the constellation was Joo Tseo, their translation of our word." The builder of the Ship - this idea was presumably embedded in the myth about Taetagaloa: (cfr at Time Travel): ... The child nursed and tended grows up, is able to go and play. Each day he now goes off a bit further away, moving some distance away from the house, and then returns to their house. So it goes on and the child is fully grown and goes to play far away from the place where they live. He goes over to where some work is being done by a father and son. Likāvaka is the name of the father - a canoe-builder, while his son is Kuikava. Taetagaloa goes right over there and steps forward to the stern of the canoe saying - his words are these: 'The canoe is crooked.' (kalo ki ama). Instantly Likāvaka is enraged at the words of the child. Likāvaka says: 'Who the hell are you to come and tell me that the canoe is crooked?' Taetagaloa replies: 'Come and stand over here and see that the canoe is crooked.' Likāvaka goes over and stands right at the place Taetagaloa told him to at the stern of the canoe. Looking forward, Taetagaloa is right, the canoe is crooked. He slices through all the lashings of the canoe to straighten the timbers. He realigns the timbers. First he must again position the supports, then place the timbers correctly in them, but Kuikava the son of Likāvaka goes over and stands upon one support. His father Likāvaka rushes right over and strikes his son Kuikava with his adze. Thus Kuikava dies. Taetagaloa goes over at once and brings the son of Likāvaka, Kuikava, back to life. Then he again aligns the supports correctly and helps Likāvaka in building the canoe. Working working it is finished ... You need sharp eyes in order to see what is straight and what is crooked. You need to be sharp as a knife. There once was a primordial giant by name of Argus Panoptes ('all-seeing'), Taetagaloa is Sun: "The epithet Panoptes was applied to the Titan of the Sun, Helios ..." (Wikipedia) Sun is reborn in the morning ('at the Reef') and then grows up to be stronger and stronger. When fully grown he encounters a ship under construction. The intention certainly is to make a sea voyage. The natural place for such an event must be somewhere beyond 'noon', when Sun becomes fully grown. Although the stars are moving ahead in the year according to the order dictated by precession Nunki will forever define where the old land is ending:
To realign the 'timbers' of the 'Ship' ought to mean to adjust them so as to be correctly reflecting the current right ascension lines in the sky. Kuikava stood on a support and therefore had to be killed. I guess the heliacal rising of the star Al Baldah ('Balder') could be where Kuikava was brought back to life (24 weeks before the next solstice). Kava has the potential to first kill and then to revive: ... For when the ruler drinks the sacred offering, he is in the state of intoxication Fijians call 'dead from' (mateni) or 'dead from kava' (mate ni yaqona), to recover from which is explicitly 'to live' (bula). This accounts for the second cup the chief is alone accorded, the cup of fresh water. The god is immediately revived, brought again to life - in a transformed state ... |
