4. The most interesting of these Virgin stars is Syrma (ι), located at a tamaiti and rising heliacally in the 1st of the 5 days from 295 to 300:
Wikipedia: "Iota ... is the ninth letter of the Greek alphabet. It was derived from the Phoenician letter Yodh
In the system of Greek numerals iota has a value of 10 ... Yodh is thought to have originated with a pictograph of a hand, ultimately deriving from Proto-Semitic *yad-. It may be related to the Egyptian hieroglyphic of an arm:
It is hard to avoid thinking of the 'grasping hand' at the horizon in the west. Allen: "Syrma is from Σύρμα, used by Ptolemy to designate this star on the Train of the Virgin's robe. With κ and φ it was mentioned in the first Arabian translation of the Syntaxis as being in the h.imār, or 'skirt', of the garment; but the translator of the Latin edition of 1515, missing the point at the first letter, read the word as himār, 'an ass', so that this central one of these three stars strangely appears in that work as in asino. They formed the 13th manzil, Al Ghafr, the Covering, as Smyth explains, because the beauty of the earth is hidden, when they rise on the 18th Tishrīn, or 1st of November; others say on account of the shining of the stars being lessened as if covered; but Kazwini, because, when they rise, the earth robes herself in her splendour and finery, - her summer robes. The word, however, is analogous to Σύρμα, and so may have been taken from Ptolemy; although Al Bīrūnī quoted from Al Zajjāj Al Ghafar, the Tuft in the Lion's tail, which it may have marked in the figure of the ancient Asad. Another signification of the word Ghafr is the 'Young Ibex'. [Here I just have to insert the 'chessplayers':]
Al Bīrūnī also said that the Arabs considered this the most fortunate of their lunar mansions, as lying between the evils of the Lion's teeth [conspiciously missing in the picture above] and claws on one side and the tail and venom of the Scorpion on the other, and quoted from a Rajaz poet: The best night forever lies between Al Zubāna and Al Asad; adding that the horoscope of the Prophet lay here, and that the date of the birth of Moses coincided with it. As a lunar station these stars were the Sogdian Sarwa and the Khorasmian Shushak, the Leader; the Persian Hucru, the Good Goer; and the Coptic Khambalia, [also the name of the star λ] Crooked-clawed, λ being substituted for φ; and it is said that they were the Akkadian Lu Lim the He Goat, Gazelle, or Stag, the original perhaps meaning 'King' and employed for δ. ι alone, according to Hommel, was the Death Star, Mulu Bat." |
