The 'nut'-sign certainly also can be read as 'eye' and
therefore the reading atua-mata-tahi is
plausible. But Barthel's idea about a figure without
legs being an idol should - I think - imply
that we alternatively could read tiki (image, idol: picture of a
god), and not atua (birdlike being: god). Birds
have legs. I am not convinced that Saturn is atua-mata-tahi. It is more reasonable to think of Sirius, because 'saw very straight' could mean its intense staring 'eye'. Old Saturn's 'eye' is weak and he is 'nearly blind'. Nordic mythology: "Beside the second root [of the world tree], which penetrated the land of giants, covered with frost and ice, flowed the fountain of Mimir, in which all wisdom dwelt and from which Odin himself desired to drink even though the price demanded for a few draughts was the loss of an eye." (Larousse)
|