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TRANSLATIONS
The 'child' position is nowadays defined by new year in midwinter. So say both the Maya and the rongorongo writers. Anciently, though, when the old year was ending at Marotiri, the new year child was born around spring equinox (I guess). North of the equator the same constellation (somewhere around Scorpio) indicated autumn equinox, a time when the summer year was 'bound to die'. South of the equator it was the winter year which was dying around spring equinox, north of the equator it was the summer year who was 'finished'. This system of ideas, this imagined structure, finds support from the fact that the 'vanished' 13th zodiacal constellation (Ophiuchus vel Serpentarius) is located immediately beyond Scorpio: "Although this is not one of the zodiacal twelve, Mr. Royal Hill writes: Out of the twenty-five days, from the 21st of November to the 16th of December, which the sun spends in passing from Libra to Sagittarius, only nine are spent in the Scorpion, the other sixteen being occupied in passing through Ophiuchus." (Allen) The balance (between summer and winter forces) in Libra, will be tipping over in Scorpio when the stinger will cause the death of summer sun. A vacant period arrives, and somewhat later a little child sun is waiting for his turn:  He has not yet earned a 'throne' to sit and rule on. But his long fingers are filled with promise. The serpent in this primal constellation apparently refers to the winter half of the year: "The figure also was associated with Caecius, the Blinding One, slain by Hercules and celebrated by Dante in the Inferno; indeed, it is said that the Hero himself was assigned to these stars by Hyginus, and gave them his name: a confusion that may have arisen because the boundaries between the two stellar groups were at first ill defined, or from the similarity of their original myths to that of Izhdubar and the dragon Tiamat." (Allen) Tiamat was cut in two by the spring sun god Marduk. The snake was negative north of the equator, probably symbolizing the absence of light and the threat of death. South of the equator, as in Polynesia, the serpent reasonably became a positive image connected with the arrival of summer. It aquired feathers. Strangely also the Mesoamerican culture had the flying snake. Influence from somewhere south of the equator must have been the reason. Similarly, in ancient Egypt where the serpent was a positive symbol, influence from the region south of Upper Egypt probably was the cause. On Easter Island the negative animal became the horse-fly, a creature with a bite that hurts. The vanished 13th sign comes after Scorpius, and consequently Hanga Takaure ought to arrive immediately after Ana-mua:
The creator of G used both the old system with summer and winter (half)years and the new system with a beginning in midwinter. |
