TRANSLATIONS

next page previous page up home

Next pages:

 

3. I am now pleased to be able to present a picture of the eye which Kjellson had seen in the redmarked circle above the higher of the two fishes in Pisces:

(The source is the internet page which I have labelled Dendera Zodiac among my references.)

Although the drawing is crude we can clearly see that this great eye is a wedjat, and because it is a right eye it should refer to the Sun (the left eye being the Moon). Kjellson would then be wrong, it is probably not a sign of the Moon:

The curious 'scroll' sign at bottom  (left for the Sun) could represent the 'whirlpool' from where Sun ascends rather than the 'tear-line' of the cheetah which Wilkinson suggests as an explanation:

Though in sign language redundance is necessary, and the fastest runner is a good image for spring, escpecially if his eye has left a track moving upwards. Wilkinson also refers to the 'stars' on the fur of the quick cat.

With a Sun child (Harpokrates) immediately above Libra and a wedjat Sun eye immediately above Pisces there obviously must be a connection. Both are inscribed in circles and both are at equinoctial signs.

The upper eyelid is in this wedjat prominently drawn and somewhat overshadowing the eye, and I guess it represents the 'opening eyelid' at spring equinox.

The Sun child at Libra could mean that a new Sun has been born there (at the beginning of winter). Counting by the Sun (clockwise) and beginning with Libra we can see that Pisces is the 6th sign of those blackmarked by Kjellson.

Cancer is number 10. Presumably it means that Sun has 10 months. Then comes Leo which has been uplifted into the sky:

If pare occurs in the location of wedjat, then we should be able to count 4 months further on to Cancer, where Sun should be turned upside down - his 10 months having come to an end according to the 'hour-glass' model (when all his 'fingers' are used up).

We should also expect to find some trace of the halfway mark to 10 (X is formed like 2 hands), and this halfway station would come 1 month earlier than pare. Maybe this is the reason for Aquarius with his two pitchers. Following the path dictated by Moon a dark flood will then reign until Sagittarius stops up the flow and raises the tree by shooting his 'arrow' into the 'hole'. The separation of Sky from Earth at Pisces could then be the cause which created the flood - Moon wishing to revert the situation equally well as the Sun with his tears.

There is a rectangular water reservoir in the center of Pisces. With Sun (Sky) represented by wedjat at the higher of the fishes we can expect 'Water' to be at the lower of the fishes. I have guessed there is a little hippopotamus in the lower of the two circles, a creature which most of the time is down in the water.

 

 

My pare prototype is Pa3-3 and the parallel pare glyphs in H and Q are rather different, expecially the Q pare:

Ha3-11 (119) Pa3-3 (115) *Qa2-40 (63)

*Qa2-40 has only 1 great 'eye hole', and the 'flames' appear to be more like crescents. The single 'thread' at top left seems to be the aberrant 'odd' one in the formula 3 + 1 = 4.

Maybe the single mata in *Qa2-40 is in some way reflecting the fact that Q has no place for a 2nd pare in parallel with those in H and P:

-
Ha10-31 Pa10-1

The missing pare in Q could maybe have been the first glyph on side b if space on the tablet had allowed it:

Ha10-30 Ha10-31 Ha10-32 Ha10-33
Ha10-34 Ha10-35 Ha10-36 Ha10-37
Pa9-42 Pa10-1 Pa10-2 Pa10-3
Pa10-4 Pa10-5 Pa10-6 Pa10-7
-
Qb1-1 Qb1-2 Qb1-3

Day numbers and other circumstances regarding these pare glyphs will be discussed further in a series of pages. We will begin with the Q text.

 

 

There seems to be no end to what the creative minds of those who painstakingly carved the rongorongo texts were able to figure out. But my own imagination can also play tricks on me. It is difficult to know which is which:

The missing pare, so to say, in the Q text could have been *Qa9-46 if there had been room enough at the end of line Qa9. Maybe, though, it is Qa9-43 which corresponds to pare in Pa10-1:

Qa9-39 Qa9-40 Qa9-41 Qa9-42 Qa9-43 Qa9-44 Qa9-45
Pa9-42 Pa10-1 Pa10-2 Pa10-3

Numbers are not arbitrary and they were used for clues. A haati sign (cfr Qa9-43) probably means 'going away', which we can imagine also the fading shape of pare in Pa10-1 is illustrating. Pa10-1 could have been Pa9-43 if there had been room enough at the end of line Pa9.

We can therefore regard haati as a sign chosen (for some so far unknown reason) by the creator of Q instead of a fading pare. Neither H nor P has any haati at this place.

The day distance between pare and haati:

318
*Qa2-40 (63) *Qa2-41 Qa9-41 Qa9-42 Qa9-43 (385) Qa9-44

Haati in Qa9-43 is glyph number 385 counted from *Qa1-1. Its number has been chosen (of that I am quite sure) from counting 13 * 29.5 = 383½. Beyond Qa9-42 (384) the old Sun year (as measured by the moon) has gone away. Which explains haati.

If we instead count with 2 glyphs per day and then add 64 days, *Qa2-40--41 will be in day 64 / 2 + 64 = 96, which - by the way - is a good number for visualizing the turning around of Sun at a solstice. 9 upside down becomes 6, yet 96 remains 96 also after the turn. After Sun has changed his direction at a solstice he is no different. He has a single face, not 2 as the Moon.

Qa9-41--42 will represent day number 384 / 2 + 64 = 192 + 64 = 4 * 64 = 256 (= 96 + 160).

256 could signify the last day of 8 * 32 for the Sun. And 160 (= 256 - 96) can be read as 8 * 20, i.e. 8 months in which only 20 nights per month are counted. From this perspective 96 will be equal to 8 * 12. There are 16 kuhane stations in 472 days, presumably half of them (8) for each 'face' of Moon (waxing respectively waning). 256 = 8 * 32 can serve as a representation of the season of waxing.

256 is also equal to 16 * 16, which should be considered as an alternative reading, because there are 320 / 2 = 160 days between pare and haati. Here 96 will be 6 * 16, as if it was the beginning of the sequence 6, 16, 26, 36, and 46, which also describes increase (in 5 steps).

Numerical evidence can thus be interpreted to say for instance that pare in *Qa2-40 identifies the end of winter and the return of Sun in spring and that haati identifies the first day after Sun has left for his winter maid.

The surrounding glyphs must however be considered, before we can make any proper judgment of the meaning of the text and pare in *Qa2-40.

 
Qa9-39 Qa9-40 Qa9-41 Qa9-42 Qa9-43 Qa9-44
-
Ha10-2 Ha10-3 Ha10-4 Ha10-5 Ha10-6
-
Pa9-14 Pa9-15 Pa9-16 Pa9-17 Pa9-18

 

The last glyph in line Qa2 seems to be fading away and has ordinal number -43, like haati in *Qa9-43 seven lines later:

*Qa2-36 (59) *Qa2-37 *Qa2-38 *Qa2-39 *Qa2-40 *Qa2-41
6 lines
*Qa2-42 *Qa2-43 Qa9-43
Qa3-1 Qa3-2 (68) Qa3-3 Qa3-4

In *Qa2-36 we must associate to 4 * 59 because 236 = 8 * 29.5 and mea ke with 3 vertex 'roofs' presumably means that spring Sun has reached his last day (= 236 + 64 = 300). In the following glyph a haati sign without 'head' evidently confirms this idea.

Te Pei (at day 236 counted from the beginning of the front side of the year) marks day 300 from winter solstice according to G. Mea ke signs normally appear at winter solstice, but here it may have been used as a sign for summer solstice - the bottom of the henua sign is not of the 'midnight' type. Te Pei is the tasty 'black fish' deep down in the sea and mea ke with the added sign at bottom could refer to the last day of Spring Sun, he is going down.

However, what is written in line Qa2 does not necessarily refer to the time immediately prior to the time described in line Qa3. It might instead be a short preview of the 'life course' of Sun - in which case his end ought to be described towards the close of line Qa2.

We have earlier found that glyph line a3 seems to be reserved for the place where Spring Sun makes his entrance in the texts (cfr at kara etahi). Pare in *Qa2-40 possibly plays a double role - both a role hinting at the coming line a3 and a role referring to day 240.

The crescents instead of flames point to an interpretation of pare as standing at the end of the front side of the year, at day 240. If so, then haati in Qa9-43 could be at day number 240 + 160 (given that we count with 2 glyphs per day):

318
*Qa2-40 (63) *Qa2-41 Qa9-41 Qa9-42 Qa9-43 (385) Qa9-44
240 320 / 2 = 160 400

This reading agrees with counting 13 * 29.5 = 383½ to Roto Iri Are. The pair of tamaiti glyphs (Qa9-42 and Qa9-44) are special and maybe they can be read as the twin children of the Moon (Waxing respectively Waning). Beyond Roto Iri Are comes Tama.

Furthermore, we have identified Pa9-42 as a strange manu rere (which should have a special meaning) immediately before pare fades away:

Pa9-42 Pa10-1 Pa10-2 Pa10-3

The 'limb' at bottom right in Pa10-1 resembles the limb at bottom right in *Qa2-40. In Pa10-1 we can imagine a picture of Y 'swallowing' an upside down V (though it is the same entity). Poporo at right in Pa10-2 seems to show a Moon type of 'sky pillar' rising from a little mata.

In H we can see an exceptional ariga erua in Ha9-42, and the following ua appears to be part of the game:

*Ha9-36 *Ha9-37 *Ha9-38 *Ha9-39 *Ha9-40 *Ha9-41
*Ha9-42 *Ha9-43 *Ha9-44 *Ha9-45 *Ha9-46 *Ha9-47

'Rain' (ua) comes - according to my interpretation of Q above - 160 days after 240 days of Spring Sun. 3 * 80 days of Spring Sun are followed by 2 * 80 further days before the year is ending. 5 * 80 = 400.

The strange allocation of pare to the end of line Qa2 and its crescent signs, together with evidence from some number juggling, seals the case: Pare in Qa2-40 is a Moon type of pare, not of the kind in H and P (where line a3 is the proper location for the Sun type of pare).

But it should also be mentioned here that Qa3-1 is showing us how the nuku season is turned upside down, and that the glyph has as its basic sign (at left) haati oriented in the same way as in Qa9-43. Toa in Qa3-2 - like a 'pitcher of Aquarius' - is 'finished' (has at right a hanging down maro string). The word 'pitch black' ought to be related to 'pitcher':

pitch¹ ... black or dark brown resinous substance ....

pitch² ... †thrust or fix in; fix and erect ... set in order or in a fixed place; cast, throw ... pitch ... act of pitching; inclination, slope ...

(English Etymology)

The inclination (of Sun) is beginning at Aquarius and 'fire' (five feathers at right in Qa3-3 lies ahead.