406. Once again. I have assumed the C text was beginning at heliacal Sirrah, placed as day zero before the first glyph, but we could perhaps better say that the text on side a of the C tablet was beginning with January 1 when anciently the dates in the calendar had been fixed to the true heliacal risings of the significant stars (although for instance the ancient Egyptians had noticed the dates when the stars became visible again after having been too close to the Sun for observation): ... The Sothic cycle was based on what is referred to in technical jargon as 'the periodic return of the heliacal rising of Sirius', which is the first appearance of this star after a seasonal absence, rising at dawn just ahead of the sun in the eastern portion of the sky. In the case of Sirius the interval between one such rising and the next amounts to exactly 365.25 days - a mathematically harmonious figure, uncomplicated by further decimal points, which is just twelve minutes longer than the duration of the solar year ... ... Like the sun, chiefs of the highest tabus - those who are called 'gods', 'fire', 'heat', and 'raging blazes' - cannot be gazed directly upon without injury. The lowly commoner prostrates before them face to the ground, the position assumed by victims on the platforms of human sacrifice. Such a one is called makawela, 'burnt eyes' ...
By using the date for the northern spring equinox according to Gregory XIII (4 days earlier than the Julian spring equinox date) - viz. 4 days before Sirrah (the Navel of the Horse) rose with the Sun - it would at the time of rongorongo (ca 1842 AD) finally have become possible to use his calendar in order to easily translate the right ascension positions of the stars (counted from 0h) into the correct calendar dates by simply reducing with 80 days. ... Ecclesiastically, the equinox is reckoned to be on 21 March (even though the equinox occurs, astronomically speaking, on 20 March in most years) ... ... When the Pope Gregory XIII updated the Julian calendar he did not revise what had gone wrong before 325 AD (when the Council of Nicaea was held). Thus the stars were still 3-4 days 'out of tune' compared to the calendar ... the Gregorian 'canoe' was 'crooked'. His calendar was not in perfect alignment with the ancient star structure. Because he had avoided to adjust with the effects of the precession between the creation of the Julian calendar and the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD ...
It would also have been possible to refer to the calendar used before Julius Caesar, because 350 + 16 = 366 (= 355 + 11) indicated JANUARY 1 and 350 + 2 * 16 indicated January 17 (365 + 17 = 382 = 350 + 32) when Algenib Pegasi (*1, γ Pegasi) returned to visibility. ... The Julian calendar introduced in 46 B.C. by Caesar changed the earlier 355 day long calendar by increasing the length of 7 of the months:
The ordinary year in the previous Roman calendar consisted of 12 months, for a total of 355 days. In addition, a 27-day intercalary month, the Mensis Intercalaris, was sometimes inserted between February and March. This intercalary month was formed by inserting 22 days after the first 23 or 24 days of February; the last five days of February, which counted down toward the start of March, became the last five days of Intercalaris. The net effect was to add 22 or 23 days to the year, forming an intercalary year of 377 or 378 days ...
And the day when Hun-Nal-Ye (First Father) 'became the sky' should then be 4 days after Cb1-6: ... the Palenque scribes repeated Creation again and described it as 'it was made visible, the image at Lying-down-Sky, the First-Three-Stone-Place'. Then we learned that five hundred and forty-two days later (1.9.2 in the Maya system), Hun-Nal-Ye 'entered or became the sky' (och ta chan). This 'entering' event occurred on February 5, 3112 B.C. The act of 'entering the sky' is recorded on another extraordinary painted pot.
This pot depicts one of the Hero Twins (One-Ahaw in the Classic texts and One-Hunaphu in the K'iche' Popol Vuh) and a great bird who is trying to land in a huge ceiba tree heavy with fruit. This mythical bird is Itzam-Yeh, Classic prototype of Wuqub-Kaqix, 'Seven-Macaw', of Popol Vuh fame. In that story, in the time before the sky was lifted up to make room for the light, the vainglorious Seven-Macaw imagined himself to be the sun. Offended by his pride, the Hero Twins humbled him by breaking his beautiful shining tooth with a pellet from their blowgun. This pot shows One-Ahaw aiming at the bird as he swoops down to land in his tree. As Itzam-Yeh lands on his perch, the text tells us he is 'entering or becoming the sky'. This particular 'sky-entering' is not the one mentioned in the Palenque text. It is the final event that occurred in the previous creation before the universe was remade. Before the sky could be raised and the real sun revealed in all its splendor, the Hero Twins had to put the false sun, Itzam-Yeh, in his place. If the date on this pot corresponds to that pre-Creation event, as we believe it does, then Itzam-Yeh was defeated in 12.18.4.5.0 1 Ahaw 3 K'ank'in (May 28, 3149 B.C.). After the new universe was finally brought into existence, First Father also entered the sky by landing in the tree, just as Itzam-Yeh did ...
In order to see this we had better continue with my structure above:
There is a 'fist' held high at the proper place, which agrees with the idea of a new beginning (10 days after the empty hand at Polaris). ... The practice of turning down the fingers, contrary to our practice, deserves notice, as perhaps explaining why sometimes savages are reported to be unable to count above four. The European holds up one finger, which he counts, the native counts those that are down and says 'four'. Two fingers held up, the native counting those that are down, calls 'three'; and so on until the white man, holding up five fingers, gives the native none turned down to count. The native is nunplussed, and the enquirer reports that savages can not count above four ...
The precessional distance down from the time of rongorongo to that of the First Father can be calculated as around (1842 + 3112) / 26000 * 365.25 = 70 right ascension days, or as 6 days more than 64 = 10 days less than 80. It was evidently Polaris who rose with the Sun when Hun-Nal-Ye became the sky, and it would have been in day 392 (January 26) - 10 = 382 (January 16) when the companion star of Polaris (*26.6), viz. the Belly of the Fish (Baten Kaitos, ζ Ceti, *26.6) would have returned to visibility after the close encounter with the Sun in December 31. Polaris never sank below the horizon and it was therefore outside the cycles of heliacal risings and settings.
... Väinämöinen set about building a boat [→ Argo Navis], but when it came to the prow and the stern, he found he needed three words [183 - 180 = 3] in his rune that he did not know, however he sought for them. In vain he looked on the heads of the swallows, on the necks of the swans, on the backs of the geese, under the tongues of the reindeer. He found a number of words, but not those he needed. Then he thought of seeking them in the realm of Death, Tuonela, but in vain. He escaped back to the world of the living only thanks to his potent magic. He was still missing his three runes. He was then told by a shepherd to search in the mouth of Antero Vipunen, the giant ogre. The road, he was told, went over swords and sharpened axes. Ilmarinen made shoes, shirt and gloves of iron for him, but warned him that he would find the great Vipunen dead. Nevertheless, the hero went. The giant lay underground, and trees grew over his head. Väinämöinen found his way to the giant's mouth, and planted his iron staff in it. The giant awoke and suddenly opened his huge mouth. Väinämöinen slipped into it and was swallowed. As soon as he reached the enormous stomach, he thought of getting out. He built himself a raft and floated on it up and down inside the giant. The giant felt tickled and told him in many and no uncertain words where he might go, but he did not yield any runes. Then Väinämöinen built a smithy and began to hammer his iron on an anvil, torturing the entrails of Vipunen, who howled out magic songs to curse him away. But Väinämöinen said, thank you, he was very comfortable and would not go unless he got the secret words. Then Vipunen at last unlocked the treasure of his powerful runes. Many days and nights he sang, and the sun and the moon and the waves of the sea and the waterfalls stood still to hear him. Väinämöinen treasured them all and finally agreed to come out. Vipunen opened his great jaws, and the hero issued forth to go and build his boat at last ... ... Heracles is swallowed by Tiamat, and disappears for three days before fighting his way out. So also, according to a Hebrew moral tale apparently based on the same icon, Jonah spent three days in the Whale's belly; and so Marduk's representative, the king of Babylon, spent a period in demise every year, during which he was supposedly fighting Tiamat ... Marduk's or Perseus's white solar horse here becomes the reward for Hesione's rescue. Heracles's loss of hair emphasizes his solar character: a shearing of the sacred king's locks when the year came to an end, typified the reduction of his magical strength, as in the story of Samson ... When he reappeared, he had no more hair than an infant ...
...
Then the big Fish did swallow him, and he had done
acts worthy of blame.
But We
cast him forth on the naked shore in a state of
sickness,
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