Astronomical Myths Part 6

These neomenias thus came to be called the festival of the Bull, of the Ram, the Dog, or the Lion. That of the Ram would be the most solemn and important in places where they dealt much in sheep. That of the Bull in the fat pasture-lands of Memphis and Lower Egypt. That of Capella would be brilliant at Mendes, where they bred goats more than elsewhere.

We may fortify these opinions by a quotation from Lucian, who gives expression to them very clearly. "It is from the divisions of the zodiac," he says, "that the crowd of animals worshipped in Egypt have had their origin. Some employed one constellation, and some another.

Those who used to consult that of the Ram came to adore a ram. Those who took their presages from the Fishes would not eat fish. The goat was not killed in places were they observed Capricornus, and so on, according to the stars whose influence they cared most for. If they adored a bull it was certainly to do honour to the celestial Bull. The Apis, which was a sacred object with them, and wandered at liberty through the country, and for which they founded an oracle, was the astrological symbol of the Bull that shone in the heavens."

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE IV.--THE ZODIAC AND THE DEAD IN EGYPT.]

Their use of the zodiac is ill.u.s.trated in an interesting manner by a mummy found some years ago in Egypt. At the bottom of the coffin was found painted a zodiac, something like that of Denderah; underneath the lid, along the body of a great G.o.ddess, were drawn eleven signs, but with that of _Capricornus_ left out. The inscription showed that the mummy was that of a young man, aged 21 years, 4 months, and 22 days, who died the 19th year of Trajan, on the 8th of the month Pazni, which corresponds to the 2nd of June, A.D. 116. The embalmed was therefore born on the 12th of January, A.D. 95, at which time the sun was in the constellation of Capricornus. This shows that the zodiac was the representation of the astrological theories about the person embalmed, who was doubtless a person of some importance. (See Plate IV.) Any such use as this, however, must have been long subsequent to the invention of the signs themselves, as it involves a much more complicated idea.

CHAPTER V.

THE PLEIADES.

Among the most remarkable of the constellations is a group of seven stars arranged in a kind of triangular cl.u.s.ter, and known as the Pleiades. It is not, strictly speaking, one of the constellations, as it forms only part of one. We have seen that one of the ancient signs of the zodiac is the Bull, or Taurus; the group of stars we are now speaking of forms part of this, lying towards the eastern part in the shoulders of the Bull. The Pleiades scarcely escape anybody's observation now, and we shall not be, therefore, surprised that they have always attracted great attention. So great indeed has been the attention paid to them that festivals and seasons, calendars and years, have by many nations been regulated by their rising or culmination, and they have been thus more mixed up with the early history of astronomy, and have left more marks on the records of past nations, than any other celestial object, except the sun and moon.

The interesting details of the history of the Pleiades have been very carefully worked out by R. G. Haliburton, F.S.A., to whom we owe the greater part of the information we possess on the subject.[1]

Let us first explain what may be observed with respect to the Pleiades.

It is a group possessing peculiar advantages for observation; it is a compact group, the whole will appear at once; and it is an unmistakable group and it is near the equator, and is therefore visible to observers in either hemisphere.

Now suppose the sun to be in the same lat.i.tude as the Pleiades on some particular day; owing to the proximity of the group to the ecliptic, it will be then very near the sun, and it will set with it and be invisible during the night. If the sun were to the east of the Pleiades they would have already set, and the first view of the heavens at sunset would not contain this constellation; and so it would be so long as the sun was to the east, or for nearly half a year; though during some portion of this time it would rise later on in the night. During the other half year, while the sun was to the west, the Pleiades would be visible at sunset, and we immediately see how they are thus led to divide the whole year into two portions, one of which might be called _the Pleiades below_, and the other _the Pleiades above_. It is plain that the Pleiades first become visible at sunset, when they are then just rising, in which case they will culminate a little after midnight (not at midnight, on account of the twilight) and be visible all night. This will occur when the sun is about half a circle removed from them--that is, at this time, about the beginning of November; which would thus be the commencement of one half of the year, the other half commencing in May. The culmination of the Pleiades at midnight takes place a few days later, when they rise at the time that the sun is really on the horizon, in which case they are exactly opposite to it; and this will happen on the same day all over the earth. The opposite effect to this would be when the sun was close to the Pleiades--a few days before which the latter would be just setting after sunset, and a few days after would be just rising before sunrise.

[1] Mr. Haliburton's observations are contained in an interesting pamphlet, ent.i.tled _New Materials for the History of Man_, which is quoted by Prof. Piazzi Smyth, but which is not easy to obtain.

It may be seen, however, in the British Museum.

We have thus the following observations, that might be made with respect to this, or any other well-marked constellation. First, the period during which it was visible at sunset; secondly, the date of its culmination at midnight; thirdly, its setting in the evening; and fourthly, its rising in the morning: the last two dates being nearly six months removed from the second. There are also the dates of its culmination at sunrise and sunset, which would divide these intervals into two equal halves. On account of the precession of the equinoxes, as explained in the last chapter, the time at which the sun has any particular position with respect to the stars, grows later year by year in relation to the equinoctial points. And as we regulate our year by the date of the sun's entrance on the northern hemisphere, the sidereal dates, as we may call them, keep advancing on the months. As, however, the change is slow, it has not prevented years being commenced and husbandry being regulated by the dates above mentioned. Any date that is regulated by the stars we might expect to be nearly the same all over the world, and the customs observed to be universal, though the date itself might alter, and in this way. So long as the date was directly obtained from the position of the star, all would agree; but as soon as a solar calendar was arranged, and it was found that at that time this position coincided with a certain day, say the Pleiades culminating at midnight on November 17, then some would keep on the date November 17 as the important day, even when the Pleiades no longer culminated at midnight then, and others would keep reckoning by the stars, and so have a different date.

With these explanations we shall be able to recognise how much the configurations of the Pleiades have had to do with the festivals and calendars of nations, and have even left their traces on customs and names in use among ourselves to the present day.

We have evidences from two very different quarters of the universality of the division of the year into two parts by means of the Pleiades. On the one hand we learn from Hesiod that the Greeks commenced their winter seasons in his days by the setting of the Pleiades in the morning, and the summer season by their rising at that time. And Mr. Ellis, in his _Polynesian Researches_, tells us that "the Society Islanders divided the year into two seasons of the Pleiades, or _Matarii_. The first they called _Matarii i nia_, or the _Pleiades above_. It commenced when, in the evening, these stars appeared at or near the horizon, and the half year during which, immediately after sunset, they were seen above the horizon was called _Matarii i nia_. The other season commenced when at sunset these stars are invisible, and continued until at that time they appeared again above the horizon. This season was called _Matarii i raro_, i.e. _the Pleiades below_." Besides these direct evidences we shall find that many semi-annual festivals connected with these stars indicate the commencement of the two seasons among other nations.

One of these festivals was of course always taken for the commencement of the year, and much was made of it as new-year's day. A new-year's festival connected with and determined by the Pleiades appears to be one of the most universal of all customs; and though some little difficulty arises, as we have already pointed out, in fixing the date with reference to solar calendars, and differences and coincidences in this respect among different nations may be to a certain extent accidental, yet the fact of the wide-spread observance of such a festival is certain and most interesting.

The actual observance at the present day of this festival is to be found among the Australian savages. At their midnight culmination in November, they still hold a new-year's _corroboree_, in honour of the _Mormodellick_, as they call the Pleiades, which they say are "very good to the black fellows." With them November is somewhat after the beginning of spring, but in former days it would mark the actual commencement, and the new year would be regulated by the seasons.

In the northern hemisphere this culmination of the Pleiades has the same relation to the autumnal equinox, which would never be taken as the commencement of the year; and we must therefore look to the southern hemisphere for the origin of the custom; especially as we find the very Pleiades themselves called _Vergiliae_, or stars of spring. Of course we might suppose that the rising of the constellation in the _morning_ had been observed in the northern hemisphere, which would certainly have taken place in the beginning of spring some 5,000 years ago; but this seems improbable, first, because it is unlikely that different phenomena of the Pleiades should have been most noticed, and secondly, because neither April nor May are among any nations connected with this constellation by name. Whereas in India the year commenced in the month they called _Cartiguey_, which means the Pleiades. Among the ancient Egyptians we find the same connection between _Athar-aye_, the name of the Pleiades, with the Chaldeans and Hebrews, and _Athor_ in the Egyptian name of November. The Arabs also call the constellation _Atauria_. We shall have more to say on this etymology presently, but in the meantime we learn that it was the phenomenon connected with the Pleiades at or about November that was noticed by all ancient nations, from which we must conclude that the origin of the new-year's spring festival came from the southern hemisphere.

There is some corroboration of this in the ancient traditions as to the stars having changed their courses. In the southern hemisphere a man standing facing the position of the sun at noon would see the stars rise on his right hand and move towards his left. In the northern hemisphere, if he also looked in the direction of the sun at noon, he would see them rise on his left hand. Now one of a race migrating from one side to the other of the equator would take his position from the sun, and fancy he was facing the same way when he looked at it at noon, and so would think the motion of the stars to have altered, instead of his having turned round. Such a tradition, then, seems to have arisen from such a migration, the fact of which seems to be confirmed by the calling the Pleiades stars of spring, and commencing the year with their culmination at midnight. In order to trace this new-year's festival into other countries, and by this means to show its connection with the Pleiades, we must remark that every festival has its peculiar features and rites, and it is by these that we must recognise it, where the actual date of its occurrence has slightly changed; bearing, of course, in mind that the actual change of date must not be too great to be accounted for by the precession of the equinoxes, or about seventy-one years for each day of change, since the inst.i.tution of the festival, and that the change is in the right direction.

Now we find that everywhere this festival of the Pleiades' culmination at midnight (or it may be of the slightly earlier one of their first appearance at the horizon at apparent sunset) was always connected with the memory of the dead. It was a "feast of ancestors."

Among the Australians themselves, the _corroborees_ of the natives are connected with a worship of the dead. They paint a white stripe over their arms, legs, and ribs, and, dancing by the light of their fires by night, appear like so many skeletons rejoicing. What is also to be remarked, the festival lasts three days, and commences in the evening; the latter a natural result of the date depending on the appearance of the Pleiades on the horizon at that time.

The Society Islanders, who, as we have seen, divided their year by the appearance of the Pleiades at sunset, commenced their year on the first day of the appearance, about November, and also celebrated the closing of one and the opening of a new year by a "usage resembling much the popish custom of ma.s.s for souls in purgatory," each man returning to his home to offer special prayers for the spirits of departed relatives.

In the Tonga Islands, which belong to the Fiji group, the festival of _Inachi_, a vernal first-fruits' celebration, and also a commemoration of the dead takes place towards the end of October, and commences at sunset.

In Peru the new-year's festival occurs in the beginning of November, and is "called _Ayamarca_ from _aya_, a corpse, and _marca_, carrying in arms, because they celebrated the solemn festival of the dead, with tears, lugubrious songs, and plaintive music; and it was customary to visit the tombs of relations, and to leave in them food and drink." The fact that this took place at the time of the discovery of Peru on the very same day as a similar ceremony takes place in Europe, was only an accidental coincidence, which is all the more remarkable because the two appear, as will be seen in the sequel, to have had the same origin, and therefore at first the same date, and to have altered from it by exactly the same amount. These instances from races south of the equator prove clearly that there exists a very general connection with new-year's day, as determined by the rising of the Pleiades at sunset, and a festival of the dead; and in some instances with an offering of first-fruits. What the origin of this connection may be is a more difficult matter. At first sight one might conjecture that with the year that was pa.s.sed it was natural to connect the men that had pa.s.sed away; and this may indeed be the true interpretation: but there are traditions and observances which may be thought by some to point to some ancient wide-spread catastrophe which happened at this particular season, which they yearly commemorated, and reckoned a new year from each commemoration. Such traditions and observances we shall notice as we trace the spread of this new-year's festival of the dead among various nations, and its connection, with the Pleiades.

We have seen that in India November is called the month of the Pleiades.

Now on the 17th day of that month is celebrated the Hindoo Durga, a festival of the dead, and said by Greswell to have been a new-year's commemoration at the earliest time to which Indian calendars can be carried back.

Among the ancient Egyptians the same day was very noticeable, and they took care to regulate their solar calendars that it might remain unchanged. Numerous altered calendars have been discovered, but they are all regulated by this one day. This was determined by the culmination of the Pleiades at midnight. On this day commenced the solemn festival of the Isia, which, like the _corroborees_ of the Australians, lasted three days, and was celebrated in honour of the dead, and of Osiris, the lord of tombs. Now the month Athyr was undoubtedly connected with the Pleiades, being that "in which the Pleiades are most distinct"--that is, in which they rise near and before sunset. Among the Egyptians, however, more attention was paid to astronomy than amongst the savage races with which the year of the Pleiades would appear to have originated, and they studied very carefully the connection between the positions of the stars and the entrance of the sun into the northern hemisphere, and regulated their calendar accordingly; as we shall see shortly in speaking of the pyramid builders.

The Persians formerly called the month of November _Mordad_, the angel of death, and the feast of the dead took place at the same time as in Peru, and was considered a new-year's festival. It commenced also in the evening.

In Ceylon a combined festival of agriculture and of the dead takes place at the beginning of November.

Among the better known of the ancient nations of the northern hemispheres, such as the Greeks and Romans, the anomaly of having the beginning of the year at the autumnal equinox seems to have induced them to make a change to that of spring, and with this change has followed the festival of the dead, although some traces of it were left in November.

The commemoration of the dead was connected among the Egyptians with a deluge, which was typified by the priest placing the image of Osiris in a sacred coffer or ark, and launching it out into the sea till it was borne out of sight. Now when we connect this fact, and the celebration taking place on the 17th day of Athyr, with the date on which the Mosaic account of the deluge of Noah states it to have commenced, "in the second month (of the Jewish year, which corresponds to November), the 17th day of the month," it must be acknowledged that this is no chance coincidence, and that the precise date here stated must have been regulated by the Pleiades, as was the Egyptian date. This coincidence is rendered even stronger by the similiarity of traditions among the two nations concerning the dove and the tree as connected with the deluge.

We find, however, no festival of the dead among the Hebrews; their better form of faith having prevented it.

We have not as yet learnt anything of the importance of the Pleiades among the ancient Babylonian astronomers, but as through their tablets we have lately become acquainted with their version of the story of the deluge, we may be led in this way to further information about their astronomical appreciation of this constellation.

From whatever source derived, it is certain that the Celtic races were partakers in this general culture, we might almost call it, of the Pleiades, as shown by the time and character of their festival of the dead. This is especially interesting to ourselves, as it points to the origin of the superst.i.tions of the Druids, and accounts for customs remaining even to this day amongst us.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE V.--THE LEGENDS OF THE DRUIDS.]

The first of November was with the Druids a night full of mystery, in which they annually celebrated the reconstruction of the world. A terrible rite was connected with this; for the Druidess nuns were obliged at this time to pull down and rebuild each year the roof of their temple, as a symbol of the destruction and renovation of the world. If one of them, in bringing the materials for the new roof, let fall her sacred burden, she was lost. Her companions, seized with a fanatic transport, rushed upon her and tore her to pieces, and scarcely a year is said to have pa.s.sed without there being one or more victims.

On this same night the Druids extinguished the sacred fire, which was kept continually burning in the sacred precincts, and at that signal all the fires in the island were one by one put out, and a primitive night reigned throughout the land. Then pa.s.sed along to the west the phantoms of those who had died during the preceding year, and were carried away by boats to the judgment-seat of the G.o.d of the dead. (Plate V.) Although Druidism is now extinct, the relics of it remain to this day, for in our calendar we still find November 1 marked as All Saints' Day, and in the pre-Reformation calendars the last day of October was marked All Hallow Eve, and the 2nd of November as All Souls'; indicating clearly a three days' festival of the dead, commencing in the evening, and originally regulated by the Pleiades--an emphatic testimony how much astronomy has been mixed up with the rites and customs even of the English of to-day. In former days the relics were more numerous, in the Hallowe'en torches of the Irish, the bonfires of the Scotch, the _coel-coeth_ fires of the Welsh, and the _tindle_ fires of Cornwall, all lighted on Hallowe'en. In France it still lingers more than here, for to this very day the Parisians at this festival repair to the cemeteries, and lunch at the graves of their ancestors.

If the extreme antiquity of a rite can be gathered from the remoteness of the races that still perform it, the fact related to us by Prescott in his _History of the Conquest of Mexico_ cannot fail to have great interest. There we find that the great festival of the Mexican cycle was held in November, at the time of the midnight culmination of the Pleiades. It began at sunset, and at midnight as that constellation approached the zenith, a human victim, was offered up, to avert the dread calamity which they believed impended over the human race. They had a tradition that the world had been previously destroyed at this time, and they were filled with gloom and dismay, and were not at rest until the Pleiades were seen to culminate, and a new cycle had begun; this great cycle, however, was only accomplished in fifty-two years.

It is possible that the festival of lanthorns among the j.a.panese, which is celebrated about November, may be also connected with this same day, as it is certain that that nation does reckon days by the Pleiades.

These instances of a similar festival at approximately the same period of the year, and regulated (until fixed to a particular day in a solar calendar) by the midnight culmination of the Pleiades, show conclusively how great an influence that constellation has had on the manners and customs of the world, and throw some light on the history of man.

Even where we find no festival connected with the particular position of the Pleiades which is the basis of the above, they still are used for the regulation of the seasons--as amongst the Dyaks of Borneo. This race of men are guided in their farming operations by this constellation.

"When it is low in the east at early morning, before sunrise, the elders know it is time to cut down the jungle; when it approaches mid-heaven, then it is time to burn what they have cut down; when it is declining towards the west, then they plant; and when in the early evening it is seen thus declining, then they may reap in safety and in peace;" the latter period is also that of their feast of _Nycapian_, or first-fruits.

We find the same regulations amongst the ancient Greeks in the days of Hesiod, who tells us that the corn is to be cut when the Pleiades rise, and ploughing is to be done when they set. Also that they are invisible for forty days, and reappear again at harvest. When the Pleiades rise, the care of the vine must cease; and when, fleeing from Orion, they are lost in the waves, sailing commences to be dangerous. The name, indeed, by which we now know these stars is supposed to be derived from the word [Greek: plein], to sail--because sailing was safe after they had risen; though others derive it from [Greek: peleiai], a flight of doves.

Any year that is regulated by the Pleiades, or by any other group of stars, must, as we have seen before, be what is called a sidereal, and not a solar year. Now a year in uncivilised countries can only mean a succession of seasons, as is ill.u.s.trated by the use of the expression "a person of so many summers." It is difficult of course to say when any particular season begins by noticing its characteristics as to weather; even the most regular phenomena are not certain enough for that; we cannot say that when the days and nights become exactly equal any marked change takes place in the temperature or humidity of the atmosphere, or in any other easily-noticed phenomena. The day therefore on which spring commences is arbitrary, except that, inasmuch as spring depends on the position of the sun, its commencement, ought to be regulated by that luminary, and not by some star-group which has no influence in the matter. Nevertheless the position of such a group is much more easily observed, and in early ages could almost alone be observed; and so long as the midnight culmination of the Pleiades--judged of, it must be noticed, by their appearance _on the horizon_ at sunset--fairly coincided with that state of weather which might be reckoned the commencement of spring conditions, no error would be detected, because the change in their position is so slow. The solar spring is probably a later discovery, which now, from its greater reasonableness and constancy, has superseded the old one. But since the time of the sun's crossing the equator is the natural commencement of spring, whether discovered or not, it is plain that no group of stars could be taken as a guide instead, if their indication did not approximately coincide with this.

If then we can determine the exact date at which the Pleiades indicated by their midnight culmination the sun's pa.s.sage across the equator, we can be sure that the spring could only have been regulated by this during, say, a thousand years at most, on either side of this date. It is very certain that if the method of reckoning spring by the stars had been invented at a more remote date, some other set of stars would have been chosen instead.

Now when was this date? It is a matter admitting of certain calculation, depending only on numbers derived from observation in our own days and records of the past few centuries, and the answer is that this date is about 2170 B.C.

We have seen that, though it was probably brought from the southern hemisphere, the Egyptians adopted the year of the Pleiades, and celebrated the new-year's festival of the dead; but they were also advanced astronomers, and would soon find out the change that took place in the seasons when regulated by the stars. And to such persons the date at which the two periods coincided, or at least were exactly half a year apart, would be one of great importance and interest, and there seems to be evidence that they did commemorate it in a very remarkable manner.

The evidence, however, is all circ.u.mstantial, and the conclusion therefore can only claim probability. The evidence is as follows:--The most remarkable buildings of Egypt are the pyramids. These are of various sizes and importance, but are built very much after the same plan. They seem, however, to be all copies from one, the largest, namely, the Pyramid of Gizeh, and to be of subsequent date to this.

Their object has long been a puzzle, and the best conclusion has been supposed to be that they were for sepulchral purposes, as in some of them coffins have been found. The large one, however, shows far more than the rest of the structure, and cannot have been meant for a funeral pile alone.

Its peculiarities come out on a careful examination and measurement such as it has been subjected to at the devoted hands of Piazzi Smyth, the Astronomer Royal for Scotland. He has shown that it is not built at random, as a tomb might be, but it is adjusted with exquisite design, and with surprising accuracy. In the first place it lies due north, south, east, and west, and the careful ascertainment of the meridian of the place, by modern astronomical instruments, could not suggest any improvement in its position in this respect. The outside of it is now, so to speak, pealed, that is to say, there was originally, covering the whole, another layer of stones which have been taken away. These stones, which were of a different material, were beautifully polished, as some of the remaining ones, now covered and concealed, can testify. The angle at which they are cut, and which of course gives the angle and elevation of the whole pyramid, is such that the height of it is in the same proportion to its circ.u.mference or perimeter, as the radius of a circle is to its circ.u.mference approximately. The height, in fact, is proved by measurement and observation to be 486 ft., and the four sides together to be 3,056 ft., or about 6-2/7 times the height. It does not seem improbable that, considering their advancement, the Egyptians might have calculated approximately how much larger the circ.u.mference of the circle is than its diameter, and it is a curious coincidence that the pyramid expresses it. Professor Piazzi Smyth goes much further and believes that they knew, or were divinely taught, the shape and size of the earth, and by a little manipulation of the length of their unit, or as he expresses it the "pyramid inch," he makes the base of the pyramid express the number of miles in the diameter of the earth.

Now in the interior of the apparently solid structure, besides the usual slanting pa.s.sage down to a kind of cellar or vault beneath the middle of the base, which may have been used for a sepulchral resting-place, there are two slanting pa.s.sages, one running north and the other running south, and slanting up at different angles. Part of that which leads south is much enlarged, and is known as the grand gallery. It is of a very remarkable shape, being perfectly smooth and polished along its ascending base, as indeed it is in every part, and having a number of steps or projections, pointing also upwards at certain angles, very carefully maintained. Whether we understand its use or not, it is very plain that it has been made with a very particular design, and one not easily comprehended. This leads into a chamber known as the king's chamber, whose walls are exquisitely polished and which contains a coffer known as _Cheops' Coffin_. This coffer has been villainously treated by travellers, who have chipped and damaged it, but originally it was very carefully made and polished. It is too large to have been brought in by the only entrance into the chamber after it was finished, and therefore is obviously no coffin at all, as is proved also by the elaborateness of the means of approach. Professor Piazzi Smyth has made the happy suggestion that it represents their standard of length and capacity, and points out the remarkable fact that it contains exactly as much as four quarters of our dry measure. As no one has ever suggested what our "quarters" are quarters of, Professor Smyth very naturally supplies the answer--"of the contents of the pyramid coffer." There are various other measurements that have been made by the same worker, and their meaning suggested in his interesting book, _Our Inheritance in the Great Pyramid_, which we may follow or agree to as we can; but from all that has been said above, it will appear probable that this pyramid was built with a definite design to mark various natural phenomena or artificial measures, which is all we require for our present purpose.