Say Map!

My street light blew out covering my front yard with much needed darkness.  I took my telescope outside for the first time in a while and got a really good look at some stars.  I even saw the ring nebula which I would have never caught with that annoying street lamp.

Today I ran across a map of the stars - an old one dating back to 1693.  Here is a partial view of it:

It's pretty cool and you can see Andromeda and Pegasus in there.  You can find more images of the map here:

http://www.davidrumsey.com/blog/2012/8/21/mapping-the-heavens-in-1693

In fact, this site has 33,000 maps on it.  The main page for the site is http://www.davidrumsey.com/.  Of course, you could just click the link, but where would the fun in that be?  Try it this way -

Say map!


Louder!


(now click the link)

The Seven Demons

I was studying up on the Hebrew King David when I came to the notorious scene of Bathsheba.  This story is found only in II Samuel.  I Chronicles also tells the story of David, but it tries to make David look better and often leaves out negative information.  The writer(s) of the Samuel books like to lay it all out - good or bad.

For those not familiar, King David sees Bathsheba, has a one night stand with her, and is done with it.  Or so he thought.  She gets pregnant.  Her husband is off fighting a war for David.  David tries to get him to go home and sleep with his wife so everyone will think the baby is his and not David's.  However, this doesn't work and David has him killed and marries Bathsheba to make an honest woman out of her.  Now, David pays for this later and it serves as a black spot on his history.  The author of Chronicles leaves this story out, but they cannot leave out Bathsheba because she is the mother of Solomon.  When he does mention her, he changes the spelling of her name.  I looked it up and it is all because of Babylonian mythology.

The "sheba" part of Bathsheba's name may be related to the sibatti, or The Seven Demons.  These guys are bad news.  One site I looked up had this to say about them:

Raging storms, evil gods are they, ruthless demons, who in heaven's vault were created, are they, workers of evil are they, they lift up the head to evil, every day to evil destruction to work.

Of these seven

The first is the South wind...

The second is a dragon, whose mouth is opened... That none can measure.

The third is a grim leopard, which carries off the young ...

The fourth is a terrible Shibbu ...

The fifth is a furious Wolf, who knoweth not to flee,

The sixth is a rampant ... which marches against god and king.

The seventh is a storm, an evil wind, which takes vengeance

A shibbu, I believe, is a weapon of some sort.

You can see these raging demons if you so desire.  Just go outside (if you live in the northern hemisphere) and find Orion.  He's usually pretty easy to spot with his three star belt.  To the right of Orion you will see a patch of sky with no stars but in the middle a fuzzy patch of 6 to 7 stars visible, all clumped together.  That is known to us as the Pleiades.   To the Babylonians, however, it is The Seven Demons.  See if you can see all seven.

The above information came from http://www.piney.com/BabSevenEvil.html and http://www.womeninthebible.net/1.11.Bathsheba.htm.  Check them out for more information.

The Ten Labors of Hercules - Labor # 1

The first impossible task given to Hercules was to slay a lion.  Not just any lion, mind you.  This lion is the son of Enchinda (mother of monsters) and the 100 headed titan Typhon.  This lion was nursed by the moon goddess Selene (why she thought to nurse a lion is beyond my capacity to understand).

This was the . . . Nemean Lion. (Cue dramatic music!)

I don't know why Hercules thought fighting naked was a good idea.
He's probably one of those guys who thinks taking his shirt off at parties is the thing to do.

Hercules was fine with this task.  In fact, he thought, "Hmmpft!  I thought this would be harder."  And off he went, grabbing weapons along the way.  He grabbed a bronze sword.  He grabbed some arrows with bronze tips.  He grabbed an olive tree, pulled it up by the roots, and made it into a club.  He was ready.

When he found the beast, it immediately ran towards him. Hercules calmly shot three arrows at it in rapid succession (archery class had kept Hercules' GPA out of the 2.0 range in school - that and killing his music teacher).  The arrows merely bent their tips and bounced harmlessly off.  The lion leaped and Hercules hit it with his tree/club.  The lion was pushed out of the way, but otherwise unharmed.  At this point, it probably would have been wise to just run away, but then again, Hercules was never known for his wisdom.

The lion charged again.  This time Hercules dropped the club and grabbed the lion around his neck and held him.  The lion struggled, but he could not break the head lock Hercules had put on him.  Finally, the lion was dead.

Hercules then looked at the beast and thought, "That would be one cool cloak to wear!  I ought to skin it and wear it."  Upon which he replied to himself, "Cool idea, Herc!  Let's do it!"  He grabbed his knife and began cutting...

... only to remember that weapons don't seem to penetrate this hide.  So he brought out his heavy duty Bronze Sword 2000, which also didn't work.  Hercules sat, much like Winnie the Pooh does when he is thinking.  He may have even sang the "Rumbly in my Tumbly" song like Pooh occasionally does.

So then Hercules did something quite clever, although it was probably quite an accident.  He used the claws of the lion to skin the beast.  It worked.  So now Hercules goes around wearing the lion's head as a helmet and the skin draped down his back as armor.  It's quite impressive and pretty impressive to look at. Most times that is.

One of the better things about Disney's Hercules movie was having Scar be the Nemean Lion.

The lion can be seen still today, as it was immortalized in the constellation Leo.  The stars look more like a mouse than a lion and are pretty easily spotted if you are looking in the right direction.  That direction would be south in April (about 9:00).  Here's what you'll be looking for:

So, one down, nine to go!

See all of the Labors of Hercules Posts

There in the Sky! It's a Bird! It's a Plane! No, It's a Woman Sitting Upside Down in a Chair!

Now that I'm a dad of a little girl, I look at things differently than I did when I only had little boys.  For instance, if someone came up to me saying that they were better looking than my daughter, I would unleash some crazy monster that I happen to keep in my backyard to eat someone they love.  Those of you with little girls understand me.  I would like to take credit for such a great idea, but someone beat me to it.  This guy is like Father of the Year in my book.  Here's the story:

One day, a beautiful woman named Cassiopeia was sitting on her balcony playing one of her favorite games: I'm-More-Beautiful-Than-______.  I'm sure all you females out there play this game often.  Being a queen, she had a very high balcony and could see a lot of different people that she was more beautiful than.   It was a fun game, but as most of her subjects were rather ugly, she began to get bored of it.  That is until she looked a bit farther away and saw some beautiful Nereids.  These creatures were not mere mortals and were super beautiful.  Cassiopeia, however, using an objective judge (herself) determined herself the winner in this little beauty challenge and declared herself the world champion.

The Nereids did not like this at all.  They cried and posted stuff on their Facebook (which back then was called Facescroll) about how mean she was. Then they went to daddy and complained.  Daddy, being Poseidon, decided that no one makes his little girls cry and went straight over to Cassiopeia to set the matter straight.  He made them offer their daughter, Andromeda, up as a sacrifice to one of his sea monsters.  They did and watched as the monster came forward to devour their little sweetheart. 

Perseus just happened to be flying by on his way back from killing Medusa when he saw this beautiful, naked woman strapped to a rock about to be eaten by a monster.  He flew down to Cassiopeia and her husband Cepheus to ask if he could marry her (always the opportunist that Perseus).  Cepheus says yes, if he can beat the monster and save the girl.  As he just happens to have the head of Medusa in his back pack (I'm imagining this as a Dora the Explorer episode - "Can you see anything in my back pack that could defeat the monster?  Say, Medusa!   Louder!) he turns the monster into stone.  Strangely enough, Poseidon doesn't really care.

Cepheus and Cassiopeia, however, renege on their promise since they really want Andromeda to marry some dude named Phineus (which was her uncle - EWWW!).  Perseus turns everyone against him into stone, scoops up Andromeda and lives happily ever after.

Now, I lied a bit above (I am prone to do that from time to time).  I said that Poseidon didn't care about the loss of his sea monster.  That is not entirely true.  Poseidon does punish Cassiopeia after her death by turning her (and her husband) into constellations.  This is usually reserved as a reward; however, she was placed in a chair that spends half its time in the sky upside down.  Early drawings show her being strapped to a torture chair.  Later drawings show her holding a mirror. 

You can see her right now, if you live in the northern hemisphere.  Just look north and up.  If you don't know which way is north, pay attention to the sun as it sets.  Apollo always sets it in the west.  Then face that direction and turn right.  Viola!  North! 

What you are looking for is pretty easy to spot.  It is five stars in the shape of a W.  You can't miss it.  If you have a pair of binoculars or a telescope, looking in that direction is a pretty neat thing too.  This constellation is right in the middle of the Milky Way, so you will be bombarded with stars.

This should give you something to do if you are stuck with your in-laws over the holidays and just need to get out for a moment. 

Pictures from: http://www.storiesinthestars.com/constellations/cassiopea.html

~

The Little Dog

It was hot and Artemis was getting tired of hunting.  She knew a little secluded pool where she could slip in and take a quick bath to refresh herself.  After all, you never know when you'll need to look your best.  So she slipped out of her hunting gear and waded out a bit.  It wasn't long before she heard the tell-tale snap of a twig and turned around only to see some insignificant human spying on her.  Trying to get an eyeful of godly nakedness.  You have heard that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, and you have heard from Linus that it is nothing compared to a woman who has been cheated out of tricks and treats, but neither of these can match the sheer wrath of a virgin goddess who has just been seen naked by a puny male.  Her punishment was swift and decisive.  This man would never dare to look upon her again.  Immediately she changed him into a stag.  With pleasure she watched his panicked face as antlers sprouted from his head, fur grew from his skin, and his hands and feet lost their digits to be replaced by hooves.  She laughed as his hunting dog, not knowing what has transpired, but eager to catch a deer for his master, chased this stag down and ripped the throat right out.  Artemis dried off and went back to Olympus, still irritated at this outrage.

The dog waited patiently for his master to return.  Artemis, that night as she sailed the moon across the sky, saw the pitiful dog but resisted, her anger at his irresponsible master still boiling inside her.  The same scene appeared the next night, and the next. Her heart could barely take it.  She is the goddess of wild things and that does include dogs.  The next night she swooped down and scooped up the dog and rewarded his loyalty (misguided though it was) by placing him in the stars.

If you went out to look in for Canis Major earlier, then you most likely saw two bright stars above Canis Major top left of Orion.  Those two stars are Canis Minor, Acteon's faithful hunting dog.  If you haven't gone out to see it, just find Orion.  Those two bright stars left of his feet are the big dog and the two stars left of his shoulders is our little hunting dog.


* Note * The hunter's name is Acteon and he has been wrongly accused.  He actually was a bit hot himself and just stepped up to the secluded pool to get a drink of water.  When he saw Artemis in all her glory he immediately backed up to avoid looking at her and that is when he stepped on the twig.  Later, when shown the surveillance tapes of the account, Artemis only replied, "Well, these things happen, you know."

The Big Dog

For my readers in the southern hemisphere - sorry.  This one is strictly for the northerners today.

I love going outside and looking at the stars.  It is something I have not been able to do recently as much as I would like, however.  The other night I saw a constellation that I have seen before but have never really spent much time looking at it: Canis Major - the Great Dog. 

Canis Major is fairly easy to find, even if you don't pay attention to constellations.  Look for Orion.  Orion right now is  west-ish.  Look toward the sunset and then turn a bit left.  Now your are looking south and west and you should see Orion's belt looming bright overhead.  Orion's belt are three bright stars in a row and is pretty hard to miss.  You can make out Orion's head/shoulders/arms by the two very bright stars right above it and his feet by the two very bright stars right below it.  Once you see this constellation (probably the easiest to spot in the sky right now), focus on the feet and look more left.  There you will see the brightest star in the sky (besides the sun of course).  This star is named Sirius.  It is the dog star and is so bright there is no way you'll miss it.  This is the dog's head or nose (depending on who draws teh constellation pictures).  You'll see another fairly bright star near it.  If you look a bit more left and lower, you'll see a triangle of stars.  These are the tail, butt, and hind leg of Canis Major.

Now for the mythology side of it.  The Greeks saw this in a couple of ways.  One was looking at Orion as a hunter and Canis Major as his hunting dog.  In this scenario, Canis Major is about to attack a rabbit, which is the constellation just under Orion's feet.  Some stories say that the dog has a name - Laelaps.  Laelaps could run very fast (I'm betting that he ran very fast away from whoever stuck him with the name Laelaps).  He eventually entered a race with a fox who was the fastest animal on earth and Laelaps won.  In order to reward this spectacular display of speed, Zeus put him into the sky as a constellation.  That and the fact that Zeus had bet $50 on the dog.  Another myth has it that Canis Major and his little friend Canis Minor are sitting under the table of the Twins and are eating crumbs that are falling.

The big star, Sirius, is important too.  The Egyptians used it to monitor the flooding of the Nile River.  J. K. Rowling used the name of the dog star for her character, Sirius Black, who could change into a dog.    If you have ever heard of the saying, "the dog days of summer," Sirius is to blame.  The idea is that Sirius is rising with the sun during this time and is adding its heat to the summer days, making them so hot.  If you have a telescope ( a big one), you'll be able to notice that Sirius is actually two stars.  The second star does not add to its brightness, but actually the opposite.  Sirius is so much brighter than its companion, the the companion blocks light rather than adds to it.

I wish you clear skies and warm nights!

The Whetstone of Death!

First of all, what a hectic week!  Not only am I running in different directions, but my laptop has decided it has no hard drive.  I know it has a hard drive.  It had a hard drive when I last shut it down.

Anyway, sorry for the delay between posts.  Let's get back to the 13 Treasures of Britain.  Treasure number 8 is a pretty neat one.  If you look back at the previous treasures you'll find that they are pretty much ordinary things.  They are something extraordinary that could pass as ordinary.  This is a pretty universal feeling.  How many of us at one time or another fancied that we have some very valuable collectible stored away in our attic.  We just didn't know the value of it yet.

This treasure is no different.  It is a whetstone (a rockish thing used to sharpen knives or swords).  It is officially called the Whetstone of Tudwal Tudglyd (or Hogalen Tudwal Tutklyd).  Here is the deal - if a brave man sharpens his sward with it, then later uses that sword to cut a man, that man will die.  If a cowardly man  sharpens his sword with it, then later uses it to cut a man, that man will not be hurt at all.  Once again we see the emphasis on bravery with the treasures.

Other than that, I couldn't find much more on Tudwal or his whetstone.  However, this is not the only place in mythology that whetstones are used.  In Norse mythology, we have Hrungnir, the giant who had a head of stone, a heart of stone, and a shield of stone.  For a weapon, he didn't use a whetstone to sharpen his sword, he used the whetstone as a weapon!  He just threw the darn thing at his opponents.  He threw it at Thor and it got stuck in Thor's forehead.

Thor goes to a sorceress named Groa and she starts chanting a magical chant (which is a bit redundant) and the whetstone starts to move.  Thor is so excited, he decides to tell her something to make her happy.  He found her husband, who she thought was dead, carried him across a river, and her husband is on his way home.  He said that he didn't completely wrap up the guy as they were crossing the river and one part of him froze off - his toe (get your mind out of the gutter!).  Thor threw his toe up in the sky where it became a star.

No body knows the exact star the old Norse looked at and said, "Hey, that looks like a toe!" but some scholars think it is Rigel, the bottom right bright blue star in Orion (see below):

See the really bright bottom right star?  That's the toe.  Orion is pretty easy to spot in the sky.  Orion's belt is the three stars in a row in the middle of the constellation.  You can see it now.  If you are in the northern hemisphere, go outside and look east, the constellation is rising (east is where the sun normally rises, if you are unsure which direction to look).  If you are a morning person, you can see it in the west before the sun rises.  For the southern hemisphere readers, I'm not so sure where Orion is, if it is even visible at this time of year.  If anyone knows and wants to leave a comment, you'll have my thanks.

Anyway, she gets so excited about the return of her husband, that she forgets the chant!  The whetstone is stuck in Thor's head to this day.  Now, don't you go around throwing whetstones to see if it would make a good weapon for you to use.  Anytime a whetstone is thrown, it makes the one in Thor's head move and that hurts him.  You wouldn't want to make him angry, now would you?

Hopefully, this nice long post makes up for leaving you with Destroyer of Ponies! for so long.  Sorry about that...

The Perseids

Well, I'm back from a week at the beach and a week at Disney World and I am tired! So I'll give a short one today and then give some mythology that I found while on vacation (yes, I am so the nerd that spent part of my vacation looking for mythology).

For the next few nights, there is a meteor shower going on. It should have about 90 shooting stars an hour at its peak on August 12th about 2:00 in the morning. The closer to dawn, the brighter these will be. Now, you don't have to be awake at 2:00 in the morning to get a chance to see shooting stars, that is just when they peak. You can go out after dark and expect to see some. You also don't have to wait until August 12th. For the next several days you'll have good viewing.

How does this relate to mythology? Well, they are called the Perseids because they radiate from the constellation Perseus, our hero from Clash of the Titans (yes, yes, I know - cheesy movie that gets pretty much everything wrong). You don't need to find Perseus to see these, either. Just look up.

Happy hunting - see you soon.

Bootes

Tonight you can go outside and see the constellation Bootes. It is really easy to find if you can find the big dipper. There is a common saying with backyard astronomers, "Arc to Arcturus." What that means is you follow the arc that the handle of the big dipper to the next bright star. That is Arcturus. Arcturus is the bottom of the constellation and you should be able to see the kite-like shape it takes.

Arcturus is actually the fourth brightest star in the night sky. There is a comet that went through the constellation (from our point of view) and left a debris trail that we keep passing through. This makes for shooting stars. We are passing through it right now and the best opportunity to see shooting stars is all this week the the 26th being the absolute best. Don't get me wrong, you won't be going outside and seeing a hail of shooting stars, but your chances of seeing one is greater.

While you are spending time outside hoping to glimpse a shooting star, you can show off your mythology knowledge to whoever is with you by telling them where the constellation Bootes originates. There are some conflicting tales here. One story, as told by Ovid in Metamorphoses is that Callisto is a woman who was changed into a bear. Her son, Arkas, did not know and was trying to hunt her. Zeus, in a rare moment of pity, saves them by turning them into stars, Callisto becoming Ursa Major (the Big Dipper) and Arkas becoming Bootes.

Catasterimi, by Eratosthenes of Cyrene, says that Arkas was the son of Lykaon. Lykaon killed him and served him up as dinner to Zeus to see if the he really is omnipotent. Zeus punishes Lykaon and sets Arkas in the stars as Bootes. Personally, I don't like this story for Bootes. There is a similar story for Tantalus.Yet another story says that Bootes is modeled after the son of Demeter. He invented the plow (sometimes the big dipper is referred to as the Plow) and so was given immortality in the stars.

Happy viewing!

"Fields of Gold" Revisited

Before I go further into this, if you are reading this blog for the first time, you'll want to skim down and read the "Fields of Gold" entry first.

Sadly, I'm not a music fan. My wife is and neither of us understand the other's interest or lack thereof. However, I do like the Police and Sting. Knowing a little bit about his history also intrigues me. He was an English teacher and if you listen to his lyrics you often find allusions to literary classics, such as to Lolita in "Don't Stand so Close to Me," Canterbury Tales in the CD title Ten Summoner's Tales (I have read that is a double allusion - to his real name as well), and others. So the precedent has been set for allusions. Knowing this, I didn't think it was too far a reach that "Fields of Gold" might match the mythological image in my mind. I have found no conformation of this interpretation, but I hold to it anyway.

I'm going with the Rape of Persephone and look at it with a more compassionate Hades than is usually shown. Many try to portray him as a devil figure, but to me, he's just a guy who fell in love and was a bit too awkward in trying to ask her out. Come on, heroes were all the time kidnapping girls.

"You'll remember me when the west wind moves" Here we have west, which is an archetype for death, so the Hades connection and we have west wind, which is Zephyr in Greek mythology and used quite a bit in scenes of love, like Cupid and Psyche.

"You'll forget the sun in his jealous sky" The only way to forget the sun is if you can no longer see or feel it. Thus the underworld. The sky is jealous because it was Helios, the sun titan, that tattle-taled in Hades. Hades has the beautiful woman that Helios can no longer gaze upon.

"As we walk in the fields of gold" Hades/Pluto has another name - Dis. He was usually called this when he was referred to as the the god of wealth. Since gold and other precious metals as well as precious gems come from underground, they must be part of the underworld. Makes sense. Especially here, where they would walk in fields of (literally) gold.

"So she took her love /For to gaze awhile /... In his arms she fell as her hair came down" See, don't let the rape word fool you (it only means kidnapped here), she does love him back. She just didn't appreciate being taken without her consent.

"Will you stay with me, will you be my love" O.K., a bit tricky, but even though he was holding her against her will, he was hoping that she would want to stay with him. The saying, "If you love something let it go," had not been invented yet. We are talking ANCIENT Greece.

"We'll forget the sun in his jealous sky" Now it is "we." He's making his move.

"Feel her body rise when you kiss her mouth" I don't care what interpretation you take, this switch in point of view is odd.

"I never made promises lightly/And there have been some that I've broken/But I swear in the days still left/We'll walk in the fields of gold" Here Hades resolves to make sure she'll come back to him with the pomegranate seeds.

"Many years have passed since those summer days/Among the fields of barley/See the children run as the sun goes down/Among the fields of gold" In summer (when Persephone is home) she is in the barely - with her mom. When the sun goes down (archetype of death), she is in the underworld with Hades.

O.K., maybe a stretch, but I can't help feeling that way when I hear it. Ailia had a fantastic alternative by suggesting Demeter and Iasion and the Thrice Plowed Field. I guess the barley had us both thinking Demeter. If you are not familiar with that story, it is a good one and works in the jealous sky a bit better. Zeus, no happy that Demeter is with someone besides him (you know how those overprotective incestuous brothers can be) strikes down Iasion with a lightning bolt as they lay in a field. I like that possibility too. FYI - Iasion found immortality int he stars. The Gemini twin stars (visible tonight int he west), usually mean Castor and Pollux, but some references show that one of the stars in Iasion.

The Stars Tonight

Now, bear with me because I am going to skim through this story to get to the real reason for this post, which is how to find a Norse constellation tonight.

There is a famous Norse myth where a giant named Thiazi tricks Loki into giving him both Idun and her golden apples. Now for you unfamiliar with Norse mythology, these golden apples are the only things that keep the gods young and strong. Without these apples, the gods began to whither. Even the beautiful Freya lost her hair. It was not hard to put two and two together and come up with some number close to five and figure out that Loki was behind it. All in all, the story ends up with Loki racing back with Idun and her apples in tow and Thiazi giving chase. The gods easily set a trap and kill Thiazi via big fire.

His daughter, Skadi, comes for revenge and since the gods aren't feeling like more bloodshed, they offer to pay her off. She will only take a deal that involves a marriage (by which the gods make her pick a husband by looking at his feet) and laughter (she gets this after Loki tells a crude story about tying a goat to his, um..., well manhood). As an added bonus, Odin reaches in his pocket which is where, for some reason, he has kept the eyes of Thiazi. He throws them into the sky to be stars and act as a tribute to this powerful giant.

Scholars suspect that this constellation is what we call Gemini. Gemini has two fairly bright stars called Castor and Pollux, after the Greek hero twins. You can see Thiazi's eyes tonight (and pretty much every night for the next month at least). If you go out in the next week and look west (where the sun set), you will see Orion. Even if you've never star gazed before, you'll be able to recognize Orion. It has seven of some of the brightest stars in the sky. Just above and a little left of Orion is Gemini. You will probably be able to see Thiazi's eyes and a red star that looks like it could be a nose. This red star is what the Norse called the Bloody Star (which we call Mars). It just happens to be passing through the neighborhood this month. Here is how the sky will look to the southwest tonight:

Here is what you are looking at. The eye to your left is what we call Pollux. It is the brighter of the two and is about 35 light years away. The right eye is not one star, not two stars, but actually six stars spaced so close together that you can only see them as one. In fact, even with a backyard telescope you can only make out two stars. They are 50 light years aways.

Happy star hunting! I'd love to know if anyone saw them.