Orion Rising

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PeterH P
PeterH Nov 26, 2005 20:20:03
Replying to Ishmael

That is interesting! I take Fitz's point about the east and the west and the sun and moon being the most significant.
BUT
What did the ancients make of the unpolluted night sky? They didn't know that they were suns - so how did they explain them? Lamps of the gods, holes in the cloak of night, the gods themselves? The apparent patterns that stars make in the minds of mankind has meant that all cultures seem to have star legends and Orion is a big impressive guy. I take with a big pinch of salt a lot of the astronomical star rise alignments over stones, agricultural calendars etc. With so many stars and a ring of stones you can make any of them significant. But Orion coming up at the onset of winter does seem a bit different.

F fitzcoraldo
fitzcoraldo Nov 26, 2005 20:36:00
Replying to PeterH

Hi Peter
Orion is visible in the night sky from September, given that the weather was a little more clement in the Neolithic and Bronze ages, this means that their first sightings of Orion could be on warm balmy nights much as happened this year.
So rather than a winter marker, Orion may have signified the end of the agricultural year and the beginning of the hunting season. Perhaps the German Rake and Mower weren't too wide of the mark also perhaps Orions portrayal as a hunter also fits the bill too.

I Ishmael
Ishmael Nov 27, 2005 00:43:16
Replying to PeterH

>What did the ancients make of the unpolluted night sky?
No idea and wouldn't like to even speculate.
The Egyptians had a Hippo constellation that has never been recognised and some cultures use the spaces in the Milky Way to make shapes which they named.
What is obvious to everyone in the northen hemisphere is that Orion is very prominent in winter and dissaperas for around 70 days.
Its return/dissapearance may have been marked in some way.