dimanche 5 octobre 2008

Orion 12

Anterior to much of this, we find in the various versions of the Book of Job and Amos the word Orion for the original Hebrew word Kᵋsīl, literally signifying "Foolish," "Impious," "Inconstant," or "Self-confident." This perhaps is etymologically connected with Kislev, the name for the ninth month of the Hebrew calendar, the tempestuous November-December. Julius Fürst considered this Kislev an early title for Orion. The epithet "Inconstant" has fancifully been referred to the storms usual at his rising.
The Kᵋsīlīm of Isaiah xiii.10, rendered "constellations" in some versions, is also thought to refer to it and other prominent sky figures; in fact, Cheyne translates the word as "the Orions" in the Polychrome Bible; while Rahab, in the Revised Version of the Book of Job, ix.13, — the "proud helpers" in the Authorized, — is referred by Ewald, Renan, and others to this, — possibly to some other group of stars, — with the same significations as those of Kᵋsīl, or perhaps "Arrogance," "Rebellion," "Strength," or "Violence."
Later on the Jews called Orion Gibbōr, the Giant, considered as Nimrod bound to the sky for rebellion against Jehovah, whence perhaps came the Bands, or Bonds, of Orion, which some say should be Cords, or a Girdle; but the conception of Nimrod as "the mighty Hunter before the Lord," at least in the ordinary sense of that word, is erroneous, for the original, according to universal Eastern tradition, signifies a Lurking Enemy, or a Hunter of men rather than of beasts. This idea may have led to a Latin title, Venator, for the stellar Orion.
But, relative to the renderings of biblical words supposed to refer to sky groups, the Reverend Doctor Adam Clarke wrote in his Commentary
that ʼAish has been generally understood to signify the Great Bear; Kesil Orion; and Kimah the Pleiades, may be seen everywhere; but that they do signify these constellations is perfectly uncertain. We have only conjectures concerning their meaning.
. . . . . .

As to the Hebrew words, they might as well have been applied to any of the other constellations of heaven; indeed, it does not appear that constellations at all are meant.
The discordance between the various renderings would indicate the probable correctness of these comments, and that we are in no respect assured as to the identification of Bible star‑names. Yet it is worth noting that the three constellations adopted by the translators of Book of Job and of Amos in the Revised Version fitly represent the cardinal points of the sky: the Bear in the north, Orion in the south, and the Pleiades rising and setting in the east and west.
In the Hindu Brahmanas Orion is personified as Praja-pāti, He was also, and differently, represented in the sky by Hindu astronomers as an immense figure stretching from Boötes through Virgo, Corvus, and Libra into Scorpio, under the form of a stag, Mriga, in pursuit of his own daughter, the beautiful roe Rohini, our Aldebaran. In his unnatural chase he was transfixed by the three-jointed arrow — the Belt stars — shot by the avenging Hunter, Sirius, which even now is seen sticking in his body. This hero was the father of twenty-seven daughters, the wives of King Soma, the Moon, with whom the latter equally divided his time, thus referring to the nakshatras.
The Chinese made up their 4th sieu from the seven conspicuous stars in the shoulders, belt, and knees of Orion, with the title Shen, or Tsan, Three Side by Side, anciently Sal, which may have originated from the Belt having at first alone formed the sieu. Indeed, the lunar asterism was mentioned in the She King as the Three Stars. δ was its determinant; but it overlapped the corresponding nakshatra, although entirely district from the 4th manzil in the feet of the Twins. Orion was worshiped in the China during the thousand years before our ear as Shen, or Shï Ch'en, from the moon station; but it also was known as the White Tiger, a title taken from the adjacent Taurus.
The Khorasmians adopted Orion's stars as a figure of their zodiac in place of Gemini.
The early Irish called it Caomai, the Armed King; the Norsemen, Orwandil; and the Old Saxons, Ebuðrung, or Ebiðring, — words that Grimm thought connected with Iringe, or Iuwaring, of the Milky Way.
Caesius cited the singular title Ragulon, perhaps from Al Rijl, the Arabic designation for the star β, but he made this the equivalent of the Latin Vir, the Man par excellence, the Hero; and suggested that Orion represented Jacob wrestling with the angel; or Joshua, the Hebrew warrior; but Julius Schiller, that it was Saint Joseph, the husband of the Blessed Virgin. Weigel figured it as the Roman Two-headed Eagle; and De Rheita, of 1643, found somewhere among its stars Christ's Seamless Coat and a Chalice; but he was addicted to such discoveries.
Argelander has 115 stars here; Heis, 136; and Gould, 186; while the whole is as rich in wonderful telescopic objects as it is glorious to the casual observer. Flammarion calls it the California of the sky.

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