The 'Seven Sisters' (Pleiades): Basis For The World's Oldest Story?

[EnolaGaia]

This is oddly interesting (or interestingly odd, take your pick ...).

Of the Pleiades' 'Seven Sisters', only six are typically visible to the naked eye nowadays. Legends associated with this prominent cluster are found in cultures worldwide, and they share multiple common elements and features - including the claim there are actually seven stars, of which only six remain visible today.

This global consistency can be explained if one determines how long ago all seven major stars in the cluster were visible as separate items. This would push the origin of the myths back as far as circa 100,000 years ago - suggesting the Pleiades may be the basis for humanity's oldest surviving story.

Legends About This Constellation Could Be The Oldest Stories in The World

... Many cultures around the world refer to the Pleiades as "seven sisters", and also tell quite similar stories about them. After studying the motion of the stars very closely, we believe these stories may date back 100,000 years to a time when the constellation looked quite different. ...

In Greek mythology, the Pleiades were the seven daughters of the Titan Atlas. He was forced to hold up the sky for eternity, and was therefore unable to protect his daughters.

To save the sisters from being raped by the hunter Orion, Zeus transformed them into stars. But the story says one sister fell in love with a mortal and went into hiding, which is why we only see six stars.

A similar story is found among Aboriginal groups across Australia. In many Australian Aboriginal cultures, the Pleiades are a group of young girls, and are often associated with sacred women's ceremonies and stories. ...

The writer and anthropologist Daisy Bates reported people in central Australia regarded Orion as a "hunter of women", and specifically of the women in the Pleiades. Many Aboriginal stories say the boys, or man, in Orion are chasing the seven sisters – and one of the sisters has died, or is hiding, or is too young, or has been abducted, so again only six are visible. ...

Similar "lost Pleiad" stories are found in European, African, Asian, Indonesian, Native American and Aboriginal Australian cultures. Many cultures regard the cluster as having seven stars, but acknowledge only six are normally visible, and then have a story to explain why the seventh is invisible.

How come the Australian Aboriginal stories are so similar to the Greek ones? ...

FULL ARTICLE:
https://www.sciencealert.com/astron...h-back-100-000-years-across-time-and-cultures

REPUBLISHED FROM:
https://theconversation.com/the-wor...ers-stars-may-reach-back-100-000-years-151568

 

[Tanglebones]

This evenings 'Ancient Aliens' (Christ, I don't half watch some bollocks) was about the various myths and legends concerning the Pleiades cluster. From what I could gather, it seems that all of the stories concern the seven maidens being chased by a hunter. So what is that all about then? Did these myths and stories develop from a deep seated but vaguely misogynyist impulse in the human psyche? Or is it an indication as the AA protagonists would have us believe of an ancient battle between one group of aliens (the hunter) , and the defeated Pleideans?

It might be interesting to look into any possible connections in Irish myth. AFAIK, Cuchlainn (sp?) is a celtic version of Orion /Hercules.....does anyone know of a similar story in the Ulster Cycle for instance?

 

[Mikefule]

Over a supposed period of 100,000 years it is of course possible that a star has gone nova and burned out or shrunk to a size and luminosity that is no longer visible from this distance. This explanation manages without primitive people on Earth being aware of a war between unknown races light years away.

However, a simpler explanation is this:

There is a common saying, "Bad things happen in threes," or, "They say these things come in threes." The sort of person who habitually says this tends to look for the third to make the set and presumably — in their own mind — draw an end to the period of bad luck.

Similarly, 7 is a special number. To a mathematician, it is a prime number and has several other special characteristics. Even an ordinary uneducated peasant would know that it is not a "convenient" number. You cannot share out 7 items equally between any number of people other than 7. 7 is not a useful proportion of the common counting base of 10, and does not fit neatly into 12 either. 7 is a "special" number in many ways.

We speak of the "seven seas". Wikipedia now relates this term to the 7 oceans, although it only achieves this by dividing the Atlantic and Pacific into "north" and "south" otherwise there would only be 5. We have the 7 Samurai, the Magnificent 7, the 7 wonders of the world, lucky 7 and so on. In some cultures, 7 is associated with bad luck, but the principle is the same: 7 is seen as a special number.

So if you see only 6 of something, and want to make a story about them, the story is better if you can "explain" why the 7th is missing. "There are 6 stars and they are sisters" is not much of a story. "There were 7 sisters, but one is no longer there because..." is a good story.

 

[EnolaGaia]

Wikipedia provides a listing of the Pleiades' mythic / literary attributions and associations:

Pleiades in folklore and literature
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleiades_in_folklore_and_literature

The stars in the cluster aren't universally mythologized as females, nor even as humans. In some traditions they're associated with (e.g.) boys, men, military groups, inanimate objects, a single sieve, and a variety of animals such as hens with chicks.

The Pleiades once rose in the east as evening fell so as to provide an accurate indicator for the midpoint between the autumnal equinox and the winter solstice (i.e., Samhain). Due to precession it's no longer such a precise signal of this calendar point. Still, it serves as a usable indicator of seasonal progression. The ability to readily locate it using the more prominent Orion and Aldebaran make it a reliable thing to teach as a tip for gauging seasons.

 

[Tanglebones]

Similarly, 7 is a special number. To a mathematician, it is a prime number and has several other special characteristics. Even an ordinary uneducated peasant would know that it is not a "convenient" number. You cannot share out 7 items equally between any number of people other than 7.

Yes you can . 14 people get .5 each. But I know what you mean.

EG....with the greatest respect, I would have thought that the Pleiades cluster, whilst not being universally mythologized as a number of girls running from a randy Orion/Hercules figure, has that explanation as the more usual, given the propensity of the male pov as the underlying spine of civilisation.......to put it another way.....a group of lasses, running from a bloke intent upon relieving them of their virginity, makes more sense to an ancient priestly class (invariably masculine), than something about hens and chicks. Please, be serious.

 

[Lb8535]

Wikipedia provides a listing of the Pleiades' mythic / literary attributions and associations:

Pleiades in folklore and literature
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleiades_in_folklore_and_literature

The stars in the cluster aren't universally mythologized as females, nor even as humans. In some traditions they're associated with (e.g.) boys, men, military groups, inanimate objects, a single sieve, and a variety of animals such as hens with chicks.

The Pleiades once rose in the east as evening fell so as to provide an accurate indicator for the midpoint between the autumnal equinox and the winter solstice (i.e., Samhain). Due to precession it's no longer such a precise signal of this calendar point. Still, it serves as a usable indicator of seasonal progression. The ability to readily locate it using the more prominent Orion and Aldebaran make it a reliable thing to teach as a tip for gauging seasons.

or you can look out the window