4 ms·

Pleiades myth of the sisters come from Babylonian star catalogues: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylonian_star_catalogues https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ba

Pleiades myth of the sisters come from Babylonian star catalogues: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylonian_star_catalogues https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylonian_star_catalogues [..] Babylonian astronomy collated earlier observations and divinations into sets of Babylonian star catalogues, during and after the Kassite rule over Babylonia. These star catalogues, written in cuneiform script, contained lists of constellations, individual stars, and planets. The constellations were probably collected from various other sources. The earliest catalogue, Three Stars Each, mentions stars of Akkad, of Amurru, of Elam and others. Various sources have theorized a Sumerian origin for these Babylonian constellations, but an Elamite origin has also been proposed.[..] MUL is ‘three stars each’ and Pleiades was a cluster of stars which is ‘star of stars’. MUL.MUL. While star was depicted as three star(looks like three asterisks), Pleiades was represented as twice that.. two MULs or six stars. This could be the reason why Pleiades was depicted as six stars even though the cluster has more than 6. Everything came to us from Sumerians tho’ On Sumerian constellations and star names: http://members.westnet.com.au/gary-david-thompson/page11-4.html http://members.westnet.com.au/gary-david-thompson/page11-4.h... (I am still reading up on this. Haven’t completed..but pinning the link for ref here if anyone is interested)

posterboy 6y ago
this MUL ("three stars each") is surely the same as LU.GAL (King), DINGIR (God King), ANU (God of the Sky), AN (Sky), may be "sun" (IIDRC), etc. It is one of the simpler, more obvious signs to draw. I wouldn't read much into it, although one might argue 6ix was a perfect fit if they could only see six (all most of the time).
- jelliclesfarm 6y ago
  It is explained further down in the wiki link : [..] The first formal compendia of star lists are the Three Stars Each texts appearing from about the twelfth century BC. They represent a tripartite division of the heavens: the northern hemisphere belonged to Enlil, the equator belonged to Anu, and the southern hemisphere belonged to Enki. The boundaries were at 17 degrees North and South, so that the Sun spent exactly three consecutive months in each third. The enumeration of stars in the Three Stars Each catalogues includes 36 stars, three for each month. The determiner glyph for "constellation" or "star" in these lists is MUL (𒀯), originally a pictograph of three stars, as it were a triplet of AN signs; e. g. the Pleiades are referred to as a "star cluster" or "star of stars" in the lists, written as MUL.MUL, or MULMUL (𒀯𒀯).[..] Further clarification: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUL.APIN https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUL.APIN Also: sun is Ut or Utu in the epic of Gilgamesh in early Mesopotamian pantheon and later became Shamash in Sumerian/Babylonian

posterboy 6y ago

this MUL ("three stars each") is surely the same as LU.GAL (King), DINGIR (God King), ANU (God of the Sky), AN (Sky), may be "sun" (IIDRC), etc. It is one of the simpler, more obvious signs to draw. I wouldn't read much into it, although one might argue 6ix was a perfect fit if they could only see six (all most of the time).

jelliclesfarm 6y ago
It is explained further down in the wiki link : [..] The first formal compendia of star lists are the Three Stars Each texts appearing from about the twelfth century BC. They represent a tripartite division of the heavens: the northern hemisphere belonged to Enlil, the equator belonged to Anu, and the southern hemisphere belonged to Enki. The boundaries were at 17 degrees North and South, so that the Sun spent exactly three consecutive months in each third. The enumeration of stars in the Three Stars Each catalogues includes 36 stars, three for each month. The determiner glyph for "constellation" or "star" in these lists is MUL (𒀯), originally a pictograph of three stars, as it were a triplet of AN signs; e. g. the Pleiades are referred to as a "star cluster" or "star of stars" in the lists, written as MUL.MUL, or MULMUL (𒀯𒀯).[..] Further clarification: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUL.APIN https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUL.APIN Also: sun is Ut or Utu in the epic of Gilgamesh in early Mesopotamian pantheon and later became Shamash in Sumerian/Babylonian