Re: VMs: "Zodiac" signs and Regulus

[Rene Zandbergen <r_zandbergen@xxxxxxxxx>]

--- Pamela Richards <spirlhelix@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Hi, Rene, Nick and all
> 
> I will look forward to seeing those links once they
> are complete.

Give it a try with the current names. There is 
a good chance that it will work.

> In the meanwhile, on tauroctony: here's a great
> site.
> 
> http://www.well.com/user/davidu/mithras.html
> 
> It turns out that the murals decorating the walls of
> Mithraic temples are now thought to be "star maps"
> of a chain of constellations which are part of
> the Mithraic myth. 

Hmmm, I've looked at the page, but I am not at all
convinced. This looks more like an 'alternative' 
explanation rather than 'new understanding'.
Mind you, I'm no expert.

> These constellations begin with Taurus and move
> through Scorpius, but they swerve from the ecliptic
> and include constellations we don't usually think of
> in connection with the conventional twelve signs,
> like
> Corvus the Crow.  And there are only seven of them.

It is claimed that it represents a feature of
the heavens in the period 4000 BCE to 2000 BCE.
Why would people in those days be interested
in the celestial equator??
How can we know that the constellations now known
as Corvus and Hydra were also called the same
then? I also see no explanation for the two
guys with torches, whose names are Cautes and
Cautopates in the traditional explanation (if I
remember correctly.).
And the complaint about the traditional explanation,
which is that there is no known tradition of
an Iranian god killing a bull, would apply to
several aspects of this alternative explanation
as well. 

And my pet peeve, the page author uses the now
popular form 'Scorpio' which I would not expect
from an expert. Scorpius is Latin, Scorpion 
English and Scorpio is a car manufactured by Ford.
But perhaps this is already a lost battle....

> I don't think we are necessarily looking at a
> tauroctony in the VMs, but I do wonder if it is
> something similar.  Those illustrations are
> different
> enough, yet still detailed enough, to suggest the
> artist knew what he meant to convey--and it was not
> quite the Zodiac as we know it.  Knowing the VMs
> author's predilection for misdirection, it seems
> difficult to demonstrate that the absence of two
> signs is not intentional. 

There actually is a stub of a cut out page
in the right place, and the remaining illustrations,
though quaint, unmistakably follow the normal
zodiac signs in the right order.

It is often said that the month names were written
at a later date. Manly (1931) even suggests that 
these emblems were only added at a later date.
I guess with the new scans something more can be
said about this....

Cheers, Rene


		
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