Re: VMs: "Zodiac" signs and Regulus

[Nick Pelling <nickpelling@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi everyone,

At 00:31 06/10/2004 -0700, Rene Zandbergen wrote:
> It could be, but I am not sure why Regulus would
> be related to the Sun and Sirius to the Moon, and
> why they should then have crowns.

Pamela's idea is all to do with astrological "rulership": the sun rules Leo 
and the moon rules Cancer. As Regulus and Sirius are the brightest stars in 
Leo & Cancer (respectively), so perhaps they are indeed worthy of crowns. 
Or see below...

> My idea is that the nr of points of the stars in the
> zodiac section relates to stellar magnitude, as
> has been listed by Ptolemy. 9-pointed stars
> would be magnitude-1, 8-pointed stars magnitude
> 2 etc.

This has always been a good prediction, IMHO. :-)

> Now keeping in mind that we have only 10/12 of
> the stars, the numbers seem to indicate that all
> magnitude-1 stars are represented twice. There
> could be various reasons why that could be the
> case, but it is still only guesswork.

It could simply be that the author observed the stars himself & used 
his/her own magnitude scale, rather than simply re-encode Ptolemy's data 
(which wasn't exactly secret).

> I guessed that
> the crowns could be reference to Regulus 'little
> king'.
> This is consistent with the fact that both crowned
> nymphs hold a 9-pointed star, i.e. they are both
> magnitude-1. However, this could be spoilt by
> the fact that this name was coined by Copernicus.
> If that is true, then we're back to square one :-)

Actually, the connection with Copernicus has been asserted false. According 
to:-
        http://www.star-names.freeserve.co.uk/regulus.htm

        Situated very close to the Ecliptic, [Regulus'] position and the
        fact that it is the brightest star in the Lion have led to its
        association with power and royalty. It was known as
        "Basiliskos", meaning "The Little King" to the Greeks. Later
        the Romans called it "Stella Regia", the "Royal Star". Paul
        Kunitzsch has traced the name "Regulus" back to 1522 AD,
        showing us that the earlier story of it being named by
        Copernicus is false. The name Regulus is simply the Latin for
        "Petty King", a translation of the original Greek Name.

        Regulus is also sometimes called "Cor Leonis", meaning "The
        Lion's Heart". This name is also of some antiquity being used
        by the Greeks, "Cardia Leontos" and the Arabs, "Al Kolb Al
        Asad".

Unfortunately, there's no reference to where Professor Paul Kunitzsch 
published this claim (perhaps in Sky & Telescope? Surely not in his book 
which Rene referred to in Feb 1999 when discussing month names?), nor to 
the 1522 document, so perhaps this is something for one of our on-list 
astronomers on the list to chase up. Also, I've posted the same question to 
the HASTRO-L mailing list, someone there should know. :-)

As for Sirius: well, that's one of the oldest star-names, being a 
(remarkably slight) corruption of "Osiris":-
        http://www.frostydrew.org/observatory/columns/essays/starnames.htm

        [Sirius: Alpha CMa]  Egyptian - Osirius a principal Egyptian god's 
name
        comes through almost intact after 4 millenia. The Arabic equivalent
        Al Shira {Shining One} sometimes is seen. Sirius is the brightest star
        by a wide margin.

Really, if any star has a right to wear a crown, I'd say it was Sirius, 
probably even more so than Regulus. Perhaps Sirius' distinctively jaggy 
crown (in the VMs) is a veiled reference to the pyramids? :-)

Cheers, .....Nick Pelling.....

PS: Rene's 1999 message appears as part of this Stolfi zodiac page:-
        http://www.dcc.unicamp.br/~stolfi/voynich/Notes/040/data-sections/zod 


______________________________________________________________________
To unsubscribe, send mail to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxx with a body saying:
unsubscribe vms-list