Re: LS Orion

From: Jonathan Marder (marder@agri.huji.ac.il)
Date: Mon May 15 2000 - 07:07:26 BST


Thanks Keith,
   I've tried to bring this up Orion/Rigel several times, but no-one ever
paid the subject much attention.
> I'd like to pursue this one a bit. Your message prompted me to do a
bit of
> looking and I turned up with a quite a different slant on Orion.
>[snip]
>
<http://windows.ivv.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/tour.cgi?link=/mythology/orion.html
&cdp=/windows3.html&cd=false&frp=/windows3.html&fr=f&sw=false&edu=mid>
>
> Orion is the hunter, a hunter so good he could destroy all earth's
animals.
> But the Greeks weren't the only ones who saw Orion in the night sky:
>
> "In much of the Middle East he was the "Giant" or the "Strong One".
> <http://www.iac.es/galeria/slouren/orion.html>
>
The semitic tradition adds another interesting dimension, calling Orion
"Kesil" (the fool). The other point is that unlike the (Greek)
constellation names we use, star names are mostly semitic. "Rigel"
literally means "foot" (regel in Hebrew). He is the foot on which the
foolish giant stands.

<<<
http://www.cbn.org/bibleresources/theology/easton/bibledictionary/easton
-b1-2804.asp
Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
Orion
Heb. Kesil; i.e., "the fool", the name of a constellation (Job 9:9;
38:31; Amos 5:8) consisting of about eighty stars. The Vulgate renders
thus, but the LXX. renders by Hesperus, i.e., "the evening-star," Venus.
The Orientals "appear to have conceived of this constellation under the
figure of an impious giant bound upon the sky." This giant was,
according to tradition, Nimrod, the type of the folly that contends
against God. In Isa. 13:10 the plural form of the Hebrew word is
rendered "constellations."
>>>

KEITH
> Orion is the Giant.
> The Giant is coming!
>
> I think the appearance of Orion in the sky foreshadows Pirsig's
exploration
> of the Giant as Society in Chapter 17 during his trip to New York
City.

I must be absolutely incredibly dense. I honestly didn't make the
connection between the celestial giant of chapter 1 and the social giant
of chapter 17. Thanks Keith, you made my day.

Jonathan

MOQ.org - http://www.moq.org



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