Re: Why Seven Pleiades?

On 11 Aug 2005 04:56:47 -0700, tony_flanders@xxxxxxxxx wrote, in part:

>In another thread, Chris Peterson asked why people
>think that the Pleiades have seven stars.

Well, the Pleiades are called the "Seven Sisters". Most people have
never actually looked at them through a telescope.

>Most people will agree that the Pleiades are basically
>a 6-star group, regardless of whether they see a few
>fainter stars flitting around the fundamental pattern.

>Nonetheless, the idea that there are 7 Pleiades is
>found all around the world. Among the main civilizations
>of Europe and Asia, one might attribute this to common
>roots in ancient Mesopotamia, but this can't explain
>why the idea is widespread among native tribes of
>North America and Australia. This must be a case
>of convergent evolution.

Now that makes the plot *much* thicker. The seven day week, the seven
moving objects in the sky (sun, moon, five naked-eye planets) could have
explained it in *Western* culture - just like splitting blue up into
blue, indigo, and violet to make seven colors of the spectrum.

>The key is the striking resemblance between the
>Pleiades and the Big Dipper.

>And indeed, both the ancient Greeks and several
>North American tribes had a legend that the "lost
>Pleiad" is Alcor, which was stolen from the handle
>of the Pleiades and hidden in the Big Dipper's
>handle. No doubt the idea is buttressed by the
>fact that at mag 4.0, Alcor is much too faint
>to belong to the Big Dipper, but would blend
>right in among the Pleiades.

That is impressive and amazing.

John Savard
http://www.quadibloc.com/index.html
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