Ancient calendars and constellationsPlunket, Emmeline M. (Emmeline Mary)
History
Ancient calendars and constellations
Plunket, Emmeline M. (Emmeline Mary)
Astronomy, Ancient; Calendar; Constellations
In the ancient astrological tablets translated by Professor Sayce
in his Paper, _The Astronomy and Astrology of the Babylonians_,[25]
pp. 189, 190, “the star of Gula” is mentioned. The first syllable of
this word is composed of the same cuneiform group as that used in
the abbreviation for the eleventh constellation of the Zodiac in the
astronomical tablets of the first and second centuries B.C. above
referred to. But this fact, if it stood alone, would not be enough
to do more than point to a possible identification of Gu in the late
tablets with Gula in the ancient astrological works. Amongst the many
constellations in the heavens the name of more than one might have
begun with the syllable Gu.
[25] _Transactions, Biblical Archæology_, vol. iii., February 1874.
We find, however, at a later page (206) of Professor Sayce’s Paper,
this sentence translated from W.A.I., III. 57, 1:--
“Jupiter[26] in the star of Gula lingers.” None of the five planets
known to the Babylonians could ever with truth have been described
as appearing or “lingering” in any part of the heavens outside the
band of the Zodiac stars. “The star (or constellation) of Gula,” we
must therefore assume, was a Zodiacal star or constellation. This
restriction of the position of the “star of Gula” renders it scarcely
a rash conclusion to arrive at, that the _Zodiacal_ Gu of the later
tablets is an abbreviation for the _Zodiacal_ Gula of the ancient
astrological works.
[26] Or, rather, “Mercury.” See Epping and Strassmaier,
_Astronomisches aus Babylon_, p. 112 _et seq._
As to a mythological reason for the choice of the goddess Gula to
preside over the constellation known to us as Aquarius, we find it in
the fact that Gula appears as another name for the goddess Bau[27] and
Bau (or Bahu) was a personification of _the dark water_, or chaos.
[27] Maspero, _Dawn of Civilization_, p. 672, notes 1, 2.
If we adopt this identification of the star or constellation Gula with
the constellation, or some star in the constellation, Aquarius, it will
throw light on many of the inscriptions found on statues and other
monuments at Telloh (the modern name of the mound which covers the
ruins of the ancient city of Lagash),
We find from these inscriptions that the deities especially worshipped
at Lagash were not the same as those who held the foremost places
contemporaneously in the Accadian, and at a later time in the
Babylonian Pantheon. Ningirsu and “his beloved consort,” the goddess
Bau, received in Lagash the highest honours. On one of the statues of
Gudea, “the priestly governor of Lagash,” this inscription occurs:[28]--
“To Ningirsu, the powerful warrior of Ellilla [this is dedicated] by
Gudea, priestly governor of Lagash, who has constructed the temple of
Eninnu, consecrated to Ningirsu.
“For Ningirsu, his lord, he has built the temple of Ekhud, the tower
in stages, from the summit of which Ningirsu grants him a happy lot.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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