Wednesday, September 25, 2024

Tracking the dogstars

The "Dog Days" of Sirius are usually associated with the Greeks. Among the eastern reaches of Greek-dom was the Pamphylia, from Attalia on-east. This shares a longitude with lower Nile. OldEuropeanCulture is here to inform us that Sirius used to herald the Nile Flood, July/August (sign of Leo).

In Egypt, Sirius was female: Sopdet. (Note that -t, common to "Afroasiatic".) Instead of Orion/Sah's dog, she was Orion's mate... but still connected. Venus meanwhile was their child, genderswapped again this time male: Sopdu. For Egypt, Sopdu ruled the east in his morning-star capacity.

Among Sopdu's domains will be Arabia. Back to his mother, Nathaniel Miller doesn't talk about Shi'ré in Arabia; but he has much to say on Canopus. Orion's second dog rises in September in the Hijaz (p. 189) and October even November from Najd to Kuwait (pp. 171-2).

The first dog Sopdet/Sirius shared the same latitude, anyway, with Kuwait and Basra. You'd think this, in the Hijaz, should rise more late-Augustish, sign of Virgo.

I do wonder why Sirius didn't attract the poets as did Canopus.

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