April 2%, 1887] 



NA TURE 



607 



obtained for one locality cannot be fully applied to another, 

 much less extended to detei'mine the temperature at the superior 

 limit of the atmosphere. 



An interesting point of resemblance between Mr. Hall's 

 observations and those made on the Himalaya is that the 

 diurnal range of temperature diminishes to a minimum at about 

 5000 feet, and then increases with increasing elevation. 



Allahabad, March 30 S. A. Hill 



Royal Society's Soiree 



M.\Y I be permitted, through the columns of Nature, to ask, 

 on behalf of the Sub-Committee appointed to make arrangements 

 for the forthcoming soiree of the Royal Society, that Fellows and 

 others who have apparatus or objects of scientific interest suit- 

 able for exhibition on that occasion will communicate at once 

 with the Secretaries or myself. Herbert Rix, 



Royal Society, Burlington House Asst. Sec. R. S. 



HOMERIC ASTR ONOM Y ' 

 II. 



TURNING to the second great constellation mentioned 

 in both Homeric epics, we again meet traces of 

 remote and unconscious tradition. Yet less remote, 

 probably, than that concerned with the Bear. Certainly 

 less inscrutable. For recent inquiries into the lore and 

 language of ancient Babylon have thrown much light on 

 the relationships of the Orion fable. 



There seems no reason to question the validity of Mr. 

 Robert Brown's interpretation of the word by the 

 Accadian Ur-ana, " light of heaven " (" i\Iyth of Kirke," 

 p. 146). But a proper name is significant only where it 

 originates. Moreover, it is considered certain that the 

 same brilliant star-group known to Homer no less than 

 to us as Orion, was termed by Chaldeo-.Assyrian peoples 

 " Tammuz " (Lenormant, Origiiics ' de V Histoirc, t. i. 

 p. 247), a synonym of .Adonis. Nor is it difficult to 

 divine how the association came to be established. For 

 about 2000 B.C., when the Euphratean constellations 

 assumed their definitive forms, the belt of Orion began 

 to be visible before dawn in the month of June, called 

 " Tammuz,' because the death of Adonis was then 

 celebrated. It is even conceivable that the heliacal 

 rising of the asterism may originally have given the signal 

 for that celebration. We can at any rate scarcely doubt 

 that it received the name of "Tammuz" because its 

 annual emergence from the solar beams coincided with 

 the period of mystical mourning for the vernal sun. 



Orion, too, has solar connexions. In the Fifth 

 "Odyssey" (121-24), Calypso relates to Hermes how the 

 love for him of Aurora excited the jealousy of the gods, 

 extinguished only when he fell a victim to it, slain by the 

 shafts of Artemis in Ortygia. Obviously, a sun-and-dawn 

 myth slightly modified from the common type. The 

 post-Homeric stories, too, of his relations w'ith CEnopion 

 of Chios, and of his death by the bite of a scorpion 

 (emblematical of darkness, like the boar's tusk in the 

 Adonis legend), confirm his position as a luminous hero 

 (R. Brown, Arcltccologia, vol. xlvii. p. 352 ; " Great 

 Dionysiak Myth," chap. .v. § v.). Altogether, the evidence 

 is strongly in favour of considering Orion as a variant of 

 Adonis, imported into Greece from the East at an early 

 date, and there associated with the identical group of stars 

 which commemorated to the Accads of old the fate of 

 Dumtizi {i.e. Tammuz), the " Only Son of Heaven.'' 



It is remarkable that Homer knows nothing of stellar 

 mythology. He nowhere attempts to account for the 

 names of the stars. He has no stories at his fingers' 

 ends of translations to the sky as a ready means of exit 

 from terrestrial difficulties. The Orion of his acquaint- 

 ance — the beloved of the Uawn, the mighty hunter, sur- 

 passing in beauty of person even the divinely-born Aloida; 



* Continued from p. 588. 



— died and descended to Hades like other mortals, and 

 was there seen by Ulysses, a gigantic shadow " driving 

 the wild beasts together over the mead of asphodel, the 

 very beasts which he himself had slain on the lonely, 

 hills, with a strong mace all of bronze ii^ his hand, that is 

 ever unbroken (" Odyssey," xi. 572-75). His stellar con- 

 nexion is treated as a fact apart. The poet does not 

 appear to feel any need of bringing it into harmony with 

 the Odyssean vision. 



The brightest star in the heavens is termed by Homer 

 the " dog of Orion." The name Seirios (significant of 

 sparkling), makes its debut in the verses of Hesiod. To 

 the singer of the " Iliad " the dog-star is a sign of fear, its 

 rising giving presage to "wretched mortals" of the in- 

 tolerable, feverish blaze of late summer {ppord). The 

 deadly gleam of its rays hence served the more appro- 

 priately to exemplify the lustre of havoc-dealing weapons. 

 Diomed, Hector, .Achilles, "all furnish'd, all in arms," 

 are compared in turn, by way of prelude to an " arisieia," 

 or culminating epoch of distinction in battle, to the same 

 brilliant but baleful object. Glimmering fitfully across 

 clouds, it not inaptly typifies the evanescent light of the 

 Trojan hero's fortunes, no less than the flashing of his 

 armour, as he moves restlessly to and fro (" Iliad," xi. 

 62-6). Of .Achilles it is said : — 



" Him the old man Priam first beheld, as he sped across 

 the plain, blazing as the star that cometh forth at harvest- 

 time, and plain seen his rays shine forth amid the host 

 of stars in the darkness of night, the star whose name 

 men call Orion's Dog. Brightest of all is he, yet for an 

 evil sign is he set, and bringeth much fever upon hapless 

 men. Even so on Achilles' breast the bronze gleamed as 

 he ran" (xxii. 25-32). 



In the corresponding passage relating to Diomed 

 (v. 4-7), the tiaive literalness with which the " baths of 

 Ocean " are thought of is conveyed by the hint that the 

 star shone at rising with increased brilliancy through 

 having newly washed in them. 



Abnormal celestial appearances are scarcely noticed in 

 the Homeric poems. 'There are neither eclipses ' of sun 

 or moon, nor comets, nor star-showers. The rain of blood, 

 by which Zeus presaged and celebrated the death of 

 Sarpedon (" Iliad," xvi. 459, also xi. 54) might be thought 

 to embody a reminiscence of a crimson aurora, frequently, 

 in early times, chronicled under that form ; but the portent 

 indicated is more probably an actual shower of rain tinged 

 red by a microscopic alga. An unmistakable meteor, 

 however, furnishes one of the glowing similes of the 

 " Iliad.' By its help the irresistible swiftness and un- 

 expectedness of Athene's descent from Olympus to the 

 Scamandrian plain are illustrated. 



" Even as the son of Kronos the crooked counsellor 

 sendeth a star, a portent for mariners or a wide host of 

 men, bright shining, and therefrom are scattered sparks in 

 multitude ; even in such guise sped Pallas Athene to 

 earth, and leapt into their midst " ( Iliad," iv. 75-9). 



In the Homeric verses the Milky Way — the " path of 

 souls" of prairie-roving Indians, the mediaeval "way of 

 pilgrimage " - — finds no place. Yet its conspicuousness, 

 as seen across our misty air, gives an imperfect idea of 

 the lustre with which it spans the translucent vault which 

 drew the wondering gaze of the Ionian bard. 



The point of most significance about Homer's scanty 

 astronomical notions is that they were of home growth. 

 They are precisely such as would arise among a people 

 in an incipient stage of civilisation, simple, direct, and 

 childlike in their mode of regarding natural phenomena, 

 yet incapable of founding upon them any close or con- 

 nected reasoning. Of Oriental mysticism there is not a 

 vestige. No occult influences rain from the sky. Not so 



' Gorlitz finds a prediction of a solar eclipse at *' Odyssey," -xx 357 ; but 

 the expression appears quite indefinite and figurative. 



= To Compostella. The popular German name for the Milky Way-i»still 

 /akoi)sstrasse, while the three .stars of Orion's belt are designated, in the 

 Jakobsstab, staff of St. James. 



