216
activities. In particular, Hesiod’s wisdom-poem, Works and Days, provides a roughand- ready calendar for activities down on the farm, each often timed by the appearance or disappearance of a star (West, 1978). So, for example, the time of winter
ploughing is signalled by the dawn setting of the Pleiades, the Hyades and Orion
(Works and Days 614–617). Hesiod exhorts his farmer to start the harvest at the
dawn rising of the Pleiades, at the end of their 40-day period of invisibility (Works
and Days 383–387, 571–573). Elsewhere he mentions the culmination of Orion and
Sirius at the time of Arcturus’ dawn rising to indicate the period of the grape harvest
in September (Works and Days 609–611). In all, he provides just nine observations
of the risings or settings of five stars or star groups—Sirius is mentioned once, while
the Pleiades, the Hyades, Orion, and Arcturus are all noted twice—and he adds the
culmination of Orion and Sirius to the rise of Arcturus. These observations are so
arranged that the farmer seems to have been given a remarkably economical safetynet of successive warnings of the appropriate date for a certain activity on the land
(Reiche, 1989).
But these same stars can do double duty. Let us recall that for Hesiod the dawn
rising of the Pleiades marked the time of summer harvesting. In fact, harvesting and
threshing would span a long period, about May-to-July in our terms, and during this
time not only the Pleiades but, of course, the Hyades and Orion would also rise successively just before dawn. Simultaneously, the Bear—neither rising nor setting—
reached its lower transit across the meridian, just skimming the northern horizon.
The relationship of the Bear to the other three star-groups is a close one in the
geometry of the sky, and it would seem also in the related activities on the land,
where ploughing and sowing are first signalled, and later harvesting. We may also
see the significance of the Bear’s second name, the Wagon, a useful vehicle at harvest time (Hannah, 2005: 20–25).
We might wonder how Hesiod knew when the Pleiades and other stars would
first appear before dawn, especially as the Pleiades cluster, although distinctive
enough, is hardly bright, unlike Sirius which the Egyptians observed at dawn to
warn of the next flooding of the Nile. Which in turn governed the land’s economy.
What traditional methods had he inherited? Or did he gain this knowledge from the
East, where these data were already long known? In the East it was knowledge used
for the purposes of predicting astronomical events that were understood to have
influence over human lives, but that would not be a feature of Greek society for
several hundred years still. If the data were adopted from the Babylonians, did the
Greeks, as they were wont, adapt them to their own purposes?
6 Religion
The agricultural cycle was also intimately bound up with the religious cycle in
ancient Greece, and for me it is in the latter area that we may find the real reason for
the increased mapping of the night sky by the Greeks. After all, as Anthony Aveni
once astutely pointed out, ‘perfection was unnecessary in meteorological or
R. Hannah
activities. In particular, Hesiod’s wisdom-poem, Works and Days, provides a roughand- ready calendar for activities down on the farm, each often timed by the appearance or disappearance of a star (West, 1978). So, for example, the time of winter
ploughing is signalled by the dawn setting of the Pleiades, the Hyades and Orion
(Works and Days 614–617). Hesiod exhorts his farmer to start the harvest at the
dawn rising of the Pleiades, at the end of their 40-day period of invisibility (Works
and Days 383–387, 571–573). Elsewhere he mentions the culmination of Orion and
Sirius at the time of Arcturus’ dawn rising to indicate the period of the grape harvest
in September (Works and Days 609–611). In all, he provides just nine observations
of the risings or settings of five stars or star groups—Sirius is mentioned once, while
the Pleiades, the Hyades, Orion, and Arcturus are all noted twice—and he adds the
culmination of Orion and Sirius to the rise of Arcturus. These observations are so
arranged that the farmer seems to have been given a remarkably economical safetynet of successive warnings of the appropriate date for a certain activity on the land
(Reiche, 1989).
But these same stars can do double duty. Let us recall that for Hesiod the dawn
rising of the Pleiades marked the time of summer harvesting. In fact, harvesting and
threshing would span a long period, about May-to-July in our terms, and during this
time not only the Pleiades but, of course, the Hyades and Orion would also rise successively just before dawn. Simultaneously, the Bear—neither rising nor setting—
reached its lower transit across the meridian, just skimming the northern horizon.
The relationship of the Bear to the other three star-groups is a close one in the
geometry of the sky, and it would seem also in the related activities on the land,
where ploughing and sowing are first signalled, and later harvesting. We may also
see the significance of the Bear’s second name, the Wagon, a useful vehicle at harvest time (Hannah, 2005: 20–25).
We might wonder how Hesiod knew when the Pleiades and other stars would
first appear before dawn, especially as the Pleiades cluster, although distinctive
enough, is hardly bright, unlike Sirius which the Egyptians observed at dawn to
warn of the next flooding of the Nile. Which in turn governed the land’s economy.
What traditional methods had he inherited? Or did he gain this knowledge from the
East, where these data were already long known? In the East it was knowledge used
for the purposes of predicting astronomical events that were understood to have
influence over human lives, but that would not be a feature of Greek society for
several hundred years still. If the data were adopted from the Babylonians, did the
Greeks, as they were wont, adapt them to their own purposes?
6 Religion
The agricultural cycle was also intimately bound up with the religious cycle in
ancient Greece, and for me it is in the latter area that we may find the real reason for
the increased mapping of the night sky by the Greeks. After all, as Anthony Aveni
once astutely pointed out, ‘perfection was unnecessary in meteorological or
R. Hannah