The Judgment of Paris and Some Other Legends Astronomically Considered (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1908 Excerpt: ... APPENDIX THE "STAR OF STARS" AND "DILGAN" Reprinted from the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaology, January, 1906 "When on the first day of the month Nisan the star of stars (or Dilgan) and the moon are parallel, that year is normal. When on the third day of the month Nisan the star of stars and the moon are parallel, that year is full." This translation of an Accadian tablet was contributed to the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (vol. xxxix. p. 455) by Prof. Sayce and Mr Bosanquet; and in a very interesting dissertation on the text they explained how, by observing whether the "star of stars" set at the same time as the new moon on the first or not till the third day of Nisan, it was possible for Accadian astronomers to determine whether in the current year it would or would not be necessary to THE "STAR OF STARS" AND "DILGAN" 165 intercalate a thirteenth month in their soli-lunar calendar, in order to keep the year true to the length of the sun's revolution through the stars. The writers tell us that "Dilgan," a star referred to in other cuneiform inscriptions, "is to be identified with the 'star of stars' of the rule by a passage in an unpublished tablet which makes the 'star of stars' equivalent to 'the star Dilgan of Babylon, '"1 and they proposed to identify Dilgan with the bright conspicuous star Capella, in the constellation Auriga. Mr Maunder has lately again called the attention of astronomers, in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (March, 1904), and in the Journal of the British Astronomical Association (vol. xiv., No. 6), to this Accadian tablet. In these Papers he makes it very clear that two conflicting theories have been propounded by Assyriologists in regard to the Accadian calendar. The two the...