-:- the house of the sky -:-
-:- the giant, the jawbone and the rain -:-
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How then did the ancients use the sky to calibrate their lives? Without precise calibrations of time, mankind's means of survival could be put into serious jeopardy. Crops that were planted too late would not be ready in time for the rains, or would fail to mature before the oncoming winter. A tribe that didn't know exactly when the herds of animals were expected to migrate across the tundra might well miss them. A ceremony that failed to be performed on the allotted day might cause the Gods to become angry. In each case, the result was clear enough - starvation. Calibration of time using the heliacal observations of star risings was an absolute must. It was in this way that the ancients mapped their world onto the sky.
In Ancient Greece, the Pleiades (also known as the Seven Sisters) in the constellation of Taurus once rose heliacally a few days before the spring equinox. This was their first appearance in the early morning sky since being drowned out by the Sun (in those days, the month of the Taurus Zodiac was late March to April rather than May as it is today), and was a sign that not only was the sacred equinox time approaching, but it was also a time of oncoming rain. In many cultures, including Ancient Greece, the Pleiades were called the 'Rainmakers'. When they appeared in the sky, the rains came.
This was thus an excellent heliacal observation to make and would ensure a bountiful crop next autumn since the moment the ancients saw the Pleiades in the morning, they knew to begin planting. So important was this observation that it forms part of one of the most important myth cycles found all over the world: the story of the Giant, the Jawbone and the Rain.
In brief, the story goes like this. A great giant is born, and who is usually found living in the wild lands, dressed in rough animal skins. He spends his life wandering but he has the gift to make rain, and it is for this reason that the people come to him. He begins to make rain for them, but after a while, the people transgress in some way and the giant becomes angry. He takes his weapon - the jawbone of a bull or an ass or similar - and uses it to massacre the people, who take their revenge by either enslaving the giant or murdering him. Let's look at one local - and probably the most famous - version of the story, from Israel - the story of Samson:
'It came to pass... in the time of wheat harvest, that Samson ('Shams-san' - "Man of the Sun") visited his wife with a kid; and he said, "I will go in to my wife into the chamber". But her father [a Philistine] would not suffer him to go in... And Samson went and... set [certain firebrands] on fire, he let them go into the standing corn of the Philistines, and burnt [them] up... with the vineyards and olives. Then the Philistines said, "Who hath done this?" And they answered, "Samson". And the Philistines came up, and burnt [his wife] and her father with fire. And Samson said unto them "Though ye have done this, yet will I be avenged of you, and after that I will cease".
'And he smote them hip and thigh with a great slaughter: and he went down and dwelt in the top of the rock Etam ("hawk").Then the men of Judah went there... and said to Samson, "Knowest thou not that the Philistines are rulers over us?... We are come down to bind thee, that we may deliver thee into the hand of the Philistines". And Samson said unto them, "Swear unto me, that ye will not fall upon me yourselves". And they spake unto him, saying, "We will bind thee fast, and deliver thee into their hand". And they bound him with two new cords, and brought him down from the rock.
'When he came unto the Philistines... the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and the cords that were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands loosed from off his hands.And he found a new jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand, and took it, and slew a thousand men therewith.
'And Samson said, "With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men".
And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking, that he cast away the jawbone out of his hand... and he was sore athirst, and called on the LORD... God clave an hollow place that was in the jaw, and there came water thereout; and when he had drunk, his spirit came again, and he revived... he called that place Enhakkore ("The Spring")'
Judges Ch15
This story encodes a great deal about Palestinian history, but it is the last few sentences that interest us - the making of water combined with the jawbone and the giant man. Much of the ancient detail is missing, and of course it is now God who has the power to make the rain not the Man of the Sun himself. Nevertheless the Bible has here recorded an ancient remembering of an even older story, the meaning of which was so important to the ancients. But what does this tale encode?
On clear winter evenings from most places in the world, high in the sky can be seen the constellation of Orion. It is a very bright, clearly identifiable pattern in the winter sky. Accompanying this is the constellation of Taurus, which is one of the few constellations which actually looks like what it is supposed to represent: a bull rushing headlong towards the observer. The shape of its jawbone is clearly visible in the stars at the base of the constellation. Next to this jawbone we have of course the Rainmakers, themselves: the Pleiades.
Now of course, the presence of these two constellations in the autumn and winter sky was not particularly useful to our ancestors. But as the year progressed, they began to rise earlier and earlier in the evening, until eventually they rose during the daytime and so were drowned out by the light of the Sun. The ancients would thus have to keep a constant watch during the winter time for the reappearance of the constellations in the dawn sky (just before the spring equinox), and the heliacal rising of the westernmost feature - the Pleiades - would have been an important event. The story of Samson, then, marked out the year - on the day when the Giant and his Rainmaker made a reappearance in the dawn sky, it was time to get planting.
In this way, the Giant, by graciously giving warning of the rain he was about to make, allowed the ancients time enough to plant their crops and thereby ensure their survival through to the next year. In this way, the ancients, by the telling of myths linked to the sky, calibrated their sense of time and began to map out their world.
(c) Bruce Rimell, June 2005
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