VV(18): Sirius

[Otto]

Dave Monroe:
VV(18): Sirius
> "Certain quarters of Paris raved under the heat of Sirius, were touched by
> its halo of plague, which is nine light-years from rim to center." (V.,
> Ch. 14, Sec. i, pp. 393-4)
>
VV(18): "Papa!"
> "On reaching the intersection with the Boulevard Haussmann, the car turned
> right up rue de la Chaussee d'Antin.  To her left rose the dome of the
> Opera, and tiny Apollo, with his golden lyre ...
>   "'Papa!' she screamed."
> (V., Ch. 14, Sec. 1, p. 394)

Aristaios, Son of Kyrene and Apollo

Well, Sirius is a fine idea. The dog star, a binary system in fact.
The Dogon in the Sahel knew this without modern equipment. I've seen that in
a documentary years ago. Simple shepherds and millet-farmers who have never
seen a telescope drawing a simple painting in the desert sand and explaining
that Sirius has an invisible companion.
R. A. Wilson was very exited about messages from Sirius in his "Cosmic
Trigger" but a short re-read delivered nothing of
interest there.

Anyway, I thought what has Apollo to do with Sirius? Where does the pest
reference to Sirius Pynchon uses come from?

I checked Apollo at Karl Kerényi, "Die Mythologie der Griechen" (dtv)
and Robert von Ranke-Graves, Griechische Mythologie" (rowohlt) and looked
for Apollo's children. Though bisexual there should be at least some. . . .

I found Aristaios, the "best god," son of Apollo and and the nymph Kyrene
(who later had another son with Ares, Diomedes).

Kerényi says that according to Vergils "Aeneis" (4.377) Apollon had changed
into a wolf when he took Kyrene . . .

Aristaios was raised and educated by the healer Chiron. He worked for the
muses as a shepherd and got the gifts of healing and prediction from them.
When Sirius was burning the Cyclades Islands and the people found no way
aginst the pest, they called for him, ordered to do so by Apollo. On his
father's order he came and did some sacrificing to Zeus and Sirius. From
this day on the "Etesien" --passat winds-- began to blow for forty days.
(p. 113)

Ranke-Graves tells it a little bit different, but only en detail. He gives
the reason why Sirius burns a special island (Keos) with a disease (entry
No. 82 in the German edition).

Otto


>
> As J. Kerry Grant, A Companion to V. (Athens: U of Georgia P, 2001), notes
> "Alpha Canis Majoris, the Dog Star, 8.6 light years from the solar system.
> Associated with the so-called dog days of Juloy an August." (p. 172)
>
> A light year, of course, being the distance light travels (in vacuo) in
> one (sidereal) year, which, at roughly 186,000 mi/sec (300,000 km/sec)
> = er, just under 6 trillion miles, or just under 9.5 trillion kilometers.
The
> binary system of Alpha and Proxima Centauri is the nearest solar system to
> our own (4.3 light years away), but Sirius, also part of a binary system
> (with a white dwarf not visible to that proverbial "naked" eye), although
> twice as far away, is the brightest star (not counting, of course, our
> very own Le Soleil) in the sky (that "Morning Star" being, of course,
> the planet Venus [!]).  All sorts of mythological associations,
> which I'm going to pawn
> off on this most excellent hyperlink ...
>
> http://www.louisville.edu/~aoclar01/ancient/astronomy/Sirius.htm
>
> Which, most immediately for our purposes, points out that  ...
>
> "Sirius derives from the word: Seirios, which means 'the Scorcher.'  As
> these civilizations recognized Sirius' constellation as the Great Dog, the
> term 'Dog Days' came into being, and this term is still in use to this day
> to conote the hottest days of late summer, typically August.
>
> "The Romans continued this tradition. The poet, Vergil, writing in the
> first century BCE, in The Aeneid, states: 'the Dog Star, that burning
> constellation, whe he brings drought and disease to sickly mortals, rises
> and saddens the sky with inauspicious light.'"
>
> And here's a few more fer ya ...
>
> http://www.bartleby.com/65/si/Sirius.html
>
> http://astrosun.tn.cornell.edu/courses/astro201/sirius.htm
>
> http://www.tmclark.com/Starwatch/3_1.html
>
> Now, I might not be back 'til tomorrow morning, or even tomorrow night, so
> keep in mind, I do intend to get past the first page of the chapter in the
> week ahead.  Any discussion, notes, whatever, will be appreciated ...
>