most brilliant of the three, would be Tristriyos, the Triangle Star. Meanwhile
H. Fischer had argued that the Greek Σεριο could also be derived from
the reduced form tisrio-, by way of tı ̄rio- > sı ̄rio-, remodelled under the
influence of Σειρ ν.^45
The Pleiades are such a conspicuous little cluster that they must always
have been singled out for attention. There is a probable Bronze Age represen-
tation of them on the Nebra disc (p. 208). But we cannot reconstruct an
Indo-European name for them.^46
The descriptive names given to stars or constellations sometimes prompted
identifications with mythical figures and stories about how they came to be
translated to the sky. But they were essentially fanciful and non-definitive,
not bound up with any serious belief in the cosmic significance of stars and
their groupings. A lexical association shared by Indo-Iranian, Greek, and
Latin suggests that the stars were seen as ornamental as much as anything.
It involves the root *pei seen in Vedic pis ́‘adorn’,pés ́as- ‘adornment,
embroidery’, Avestan pae ̄s‘adorn, colour’, Greek ποικλο‘decorated, multi-
coloured’, ποικλλω ‘make variegated, embroider’, Latin pingo ‘colour,
paint’. In the Rigveda we findpipés ́a na ̄ ́kam
̇
str ́
̇bhih
̇, ‘(Agni) has adorned the
firmament with stars’ (1. 68. 10); arus
̇
ásya duhitára ̄ víru ̄pe: str ́
̇bhir anya ̄ ́, pipis ́é
su ̄ ́ro anya ̄ ́, ‘the red one’s daughters [night and day] are distinct in appearance:
one is adorned with stars, the other from the sun’ (6. 49. 3). In the Avesta
the compound epithet stəhrpae ̄sah-‘star-ornamented’ is applied to Mithra’s
chariot (Yt. 10. 143) and to the heaven (asman-) that Ahura Mazda ̄ wears like
a garment (Yt. 13. 3). Euripides speaks of the qστρων ποικλματα (Hel.
1096), and Critias of the starry body of heaven as ‘the fair ornamentation by
Time, that expert craftsman’ (TrGF 43 F 19. 33 f. το ́ τ, qστερωπ:ν ο1ρανο
δμα, | Χρο ́ νου καλ:ν ποκιλμα,τκτονο σοφο ). The collocation ποικλον
qστερο ́ εντα already occurs in Homer (Il. 16. 133 f.), though only in a descrip-
tion of Achilles’ breastplate. Seneca (Med. 310) speaks of the stars quibus
pingitur aether.^47
(^45) B. Forssman, ZVS 82 (1968), 49–60; H. Fischer, MSS 26 (1969), 19–26; E. Hamp (as n. 42),
- Note that Hamp dispenses with the initial laryngeal of the ‘star’ root, explaining it as a
prefix meaning ‘one’. This is one of several stretched points in his argument, which nevertheless
remains engaging.
(^46) The semantic connections suggested by Scherer (1953), 141–4, between Vedic kr ́
̇
ttika ̄h
̇
,
Greek Π(ε)λεια ́ δε, and Latin Vergiliae are too tenuous to command conviction. However,
there is something to be said for the argument (ibid. 146–9) that the Greek and Latin names for
the Hyades (U Υα ́ δε,Suculae, sc. sow and piglets) go back to a common source, whether
Indo-European or Mediterranean. Cf. W. Gundel, RE viii. 2615–17; O. Szemerényi, ZVS 71
(1954), 216 f.; Scherer in Mayrhofer et al. (1974), 186.
(^47) The material is collected by P. Jackson, IF 106 (2001), 122–5.
- Cosmos and Canon 353