STAR OF DAVID SEE MAGEN DAVID
STARS. In all times and places, the starry night sky has
both challenged and satisfied the human need to order, cate-
gorize, and standardize the unknown. In their efforts to make
the night sky a familiar place, ancient civilizations imposed
on groups of stars the outlines of mythical and historical fig-
ures, thus linking the celestial and terrestrial realms. The two
terms used for these star groups are constellation and zodiac.
Constellations are groups of stars held together by the
human mind and eye. While certain of them may be related
mythologically, such as the Pleiades and Orion, they are es-
sentially autonomous and not limited in number. The zodiac
is an integrated system of twelve constellations, referred to
by astrological signs, that forms a backdrop to the move-
ments of the sun, moon, and planets. Each zodiacal sign is
also associated with a part of the human body and thereby
serves to link the celestial and terrestrial planes. Aries, the
first sign, represents the head; Pisces, the feet; the ten remain-
ing signs between them represent other parts of the body in
descending order. While scholars credit Babylonia with de-
vising the zodiac (c. 700–420 BCE), the Babylonians them-
selves in their creation epic, the Enuma elish, credit the god
Marduk with that invention.
The ancient Egyptians also developed an integrated sys-
tem of star organization. Here, the thirty-six decans, or star
groups, each ten degrees in width and each named for a deity,
served two purposes. The heliacal rising (first appearance in
the dawn sky) of the leading star of each decan was noted,
then used to mark out the twelve-month Egyptian calendar.
At night, the decans functioned as a star clock, enabling
priests to know the correct time for the performance of reli-
gious observances. In this way the temporal rhythms of the
earth were linked to those of the sky.
In Indian tradition the Naks:atras, or lunar mansions,
comprise another integrated system of stars. The passage of
the moon through the sky was charted as the journey of the
god Soma through his “resting places.” Each star is thought
to be inhabited by one of the twenty-eight wives with whom
Soma spends one night each month.
THE SKY IN MYTH. In religions around the world, the sky
symbolizes transcendence and sacrality, stretching and satis-
fying the human imagination. Whether it is understood as
the home of the gods, the resting place of heroes, or the land
of the dead, the sky is often envisioned as the transcendental
model for human existence. The powers of the stars watch
and guide people in life and welcome them in death. As the
land of the ancestral dead, the stars represent the place of fu-
ture human existence and reward. In them humans will en-
dure forever, see and know all, thus also becoming godlike.
On the terrestrial plane, everything exists in a state of
constant change. Nature is unpredictable—sometimes be-
nign and sometimes malevolent. The sky alone remains
constant, predictable, beyond change. Since the distant sky
gods are usually the lawgivers of a culture, establishing order
in human society, the celestial-terrestrial relationship is a re-
ciprocal one: Humans order the uncharted night sky by im-
posing images on it, while the heavens, in return, impose
lawful order on human society.Catasterisms, tales in which either humans or animals
achieve immortality by becoming stars, express the notion of
the stars as the home of heroes. Catasterisms present a per-
manent image of the reward for heroic feats while providing
an etiological explanation for the existence of individual stars
and constellations. These tales exists in such diverse cultures
as Australia, where a man becomes a star to avoid the wrath
of the irate husband chasing him, and Greenland, where a
group of lost seal hunters become stars. The Greeks and the
Romans were the most prolific creators of catasterisms.These stories relate that after death the soul becomes a
star, a notion that originated with the Pythagoreans. The be-
lief that only heroes become stars leads to the use of star
groups such as Herakles and the Pleiades as models for heroic
effort and reward. Star groups such as Andromeda and
Orion, by contrast, serve as demonstrations of the lasting
punishment given for the sin of hubris. The star Antinoüs
was named in 132 CE in honor of Hadrian’s young lover who
drowned himself in the belief that he could thereby add the
years allotted to him to Hadrian’s life.The Milky Way, which is frequently called the River of
Heaven or the Celestial Road, is connected with the notion
of the stars as the land of the dead. In Norse mythology it
is the road of the ghosts going to Valho
Ell; in Celtic lore it
is created by Gwydion so that he can use it to seek his son’s
soul in the heavens; in Islam it is said that Muh:ammad
walked on it to reach God; in Akkad it was called the River
of the Divine Lady and was traveled by ghosts; in eastern
Washington state the Sanpoil Indians place the land of the
dead at the end of it; the Pawnee say it is the path followed
by the spirits of the dead, and the Lakota add that travel to
the Spirit Land is interrupted just before arrival by an old
woman who checks for wrist tattoos; those without tattoos
are sent back to earth as ghosts.TEMPLES AND THE STARS. The most concrete way to estab-
lish the importance of the stars in the ancient world is to
study the alignment of temples with particular stars. As sa-
cred structures, temples—especially those dedicated to sky
gods—are designed according to a celestial pattern. In 1894
J. Norman Lockyer published his research on Egyptian tem-
ples, under the title The Dawn of Astronomy. With the advent
of modern technology, much of Lockyer’s dating has been
called into question, but his general theory of celestial align-
ment is still operative. In England, the Americas, and the an-
cient Near East there is evidence of such alignment. Ancient
temples were most commonly constructed in relation to the
sun’s position at the solstice or equinox, but there are signifi-
cant instances of design with relation to individual stars.STARS 8733