(Part 4 of 4, regarding RIAP on The Dogon)
It is known in astronomy that a white dwarf arises from a red
giant as this loses its mass. This process is usually accompanied
by a slow ejection of a planetary nebula which eventually
dissipates into space. But sometimes the remaining core of the
red giant can retain a mass exceeding the so-called Chandrasekhar
limit (about 1.3 Sun masses). This leads inevitably to disastrous
self-compression of the core and its explosion as a Supernova. As
a result, powerful streams of matter and radiation are ejected
into the surrounding space.
If such an event had ever happened in the Sirius system, at
a small (on the cosmic scale) distance from the Solar system, it
might have been fatal for the terrestrial biosphere. My idea was
that some highly developed supercivilization could have tried to
remove the excess of stellar matter from Sirius B, thus saving
life and civilization on Earth.
Really, the only thing we know for sure about the evolution of
the Sirius system is the fact that Sirius B was once a red giant
whose mass exceeded that of Sirius A (that's why the former
evolved more rapidly). The initial orbit of Sirius B was, most
likely, circular; now it is a highly elongated ellipse. This
suggests that the mass loss was accompanied by some considerable
disturbances. Some part of the "lost" matter probably
contaminated the atmosphere of Sirius A (see: [5]). But the real
course of events is still very unclear. The situation will seem
even more in-volved if we bear in mind the possible presence of
the second satellite in this system, as is asserted by the Dogon
and confirmed by recent astrophysical data (see: [6]).
It would be certainly very helpful to study thoroughly the Sirius
system with modern astronomical equipment (say, by radio
interferometers with a very long baseline). But it appears that
relevant (and rather interesting) information can also be found
in those vestiges of the great mythologies of Europe, Asia and
Africa which have survived till now, however odd and strange they
may appear to us. This information cannot be taken at face value,
for the myth is a very special form of thinking and knowledge,
much different from our modern mentality. We should carefully
analyze and interpret mythological stories and characters to
understand their profound sense and real significance. There are
on this road many pitfalls and false turnings, but there may also
be found some road-signs and important hints. Let us go through
some of them.
It is well known that the most common (though not the only) name
for Sirius in the ancient world was "The Dog" (with the variants:
the wolf, the fox, the jackal). The ancient Egyptians called it,
in particular, the Starry Dog and identified the star with
Anubis, the jackal - or dog-headed god of the dead. The North
American Indian Cherokee tribe believed that this Dog awaited the
souls of the dead on the Milky Way; the Blackfeet Indians named
the star "Dog-face." The oldest Hindu name for Sirius was Sarama,
"one of the Twin Watch-dogs of the Milky Way" [7, p. 119]. The
Chinese knew this star as the Heavenly Wolf, and the Greeks as
the Dog of Orion, or more specifically, as the dog Orthrus, a son
of the monster Typhon. The Romans saw in it the Southern
Cerberus, a watch-dog of their hell. As for the fennec Ogo, it is
the smallest wild animal in the dog family (which hints probably
at the small size of Sirius B).
What is more, Sirius represented not a decent house dog, but a
terrible beast, monstrous and dangerous for everyone. It was
related to death, hell and disaster. Orphrus' father Typhon was
identified with the Egyptian evil god Seth (who, incidentally,
was sometimes portrayed as a dog-headed creature) and was
regarded as one of the monstrous adversaries of Zeus. The latter
fought with Typhon and defeated him with much difficulty.
Finally, Ogo himself is, as we know, a very harmful character in
the Dogon mythology.
The worship of a dangerous dog was wide-spread in the ancient
world, and this is rather strange: the dog was in fact the "first
friend" of ancient man and played a very important part in his
everyday life. Nonetheless, the fact remains: dogs (as well as
wolves and jackals, which seems much more natural) were regarded
as chthonian animals, guardians of the underworld. The "Inmost
Story" of the Mongols contains a motif of monstrous metal dogs
who feed on human flesh. The terrible dog Yarchuk, from Slavic
mythology, had a wolf tooth in his mouth and two vipers under his
lower lip. According to a Russian belief, a Solar eclipse happens
when the heavenly wolf swallows the Sun (this idea was not
unfamiliar to many other peoples).
The Ukrainians believed that Ursa Major was a team of horses with
harness; "every night a black dog tries to bite through the
harness, in order to destroy the world, but he does not achieve
his disastrous aim: at dawn, when he runs to drink from a spring,
the harness renews itself" [8, p. 168]. Another version of this
story states that a dog was chained beside Ursa Minor; he tries
in every way to gnaw through his iron chain, and when this
happens, the world will perish. According to the famous ancient
Greek philosopher Proclus, who lived in the 5th century A.D.,
"the fox star nibbles continuously at the thong of the yoke which
holds together heaven and Earth"; the Germans added that "when
the fox succeeds, the world will come to its end" [9, p.385].
One can find some interesting details of this future event in the
Nordic mythology. It has been called "Ragnaroek", and the wolf
Fenrir, together with the great dog Garm, play leading parts in
it. Having snapped his fetters (which, incidentally, were made of
nothing), Fenrir will devour the Sun and the supreme god Odin.
These fetters are of much importance for our subject. As was
ascertained by the Russian philologist Dr. Vyacheslav Ivanov, the
motif of the fight against the dragon in Slavic mythology grew
out of an older motif of the hero-black-smiths, chaining up a
terrible dog. What is still more essential, "over the whole
territory of Eurasia, this mythological complex is associated
both with the Great Bear..., with a star near it as a dog which
is dangerous for the Universe, and also with blacksmiths..." [10,
p. 210]. One should remember that, although Sirius is far from
this constellation in the firmament, it belongs to the same
star-cluster.
Now, let us pay some attention to other Sirius names. There
exists in mythology some kind of "principle of complementarity":
you can describe a complex phenomenon, using a set of quite
different, even incompatible, images. Thus, the first satellite
of Sirius is at the same time an empty husk of a millet grain,
and the Pale Fox himself. Just as much, Sirius may have been
represented as the Dog, the Arrow, the Triangle, as well as in
many other ways. This star was either the tip of the arrow (in
Mesopotamia and Persia), or its target (in China, as well as in
Ancient Egypt). The Chinese mythical emperor Huang-ti was both a
smith and an archer; on an ancient picture he aims at the
celestial jackal, located beside another star, which represent,
probably, the A and B components of this system [9, ill. between
pp. 216 and 217]. I would like to recall in this connection the
hypothesis of the Russian scholar Dr. Igor Lissievich about
possible paleovisits at the early stages of China's history.
Huang-ti was the main character of these hypothetical events
(see: [11]).
The Iranian mythology personified Sirius as Tishtrya, the divine
archer (the corresponding character in the Vedic myths was
Tishya). The name "Tishtrya" goes back to the Sanskrit term
"three stars" and to an older Indo-European one of the same
meaning. Some scholars prefer to see here a designation of the
Belt of Orion, but it seems to be just an ad hoc conjecture. On
the other hand, the name "three stars" is quite justified in
terms of the Dogon concept of this stellar system. There is, by
the way, a direct relationship between the word "Tishtrya" and
the name of the hellish dog Cerberus.
Thus, there are in various parts of the world some traces of an
ancient --and rather clear-- concept of Sirius as a dangerous
stellar system, consisting of three stars. Its transformation has
been described, first, as the transition from Typhon (a fiery
monster in rage, that is a red giant before its change into a
Supernova) to Orphrus (a dangerous but suppressed beast, that is
the core of the red giant in the process of its "calm" turning
into a white dwarf). Second, the Dog is usually chained up by
sacred blacksmiths, which can be interpreted as a description of
astroengineering activity by a supercivilization. Nommos are also
considered as heavenly blacksmiths, but they do not chain up the
Fox; they simply circumcise him. This rather unexpected metaphor
expresses very clearly the main point: it was necessary to remove
the excess of stellar matter from Sirius B. The 240 years of
increased brightness of the star looks like a slow explosion of
this "cosmic bomb".
When did all this happen? Astrophysical data suggest that the
lifetime of Sirius B as a white dwarf has been 30 to 100 million
years. However, some classical authors, such as Ptolemy and
Seneca, described Sirius as red, which is very different from its
present white-bluish appearance. For instance, Seneca wrote:
"...The redness of the Dog star is deeper, that of Mars milder,
that of Jupiter nothing at all." This enigma has been discussed
by astronomers since the 18th century up to now, and it remains
still unsolved. It is astrophysically very unlikely that Sirius B
could have been a red giant as recently as 2000 years ago; but we
cannot rule out entirely the possibility of lasting
astroengineering works in this system. In any case, attempts to
explain the red color of Sirius by some atmospheric causes are
not very convincing. There is some evidence that the epithet
"red" was not unusual for Sirius in the past. Thus, Tistrya was
called "aurusha", what can be translated either as "white", or as
"red". In Egyptian hieroglyphic writing, Sirius was depicted as a
red triangle with a small semicircle and a five-pointed star near
it (see Ref. 12). The Babylonians referenced to the star as
"shining like copper". Finally, the Dogon represent Po tolo by a
red stone (let us note it is precisely Po tolo, not Sigi tolo or
Emme ya tolo, which is represented in such a way!).
In a recent work [13J R.Ceragioli has made an attempt to solve
the riddle of Sirius' redness in the context of classical
philology: the color red was in antiquity a token of danger. The
most typical cultural pattern for Sirius connected it with fire,
fever, rage, bloodshed, heat and other perils; that is why it may
have been called red even in spite of evidence. It is
questionable, however, if Ptolemy and Seneca were so much devoted
to the cultural tradition that they did not trust their own eyes
and took a color of Sirius' scintillations for the intrinsic
color of the star. It seems more appropriate to assume that they
did in fact see Sirius as red, even though this can have been
just a temporary reddening related to some physical (or
astroengineering?) processes in this stellar system (cf. [14]).
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The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
Shalom, A Salaam Aleikum, and to all, A Good Day.
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