Mythemes

  • Mythemes regarding constellations are considered separately.

Equinoctial

  • Finding the vernal equinox.
    • Bringing/ kindling of fire = Ancient provenance ranging from British Columbian Amerindians to Hindus.
    • Stag stealing the fire for men. bhRgu doing the same?
    • Archer shooting Orion?

Precession of the equinox

  • Great epochal shifts and disasters, stabilization by the Gods and heroes. Mythic chaos.
    • viShNu’s avatAra-s
    • indra and bR^ihaspati opening the door of the mountain to recover the sun.
    • uttanka myth in mahAbhArata has an illicit advance, temporary blindness, some chaos etc..
    • Recovery and shattering of sampo in Kalavela
  • The loss, theft or disappearance of bright objects, like fire, and gold are typically associated with myths signifying the precession of the axis with the sun (the bright object emerging often elsewhere).
    • The fire going into water- the vADava fire of the Indo-Aryan myth
    • Vainaemoinen and Ilmarinen recovering the fire dropped into water, after the old sun was hidden in a mountain - kalavela
  • Illicit or incestuous sexual relationships
    • kR^ittika and the birth of kumAra has the wives of 6 of the 7 R^iShis engaging in an illicit dalliance with agni
    • prajApati making an incestuous advance on his own daughter rohiNI
    • Churning of the ocean - rudra towards mohinI
  • Change in pole-star myths
    • Setting dhruva
    • Vainaemoinen setting the great bear in sky - Kalavela
  • vR^iShAkapi hymn - indrANI jealous of the vRShAkapi.

Ecliptic coordinates

  • Axis Mundii
    • Great Mountain
    • pole
    • Tree
      • Also in kalvela
    • rotating millstone
      • sampo made by Ilmarinen in kalavela
  • The southern celestial hemisphere.
    • Ocean
  • equinoctial colures
    • Fire sticks
  • two halves of the year (esp. surrounding vernal equinox, but sometimes solstice).
    • Crashing doors Said to crush foes. Ancient provenance ranging from British Columbian Amerindians to Hindus.
  • Northward movement of the sun
    • Regeneration of the sun after sinking in winter.
  • Equinox/ divAkIrtya hymn props up the frame of the sun.

Sun

  • mArtANDa.
  • A bird.
  • The head of makha is the severed head of the sacrifice that became the sun as per the brAhmaNas.
  • Goes in the sky-boat

Eclipse

  • Lunar nodes, where eclipses occur
    • rAhu and ketu
  • Saros cycle (223 synodic months, approximately 6585.3211 days at 29.530588 mean solar days per month, or 6690 tithis, ~241 naxatra months). A sar is one half of a saros. When vishvAmitra says: “3339 Gods serve agni”, he’s referring to this sar.
  • Solar eclipse
    • Seizure by demon svarbhAnu. Slain by Indra
    • divAkIrtya-s, deployed by the ashvins, are said to restore the “head of the yaJNa”.
    • “The blindness of chyavana followed by his restoration (by ashvins) is, at its heart, a solar restoration myth superimposed on the the history of the bhArgava-s.”
    • Reuses hymns connected with regeneration of sun (ie northward movement) after sinking in winter. Mixed with hymns connected with restoration of world axis post-precession.
    • Seizure by rAhu, who is slain by viShNu.

Creation

  • Great sacrifice
  • mArtANDa
    • Ilmatar the progenitor of the universe breaks an egg which gives rise to heaven and earth. The yolk become the sun and the white the moon.