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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milky_Way_(mythology) wrote:
Milky Way (mythology)

. Egyptian

In Egyptian mythology, the Milky Way was considered a pool of cow's milk. It was deified as a fertility cow-goddess by the name of Bat (later on syncretized with the goddess Hathor).

. Greek and Roman

A story told by the Roman Hyginus in the Poeticon astronomicon (ultimately based on Greek myth) says that the milk came from the goddess Ops (Greek Rhea), the wife of Saturn (Greek Cronus). Saturn swallowed his children to ensure his position as head of the Pantheon and sky god, and so Ops conceived a plan to save her newborn son Jupiter (Greek Zeus): She wrapped a stone in infant's clothes and gave it to Saturn to swallow. Saturn asked her to nurse the child once more before he swallowed it, and the milk that spurted when she pressed her nipple against the rock eventually became the Milky Way.

Older Greek mythology associates the Milky Way with a herd of dairy cows/cattle, where each cow is a star and whose milk gives the blue glow.[citation needed] As such, it is intimately associated with legends concerning the constellation of Gemini, with which it is in contact. The constellation was named for the twins, Castor and Polydeuces, who sometimes raided cattle. In addition, Gemini (in combination with Canis Major, Orion, Auriga, and the deserted area now called Camelopardalis) may form the origin of the myth of the Cattle of Geryon, one of The Twelve Labours of Heracles.



. Armenian

Ancient Armenian mythology called the Milky Way the "Straw Thief's Way". According to legend, the god Vahagn stole a straw from the Assyrian king Barsham and brought it to Armenia during a cold winter. When he fled across the heavens, he spilled some of the straw along the way.

. Khoisan

The Khoisan people of the Kalahari desert in southern Africa say that long ago there were no stars and the night was pitch black. A girl, who was lonely and wanted to visit other people, threw the embers from a fire into the sky and created the Milky Way.

. Cherokee

A Cherokee folktale tells of a dog who stole some cornmeal and was chased away. He ran away to the north, spilling the cornmeal along the way. The Milky Way is thus called Gili Ulisvsdanvyi "The Way the Dog Ran Away".

. Eastern Asia

Peoples in Eastern Asia believed that the hazy band of stars was the "Silvery River" of Heaven (Chinese: 銀河, Korean: eunha and Japanese: ginga). In one story, the stars Altair and Vega were said to be two lovers who were allowed to meet only once a year on the seventh day of the seventh month, when a flock of magpies and crows formed a bridge over the galactic river. That day is celebrated as Qi Xi, the Seventh Night (Chinese: 七夕; pinyin: qī xī, Korean: chilseok and Japanese: tanabata).


. Finno-Ugric

Among the Finns, Estonians and related peoples, the Milky Way was called "The Pathway of the Birds" (Finnish: Linnunrata, Estonian: Linnutee). The Finns observed that the migratory birds used the galaxy as a guideline to travel south, where they believed Lintukoto (bird home) resided. In Estonian folklore it is believed that the birds are led by a white bird with the head of a maiden who chases birds of prey away. Only later did scientists indeed confirm this observation; the migratory birds use the Milky Way as a guide to travel to warmer, southern lands during the winter. The name in the Indo-European Baltic languages has the same meaning (Lithuanian: Paukščių Takas, Latvian: Putnu Ceļš).
Jacopo Tintoretto's "The Origin of the Milky Way"


. Hindu

In the Hindu collection of stories called Bhagavata purana, all the visible stars and planets moving through space are likened to a dolphin that swims through the water, and the heavens is called śiśumãra cakra, the dolphin disc. The Milky Way forms the abdomen of the dolphin and is called Akasaganga which means "The Ganges River of the Sky".

. Hungarian

In Hungarian mythology, Csaba, the mythical son of Attila the Hun and ancestor of the Hungarians is supposed to ride down the Milky Way when the Székelys (ethnic Hungarians living in Romania) are threatened. Thus the Milky Way is called "The Road of the Warriors" Hungarian: Hadak Útja .

. Māori

To the Māori the Milky Way is the waka (canoe) of Tama-rereti. The front and back of the canoe are Orion and Scorpius, while the Southern Cross and the Pointers are the anchor and rope. According to legend, when Tama-rereti took his canoe out onto a lake, he found himself far from home as night was falling. There were no stars at this time and in the darkness the Taniwha would attack and eat people. So Tama-rereti sailed his canoe along the river that emptied into the heavens (to cause rain) and scattered shiny pebbles from the lakeshore into the sky. The sky god, Ranginui, was pleased by this action and placed the canoe into the sky as well as a reminder of how the stars were made.

The slight bulge of the Milky Way around Scorpius is also sometimes pictured as a whale.

. Australian Aboriginal

The Kaurna Aboriginal People of the Adelaide Plains in South Australia see the band of the Milky Way as a river in the skyworld. They called it Wodliparri (wodli = hut, house, parri = river) and believe that positioned along the river are a number of dwellings. In addition, the dark patches are where a dangerous creature known as a yura lives; the Kaurna call these patches Yurakauwe, which literally means "monster water." Moreover, Aboriginal Groups from the Cape York region of Queensland see the band of light as termites that had been blown into the sky by the ancestral hero Burbuk Boon. Further south the band of stars that comprise the Milky Way are seen as thousands of flying foxes carrying away a dancer known as Purupriggie.

In addition, the Aranda who come from central Australia see the band of the Milky Way as a river or creek in the skyworld. This stellar river separates the two great camps of the Aranda and Luritja People. The stars to the east of this river represent the camps of the Aranda and the stars to the west represent Luritja encampments and some stars closer to the band representing a mixture of both.>>

rudomundo wrote:Is this some sort of December 21st, 2012 reference?

petsie wrote:I am interested in the nature of the very bright and seemingly red spots in the image of our galaxy (in the middle and above). Are they just very bright stars or what kind of objects are these? Shouldn't they appear blue, if their origin are hot stars?

petsie wrote:I am interested in the nature of the very bright and seemingly red spots in the image of our galaxy (in the middle and above).

apodman wrote:

petsie wrote:I am interested in the nature of the very bright and seemingly red spots in the image of our galaxy (in the middle and above).

The Day of the Triffids (1962) wrote:
[first lines] Narrator: In nature's scheme of things, there are certain plants which are carnivorous, or eating plants.
This is a newcomer: Triffidus Celestus, brought to earth on the meteorite during the Day of the Triffids.

Narrator: All reports confirm that the world is witnessing an unprecedented shower of meteorites. There is no record of a display such as this in recorded history. At observatories astronomers are noting this fantastic phenomenon, and are carefully calculating the effect on our solar system.

Tom Goodwin: [to Karen] Keep behind me. There's no sense in getting killed by a plant.

[last lines] Narrator: A simple method had been found to destroy the Triffids. Sea water, from which life on Earth had sprung, became the means of preserving life on Earth. Mankind survived and once again have reason to give thanks.

Creature from the Black [b]Lagoon[/b] (1954) wrote:
Lucas: I can tell you something about this place. The boys around here call it "The Black Lagoon"; a paradise.
Only they say nobody has ever come back to prove it.

David Reed: We didn't come here to fight monsters, we're not equipped for it.

petsie wrote:Dear members of this forum,
I did not want to start a new topic about the same image but have got another question.
I am an absolute amteur (I am even unable to find enough "a"s on my keyboard ), but I am interested in the nature of the very bright and seemingly red spots in the image of our galaxy (in the middle and above). Are they just very bright stars or what kind of objects are these? Shouldn't they appear blue, if their origin are hot stars?
Thank you in advance,
Peter

orin stepanek wrote:I think it's cool that we live by a yellow star.

Chris Peterson wrote:

orin stepanek wrote:I think it's cool that we live by a yellow star.

In this case, "yellow" refers to the peak wavelength of the 5500K blackbody output of the Sun. In reality, our star is white; its output essentially defines that color for human vision.

orin stepanek wrote:

Chris Peterson wrote:

orin stepanek wrote:I think it's cool that we live by a yellow star.

In this case, "yellow" refers to the peak wavelength of the 5500K blackbody output of the Sun. In reality, our star is white; its output essentially defines that color for human vision.

I'll stand corrected! I guess I placed the white and yellow in the same category.

orin stepanek wrote:the truly white get pretty close to being blue

orin stepanek wrote:At least someone else thinks old Sol' is tinted yellow. I won't argue the point as it is hot enough to keep old Terra nice and cozy.

Chris Peterson wrote:

orin stepanek wrote:At least someone else thinks old Sol' is tinted yellow. I won't argue the point as it is hot enough to keep old Terra nice and cozy.

When viewed high in the sky, the Sun does indeed take a slightly yellow tint. Not because it is intrinsically yellow, however. The Sun looks yellow because the atmosphere scatters away some of its blue content, shifting the apparent color of the source itself.

Chris Peterson wrote:The effect is even more obvious when the Sun is low on the horizon, and enough of the shorter wavelength energy is scattered and absorbed to turn the Sun red. If you were in space, the Sun would look convincingly white, however.

neufer wrote:Rather than looking at the Sun directly :shock: can't we just look at sunlit white objects outside (e.g., most clouds) and recognize them as being white.

orin stepanek wrote:I still think It is yellow! We see it as white because it is so bright and it still carries all the colors of the spectrum!

Chris Peterson wrote:

neufer wrote:Rather than looking at the Sun directly can't we just look at sunlit white objects outside (e.g., most clouds) and recognize them as being white.

Yes, we can do just that. And some variations. Snow works well: snow under the open, clear sky is white. Snow in the shade is blue, because it receives no direct sunlight but does receive the scattered blue sky light. Patches of sunlight shining through trees onto heavily shaded snow are yellow, because they receive more direct sun and less sky scatter.

Chris Peterson wrote: All of these effects can require a little practice to see, since our brains are quite effective at adjusting our own white point under different conditions. The effects are very obvious in photos. Another thing to note about the Sun: when it is high in the sky it's far too bright to be able to see color. We don't see color unless the brightness in attenuated, and under natural conditions, that is caused by things that also scatter or absorb shorter wavelengths- dust, fog, a large air mass.