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‘Seven Sisters’ Myths May Reach Back 100k Years

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Re: ‘Seven Sisters’ Myths May Reach Back 100k Years

#131

This reminded me of a theory came up with as a teenager, that the Vaanaraas of Ramayana (a group to which the famous "monkey god" Hanuman belongs) may actually be an early hominid that had ape-like features, that lived in parallel with humans in different territory. They were intelligent enough to help the human princes in their quest, which got them a place in their story - a story which went on to become an oral tr…

Some people think the same about the Basajaun [1], a big, hairy hominid from the Basque mythology. The myth says he taught humans to use (some) tools (or humans stole tools from him). Keep in mind the Basque language is so old and rare [2] it's not connected to any Indo-European language. Of course many also think the same of Yeti, Bigfoot, etc. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basajaun [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/…

Also, as far as I remember Basque people have an unusually high proportion of Neanderthal genome.

Re: ‘Seven Sisters’ Myths May Reach Back 100k Years

#132

In Indian astrology, the lunar mansion of Krittika is the same as Pleiades. In Vedic astrology, there are 12 houses and 27 lunar mansions or nakshatras. They are the daughters of Daksha, one of the progenitors of humans. He was also responsible for the procreation of the universe, stars, gods, demons and all things living. The world is born and destroyed again and again. One day of the creator is one epoch. When he c…

Thank you for sharing. Also Murugan comes from the Pleiades, thus his name Kartikeya

Re: ‘Seven Sisters’ Myths May Reach Back 100k Years

#133
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This might not be quite as outlandish as it sounds, because we now have plenty of evidence that early humans were living alongside and interacting with other archaic homo species. I have a pet (similarly highly speculative) theory that the Nephilim[1] of the Bible might be a earlier oral history of Neanderthals. But I'll just leave it at that, speculation. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nephilim

Huh, I have that same pet theory.

Similar pet theory, but that other hominids are remembered as dwarves, elves, and trolls.

Re: ‘Seven Sisters’ Myths May Reach Back 100k Years

#134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Sons of god” is a translation of the Hebrew by non-Jews and is just plain incorrect. It gets passed around as legit probably because it enforces the idea that Christ is a son of God. But If you ask Jews, who wrote that section of the Bible, benei elokim translates as something like “those who are free”: “Who or what exactly are the benei elokim? Who are the nephilim? How are they related to each other? And what does…

That was an interesting read. Thanks. I'm not sure how the linked article expresses more than an alternate translation, though. It says that benei doesn't "necessarily" translate to sons, which doesn't rule out the translation but merely suggests an alternative. The word elokim also refers generally to God, as it says, but can be translated differently. It's an interesting alternative, but the claim that the translat…

> how it even does reenforce that idea.

It reinforces “Christ as the son of God” because, if the phrase is translated as “sons of God”, that sets a precedent in the Old Testament that God has sons. The Jews do not believe God has sons. Christians do. So it is in the best interest of Christian translators to translate that phrase as “sons of God”.

> but the claim that the translation "sons of god" is specifically wrong only seems to be based on the declaration of a single earlier source.

No, I only provided one source (Chabad), but there are many others, including all Jewish translations of the Old Testament (Torah) from the original Hebrew to English. You’ll never see it translated as “sons of God” in a book translated by Jews.

Re: ‘Seven Sisters’ Myths May Reach Back 100k Years

#135
post #129

> ... May Reach Back 100k Years Or may not. One important fact: people get accolades and sometimes even direct monetary incentives for finding something that is supposedly "oldest of". Nobody gets famous or rich by revising "oldest of" dates to a more recent timeline.

You miss the point. They could as easily have been seven geese, seven pebbles, seven lakes, seven boats, seven eyes, seven villages, seven brothers... But they are almost everywhere, instead, seven sisters, across ten thousand miles and fifty millennia. If the story is not that old, how did they so frequently turn out sisters? Morphic resonance? Without, you are left with nothing but a mystery. Citing a common tradit…

They're anthropomorphising the stars as gods, people, and animals that are familiar to them. Families with seven sisters in a tribe of 150 was probably a relatively common occurrence, far more familiar than animals traveling in groups of seven (none that I can think of that do so globally) or gods in a group of seven who they'd have to have previously imagined or imagine anew upon identifying the constellation.

Convergent evolution is very common in biology, which has many more degrees of freedom. Why not in culture too?

Re: ‘Seven Sisters’ Myths May Reach Back 100k Years

#137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was an interesting read. Thanks. I'm not sure how the linked article expresses more than an alternate translation, though. It says that benei doesn't "necessarily" translate to sons, which doesn't rule out the translation but merely suggests an alternative. The word elokim also refers generally to God, as it says, but can be translated differently. It's an interesting alternative, but the claim that the translat…

> how it even does reenforce that idea. It reinforces “Christ as the son of God” because, if the phrase is translated as “sons of God”, that sets a precedent in the Old Testament that God has sons. The Jews do not believe God has sons. Christians do. So it is in the best interest of Christian translators to translate that phrase as “sons of God”. > but the claim that the translation "sons of god" is specifically wron…

Now I am confused, maybe because I am not religious.

But I have always been under the impression that the christians claim jesus is the only son of their god?

Wouldn't other sons conflict with this and not reinforce it?

Re: ‘Seven Sisters’ Myths May Reach Back 100k Years

#138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait a second, this doesn't sound right. According to your wikipedia link, the "Seven Sisters" constellation actually has 9 stars (named after the 7 sisters + parents). They are all visible with the naked eye.

idk about you but when i look at it I see 6. been trying to spot #7, no luck so far.

I imagine hunter-gatherers, whose life depended on their eyesight acuity, would be find it easier to spot than most modern humans do.

Re: ‘Seven Sisters’ Myths May Reach Back 100k Years

#139

Seven is a common story-telling number. Seven days in a week, sailing the seven seas, the seven wonders of the world, the seven continents, seven deadly sins, etc.

Seven colors.

There is a whole spectrum of color, but there are only a handful of colors that most humans distinguish and talk about. It has always seemed odd to me that we elevate Indigo into the spectrum of named colors.

However, Newton was fond of the occult, and numerology, and the number seven. He wrote papers about appearances of the number seven in the Bible.

I think that Newton made Indigo an official color just to bring the number up to 7.

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