The Caldwell Objects

Northern Hemisphere, and people celebrated this
special event with religious ceremonies and
festivals. Although we no longer hold ceremonies
to honor the union of Bull and Sun, one lasting
symbol of the horned creature and its importance
in human affairs can be seen on modern star
charts: the Greek letter Alpha (α), which
descended from the first letter in both the
Hebrew and Phoenician alphabets, resembles a
bull's head and horns.
Humans began associating the terrestrial Bull
with the celestial Bull as early as the late
Neolithic age. While touring Turkey after the
August 1999 total solar eclipse, I saw some
Neolithic cave paintings on display at the
Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara.
One shows a large red bull surrounded by several
tiny black and red "stick figures" armed with
bows and spears. I found myself mesmerized by
the simple portrayal. Primitive hunters depended
on the life cycles and migrations of large animals,
and it's conceivable that this painting could have
been used to invoke a spirit whose magical
powers would help the artists with their hunt (at
least that is what my guide inferred at the
museum). Might this Bull have been Taurus? My
guide did not know.
Anthropologists long have argued that the
animals shown in cave paintings were created for
religious rites and not to make artistic
impressions. But the Turkish cave painting
seemed to depict an actual (if fantastic) battle
with a large beast of prey. It seemed no different
than another one (dated circa 6,000 B.C.) that
depicted an eruption of Hasan Dag, a volcano in
central Turkey The latter piece of artwork is now
regarded as the earliest evidence of human
interest in volcanic phenomena. Clearly art is
subject to interpretation; that hasn't changed
with the ages. In any case, while looking at the
Neolithic battle scene I realized that our
ancestors painted similar
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battle scenes in the night sky, and we benefit
from their vivid imaginations today. Each winter
night we can look up at the dark "cave" of the sky
and admire the stick figure of Orion, the Hunter,
poised to do battle with Taurus, the Bull.
Wielding his club and thrusting his shield
forward, the mighty Hunter successfully drives
the Bull back, night after night, until he herds the
horned animal into the pen of the western
horizon.
In Greek mythology, seven Hyads were the
daughters of Atlas (the Titan condemned to
support the Earth and sky on his shoulders for
eternity) and Aethra. The Hyades' paternity
makes them the half-sisters of the Pleiades, who
were born to Atlas and Pleione; together the
Hyades and Pleiades constitute the 14 daughters
of Atlantis, or the Atlantides. Some works try to
lessen Atlas's familial burden by dubbing the
Hyades the Dodinides, or nurses of Bacchus. The
sisters do have names, but mysteries remain. The
Greek poet Hesiod (8th century B.C.) spoke of
five: Eudora, Kleea, Koronis, Phaeo, and
Phaesula. Seven are elsewhere attributed to
Pherecydes, and their presumably corrupted
names, according to Richard Hinckley Allen, are
Aesula, Ambrosia, Dione, Eudora, Koronis,
Polyxo, and Thyene (also known as Thyone).
Other variations are invoked elsewhere. Alas,
unlike the case with
The Caldwell Objects 163