Meaning Of Pleiades Research Paper

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3. The meaning of the name Pleiades It is noteworthy that Pleiades were connected with sailing. The idea that the name of Pleiades has been derived from the name of their mother, i.e.: name Pleiades means “daughters of Pleione”. However, in reality the name of the star-cluster seems to have been derived the verb πλεῖν “to sail” because of the cluster's importance in delimiting the sailing season in the Mediterranean Sea: “the season of navigation began with their heliacal rising” (Pleiades). The idea that Pleiades has been derived from the name of Pleion is nothing else, but a very naïve attempt to explain the origin of the name and actually it is nothing else, but so called folk etymology (Hard 2004: 518). 4. Possible interpretation of Maia/Maja deity …show more content…

The fact that Maja is connected with Pleiades in ancient Greek mythology means that initial Minoan Maja could also be protector of sailors. In this context use of name Maja in an incantation against a disease is completely logical since seafaring was very important activities of Minoan people, and so a deity that was protector of sailors evidently was considered as a mighty one and could also be an effective protector against other troubles. The fact that name Maja was written with determinative “god”, but not “goddess” in Egyptian papyrus while in late Greek mythology Maia is a goddess can inspire certain speculations about initial gender of the deity. There can be the following possible interpretations: a) Egyptian who wrote down the incantation simply didn’t care much about initial gender of this Minoan deity; b) Egyptian who wrote down the incantation thought that such serious deity, i.e.: protector of sailors and healer could be only god, but not a

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