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 Forum index » Archive » Archive: Ephemeral » ARG: Eldritch Errors
Terribly Gauche Speculation - Maera's Death
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jjason
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 		Terribly Gauche Speculation - Maera's Death
I thought I'd make a thread for speculation about Maera's death here, given how upspeakably rude it'd be to speculate over on Sentry Outpost. Any theories about how it might fit into the larger picture? Huan is apparentlya large dog in the Silmarillion but I doubt that means anything.

[edit - just to clarify the subject matter - kona]

PostPosted: Sun Jun 10, 2007 1:13 am
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Obtusitivity
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 		Maera is also a reference to a hound. there's definitely something to it. but i wouldn't as Huan.

PostPosted: Sun Jun 10, 2007 1:35 am
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tipsila
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 		When I had posted at SO aout the amethyst, I purposely left out the bit about Dionysus - thinking it wouldn't have anything to do with BA and the Sentry's story, but perhaps it does. Maybe we should look more at the star catalogue...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amethyst

Quote:
Supposedly, when a drunken Dionysus was pursuing a maiden called Amethystos, who refused his affections, she prayed to the gods to remain chaste. The goddess Artemis granted the prayer, transforming her into a white stone; humbled by Amethystos' desire to remain chaste, Dionysus poured wine over the stone she had become as an offering, dying the crystals purple.

Variants of the story include that Dionysus, the god of intoxication, had been insulted by a mortal and swore revenge on the next mortal who crossed his path, creating fierce tigers to carry out his wish; the mortal turned out to be a beautiful young woman, Amethystos, who was on her way to pay tribute to Artemis. Her life is spared by Artemis, who transforms the maiden into a statue of pure crystalline quartz to protect her from the brutal claws. Dionysus wept tears of wine in remorse for his action at the sight of the beautiful statue. The god's tears stained the quartz purple.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maera_%28hound%29

Quote:
In Greek mythology, Maera was the hound of Icarius, father of Erigone.

Icarius was a follower of the wine god Dionysus and had been taught how to make wine. While travelling, Icarius met some shepherds who killed Icarius.

Erigone was worried about her father, and set off with Maera to find him. Maera led her to his grave, and both became so overwhelmed with grief that she hanged herself and Maera leapt off a cliff.

Upon hearing the news, Dionysus placed them in the sky as the constellations Virgo (Erigone), Boötes (Icarius), and the dog star, Sirius (Maera).


Also of interest:

Dionysus was angry and punished Athens with a plague; and caused insanity in all the unmarried women, of whom all committed suicide.

163 Erigone, is an asteroid.

PostPosted: Sun Jun 10, 2007 8:09 am
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missphinx
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 		I was interested in the choice of Maera too. If you look for Sirius and Cthulhu connections, there's a whole buncha stuff.

Here's a good one from Celestial Bodies in the Cthulhu Mythos by John Beal.
Quote:
SIRIUS (Alpha Canis Major): Kenneth Grant associates Sirius with the Lovecraftian and Babylonian deity Dagon, an idea which Robert Temple also propounds in his book The Sirius Mystery. Temple quotes from a Babylonian historian named Berossus, who writes of a group of Alien Amphibians whose leader was Oannes, later to become the fish-god Dagon of the Philistines. Berossus also speaks of another amphibious alien called Odacon, which Temple believes to be a corrupted form of Dagon. Temple's book concerns amongst other things, an African tribe called the Dogon, who are aware of SIRIUS B an invisible-to-the-eye star, which they believe has a planet circling it from which the Amphibian Aliens came.

In Greek the stars name was Seirios aster, 'the scorching star'; whilst the Latin was Kanikuly, due in both cases to its appearance in the 'caniculares dies' or dog days of the hot summer months. In Arabic it had the name Al Shira al 'Abur al Yamaniyyah meaning 'the shining one in the passage of Yemen', signifying its position to the right of a Muslim as he faces Mecca. This star is in fact the brightest in the night sky and similar to ALGOL is also binary, with the white dwarf star SIRIUS B orbiting at a full revolution every fifty years. In Greek mythology it is also called Orthus which was the two-headed watch-dog belonging to Atlas, parented by Typhon and Echidne. Also in myth the Dog-star Sirius was regarded as Cerberus pertaining to the tripartite year. In Egyptian myth the dog-star was associated with Anubis, who according to Robert Graves can be identified with Hecate as the tn-headed bitch, eating corpse flesh and howling at the moon. Elsewhere Graves also identifies it with the Egyptian god Thoth and thus also to the Greek Hermes, both messengers of the gods, the role which Nyarlathotep serves in the Cthulhu mythos.


According to this page (and also here) comparing the Cthulhu mythos to a book by Robert Temple called the Sirius Mysteries, Sirius is "Xoth."
Quote:
Xoth is a twin sun (Sothis, Sirius A and B) where Cthulhu and Idh-yaa (or Quum-yaa) conceived three sons. (One could call the Sirius Mystery the Sothic Mystery, or Sothic Cycle - Carter's stories are what he called the Xothic Cycle). Zoth-Ommog (note Zoth and Om syllables) is mentioned as Cthulhu's son from under the great waters off the Isle of the sacred stone cities; they lurk ever just beyond the threshold which they cannot pass. Carter also gives alternate spellings of Zoth-Ommog, presumably so we can figure out what it is intended to be. (See later.) The two other sons are Ythogtha and Ghatanothoa. Carter quotes a passage from the Necronomicon which states that the Elder Gods, after imprisoning Cthulhu, returned to their home in Glyu-Vho or Ibt al Janzah, the name Arabic astronomers of Alhazred's day used for the star we call Betelgeuse. A quote from the Necronomicon in Derleth's Lurker At the Threshold states that Glyu-Vho is the home of those who imposed the Elder Sign upon Cthulhu to imprison him beneath the sea. A clue as to the star Glyu-Vho is given: it is a winter star. (See Greek section on Sothis.) Xoth is mentioned as the ancient home of Cthulhu and his sons and is a double star.

I also found more links of dubious validity related to Egyptian mythology, for example, "The ancient Egyptians refused to bury their dead during the 70 days Sirius was hidden from view, because it was believed Sirius was the doorway to the afterlife, and the doorway was thought to be closed during this yearly period."

Also, as a trivial aside, we call it "the Dog Days" in summer because (from http://wilstar.com/dogdays.htm)
Quote:
In the summer, however, Sirius, the "dog star," rises and sets with the sun. During late July Sirius is in conjunction with the sun, and the ancients believed that its heat added to the heat of the sun, creating a stretch of hot and sultry weather. They named this period of time, from 20 days before the conjunction to 20 days after, "dog days" after the dog star.


PostPosted: Sun Jun 10, 2007 10:44 am
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tipsila
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 		Hehe.. maybe we need to look more at the Dogon tribe who live in the Homburi Mountains near Timbuktu, and their religious teachings about the star Sirius B and their fish-gods, the Nommo.

Sirius B is invisible to the eye and difficult to observe -- even through a telescope. No photographs were taken of it until 1970.

http://www.ufoevidence.org/documents/doc119.htm

Quote:
The star they describe is Sirius B. Its existence was first suspected by Western astronomers in 1844, when irregularites were noticed in the movement of Sirius. It was supposed that Sirius must be affected by a second star, and in 1862 a faint companion star was finally detected. Sirius B is a white dwarf that, although small and faint, is extremely dense and heavy enough to exert an influence on Sirius A.

The Dogon name for Sirius B (Po Tolo) consists of the word for star (tolo) and "po," the name of the smallest seed known to them. By this name they describe the star's smallness -- it is, they say, "the smallest thing there is." They also claim that it is "the heaviest star," and white. The Dogon thus attribute to Sirius B its three principle properties as a white dwarf: small, heavy, white.

They go on to say that it has an is elliptical orbit, with Sirius A at one foci of the ellipse (as it is), that the orbital period is 50 years (the actual figure is 50.04 +/- 0.09 years), and that the star rotates on its own axis (it does). The Dogon also describe a third star in the Sirius system, called "Emme Ya" ("Sorghum Female"). In orbit around this star, they say, is a single satellite. To date, Emme Ya has not been identified by astronomers.

In addition to their knowledge of Sirius B, the Dogon mythology includes Saturn's rings, and Jupiter's four major moons. They have four calendars, for the Sun, Moon, Sirius, and Venus, and have long known that planets orbit the sun.

The Dogon say their astronomical knowledge was given to them by the Nommos, amphibious beings sent to earth from Sirius for the benefit of mankind. The name comes from a Dogon word meaning "to make one drink," and the Nommos are also called Masters of the Water, the Monitors, and the Teachers.

The Nommos were more fishlike than human, and had to live in water. They were saviors and spiritual guardians: "The Nommo divided his body among men to feed them; that is why it is also said that as the universe "had drunk of his body," the Nommo also made men drink. He gave all his life principles to human beings."

The Nommo was crucified and resurrected and in the future will again visit the earth, this time in human form. Later he will assume his amphibious form and will rule the world from the waters.

Citation: Benest, Daniel and Duvent, J.L. "Is Sirius a Triple Star?" ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS. (Volume 299, 1995) pp. 621-628.


More info here.

PostPosted: Sun Jun 10, 2007 11:31 am
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jjason
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missphinx wrote:
I was interested in the choice of Maera too. If you look for Sirius and Cthulhu connections, there's a whole buncha stuff.


huan wrote:
I have no idea why my sister used that nick. The Sentries that were close to her might know better than me. (I'm still trying to find out which ones those are btw...not a lot of them still around it seems.) I know she always loved Sirius, though. It had a special place in her heart, I guess.

Emphasise added.

PostPosted: Sun Jun 24, 2007 2:53 am
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SGT.Napalm
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 		i joined the forms and sent a tactfull pm. itsall to fishy to me...(as it probably is to you)
funny how there was "a crash". im going to as the mods at that form if any crashes of any sort happend.

PostPosted: Thu Jun 28, 2007 8:32 am
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ex_ethereal
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 		tipsila wrote:
Quote:

Also of interest:

Dionysus was angry and punished Athens with a plague; and caused insanity in all the unmarried women, of whom all committed suicide.


Ok so I've been chasing my tail on this one for an hour, and im pretty sure its a red herring. However, i am new to this and cant bring myself to disregard anything. Also, i am still working on getting through all the material so I apologize beforehand if its been covered.

Ronomi.com: "one of those days when you're feeling a little...dead"
followed link to:http://www.healthmap.org/
Limited search to "Plague"- 3 cases worldwide in last 30 days.

"The cases in New Mexico in 2007:
The 1st case occurred in late April in a San Juan County man who recovered.
The 2nd was reported 5 Jun 2007 in a Torrance County woman who
remains hospitalized.
The 3rd was a 3-year-old Bernalillo County boy who was reported dead
on 7 Jun 2007.
The most recent is a 50-year-old woman who has recovered after hospitalization."

This all seems OOG to me, but i dont know how to ferret out that info.
<-- computer illiterate

I thought that a plague was something that could cause the scenes BA has been describing. Anywho, i also wanted to say a quick thanks on behalf of all ARG newbs for being so helpful Smile

PostPosted: Mon Jul 02, 2007 9:03 pm
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Obtusitivity
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 		Ethereal,

Good looking out bro. While it may be OOG content, it's still awesome that you put the time in.

a good way to check to see if sites are IG or OOG is www.whois.net (i use this alot lately). If it's IG then it'll be on the Eldritch server i believe (bseeingu, Ronomi, and SO are all on that server).

don't get discouraged! it's takes a village to raise a Cthulhu.

PostPosted: Mon Jul 02, 2007 9:10 pm
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SGT.Napalm
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 		i kind of doubt a greek myth ties into this, but you'd never know.

akways, of course, we can be edging in on some poor person who's sister died, but, you'd never know... it is odd, but i doubt the actual name has to do with anything.

PostPosted: Sun Jul 08, 2007 10:46 am
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DetectiveHollings
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 		You would really be surprised in this sort of thing. Check every last detail or something will go missed. I'm new too, but that's how things work as far as I can tell.

PostPosted: Sun Jul 08, 2007 3:37 pm
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Lovek
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ex_ethereal wrote:

Ronomi.com: "one of those days when you're feeling a little...dead"
followed link to:http://www.healthmap.org/
Limited search to "Plague"- 3 cases worldwide in last 30 days.

"The cases in New Mexico in 2007:
The 1st case occurred in late April in a San Juan County man who recovered.
The 2nd was reported 5 Jun 2007 in a Torrance County woman who
remains hospitalized.
The 3rd was a 3-year-old Bernalillo County boy who was reported dead
on 7 Jun 2007.
The most recent is a 50-year-old woman who has recovered after hospitalization."


Nice research skills, but yes, probably a red herring.

Having just escaped three years in New Mexico, I can tell you first hand that they had several cases of death by plague every year while I was there.

How this could possibly happen in the US in the year 2007 (or 2006, 2005, or 2004) is beyond me... but it does actually happen.

One person died just a couple of miles from my house there.

That said, it's always good to follow a hunch and see where it takes you. Any and all new ideas are welcomed, especially in a game like this where it seems we're dragging along a little bit.
_________________
Played: G.O. IV, Must Love Robots, Who Is Benjamin Stove?
Pining For: Eldritch Errors
Lurked: Dozens and dozens

PostPosted: Mon Jul 09, 2007 10:33 am
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SGT.Napalm
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 		true, ditective. anything goes. i think i found a new website though...
and, riddle me this: why is shadow, my avatar frowning? because marea died! LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL im funny.

PostPosted: Wed Jul 11, 2007 10:29 pm
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