Betelgeuse
The name derives from Arabic يد الجوزاء Yad al-Jawzā’ "the hand of al-Jawzā’. Jawza is a Giant. Kunitzsch (1959)[1] explained the first part of the name ``Betelgeuse'', the ``bet'', as transformation from the Arabic letter yā’with two dots underneath the Arabic letter to the letter bā’ with one dot at this place. Thus, the first part of the word is not ``bet'' but ``yad'', the hand.
Etymology and History
The name originated from reading errors in medieval times: As the Arabic letters "y" and "b" differ only by one dot which can easily be overlooked the leading "y" in "yad" was misread, "d" and "t" are frequently exchanged in dialects and short vowels like "a" and "e" are not written in Semitic languages. It is easy to change Jawzā into ``Geuse'' as the ``j'' sound in Arabic is very often transliterated to a ``g'' which as a sound only exists in the Egyptian dialect of Arabic and is, thus, mostly considered equivalent.
Whose Hand?
The more interesting quesion is whose hand is meant here. Philologically, it is not clear whether or not this Jawzā is a proper name. Usually, in Semitic languages the proper names do not take a definite article (al-) and here we see that there is a definite article. If this word is not a proper name, then it might have been derived from the Arabic root ``jawz'' which denotes the ``middle'' or the ``main part'' of something. So, yad al-Jawzā could mean ``the hand of the central one''. Another suggestion understands Jauzā’as a designation of a feminine giant.
- Some people think, it might be the hand of the giant (Greek) hunter Orion but in fact, the star is placed on his shoulder.
- One hypothesis is that "al-Jawza" was an Indigenous Arabian constellation that covered not only the area of Orion but also Gemini. Then, the figure would be large enough to place her hand in the area of this star. The indigenous pre-Islamic Arabic sky culture apparently identified the constellation of Jawzā with the stars of the zodiacal Twins (Gemini). In contrast, the medieval Arabic sky culture that incorporated the science of the Almagest and therefore, called the stars of Gemini ``the Twins'' (al-taw’amān), transferred the name of the ``the Giant'' (al-jabbār) to the Greek hero Orion.[2]
- Another observation points out that the hand of the giant (titan) Atlas is placed in this area on the ancient marble globe of the Atlas Farnese[3]. It dates to Roman epochs (1st or 2nd century CE) but certainly is a copy of a Hellenistic original. Note that Arabic drawings of the constellation of Orion resemble rather the kneeling hunter as shown on the Farnese Globe (Strohmaier 1984, 83)[4]. This suggests that the hunter carries an animal skin in order to protect himself from injuries while the hero/ soldier carries a shield. Arabic drawings interpret the animal skin as the long sleeve of the man. This suggests that pictures were inspired by or rooted in the same Greek tradition that is depicted on the Farnese Globe, and that this drawing tradition also influenced the Arabic culture. The original book of as-Sufi in the 10th century probably did not provide labels on stars but only drawings of the constellations (Strohmaier 1984, 36)[5]. Later copies of this book (that were produced numerously) labeled the stars and ``The bright reddish star on the right shoulder'' (Alm. VIII, 1) was occasionally labeled الجوزاء اليمنى , the left [or right] hand of jauzā or منكب الجوزاء , the left [or right] shoulder of jauzā.
Hoffmann (2022)[6] points out that there are early modern drawings (Lippincott 2011, their fig. 2a,b[7] and cited image from 1739[8]) showing the hands of the Atlas-statue of the Farnese Globe depicted in the image among the constellations. Thus, it may be possible that parallels also existed in late antiquity or the time when the Arabians took over the Almagest-constellations and merged them into their traditional uranography.
Mythology
IAU Working Group on Star Names
The name was approved by the IAU WGSN in 2016.
It was internationally approved because it is in use for long time and documented in Kunitzsch and Smart (2006)[2]
Applied with varied spellings since medieval times, from its ind-A name yad al-jauza', "the Hand of al-jauza'" (The first medieval transliteration into Latin was bedalgeuze, mistaking the initial Arabic letter as "b" instead of "y." In Renaissance times this corruption was erroneously attributed to the assumed Arabic word "bat" [properly ibt], for "the Armpit" of al-jauza', giving rise to the corruption Betelgeuse" seen today. Thus by Renaissance times both the "y" and "d" of the first part of the ind-A name had become corrupted.) The ind-A asterism al-jauza' was a feminine figure represented in the stars of what is today Orion. The origin of its name is unclear (as with nearly all of the ancient group of ind-A names). The root jwz can mean "middle," and the word al-jauza' is structured as a feminine adjective, thus al-jauza' may mean "the female one, having something about her related to the middle." There have been different speculations as to what the "middle" reference, if that is what it is, could be (for one example). The ind-Arabs' al-jauza' corresponded to what in other cultures was Gemini among the zodiacal signs. The sci-Arabs subsequently used the indigenous name for both the Greek Orion and Twins, leading to some confusion in star names between the two constellations. An alternative sci-A name for Orion was al-jabbar, "the Giant" and for Gemini, al-taw'aman, "the Twins."
Weblinks
Reference
- ↑ Kunitzsch, P. (1959), Arabische Sternnamen in Europa, Harrassowitz
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Kunitzsch, Paul; Smart, Tim (2006). A Dictionary of Modern star Names: A Short Guide to 254 Star Names and Their Derivations (2nd rev. ed.). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Sky Pub.
- ↑ Thiele, G. (1898), Antike Himmelsbilder, Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, Berlin.
- ↑ Strohmaier, G. (1984), Die Sterne des Abd ar-Rahman as-Sufi, Gustav Kiepenheuer Verlag, Leipzig, Weimar (GDR).
- ↑ Strohmaier, G. (1984), Die Sterne des Abd ar-Rahman as-Sufi, Gustav Kiepenheuer Verlag, Leipzig, Weimar (GDR).
- ↑ Hoffmann, S.M. (2022). Multiple Greek Sky Cultures., in Hoffmann and Wolfschmidt (eds.). Astronomy in Culture – Cultures of Astronomy, tredition Hamburg/ OpenScienceTechnology Berlin, 491-523
- ↑ Lippincott, K. (2011), `A Chapter in the Nachleben of the Farnese Atlas: Martin Folke's Globe', Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 74, 281--299. https://www.jstor.org/stable/i40069056.
- ↑ Marcus Manilius, Astronomica, ed. Richard Bentley, London 1739
