Passage V

Three Stars, Many Stories

Many thousands of years ago, people around the world began attaching different stories to the stars in the night sky. The Sun sets gradually the images of a winged horse, a drinking gourd, a heartbroken hero appear in lights overhead. In some cases, a pattern of stars may represent a simple object that has meaning in day-to-day life. In other cases, the pattern, or constellation, may be a figure with a different kind of meaning.

Three bright stars that I've read about have acquired significance for many viewers around the globe. In some agricultural parts of Japan, for instance, these three stars are commonly referred to as Karasuki and represent a three-pronged plow. It's awesome that in other parts of Japan, the same three stars appear in a constellation representing the floor-length sleeve of a woman's kimono. In still other parts of Japan, this shining trio appears in the center of an hourglass-shaped drum, a tsuzumi.

On the other side of the world, the same three stars has traditionally represented three zebras to the Namaqua people of South Africa. In the mythology, of the Tswana people of South Africa, these same stars represent three pigs.

[1] Orion is the name many Westerners use for a constellation that contains these three stars. [2] In Greekmythology, Orion is a mighty hunter. [3] In the night sky,he carries a bow and arrow and is accompanied by hisloyal dogs, Canis Major and Canis Minor. [4] The threestars form the brilliant belt around the hunter's waist. [5] In the sky with Orion are the animals he used to hunton Earth—from a small rabbit to a huge bull. [6] Thescorpion that, according to myth, killed Orion inhabits the sky as well, but at such a distance because it can never sting the hunter again. [7] Even in an age of big-screen televisions, their is still no show on Earth as big as the night sky. [8] Stars up there play different roles aroundthe world, their dazzling careers span thousands of years. (75)