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The Moon in Mankind’s History and Lore

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Abstract

Since the moment mankind began to wonder about the Moon, we have marveled at our fraternal celestial neighbor and fellow space traveler. The life of mankind is governed by the rhythms of the Sun and the Moon. They thus became the first celestial bodies that we tried to comprehend in order to gain an understanding of the universe around us.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The Rig Veda was not written down until about 600 B.C. The oldest extant copy is from circa A.D. 1200.

  2. 2.

    For more information and an in-depth discussion on the development of modern English, refer to Thomas Pyles and John Algeo, The Origins and Development of the English Language (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1993).

  3. 3.

    Refer to the Glossary for fuller explanations for many of the terms used throughout this book.

  4. 4.

    Cicero, De Natura Decorm, vol. 19, book II, 68, 69, translated by H. Rackham (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, Loeb Classical Library number 268, 1979), 189, 191.

  5. 5.

    Plato, Cratylus, Parmenides, Greater Hippias, Lesser Hippias, translated by H. N. Fowler (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, Loeb Classical Library number 167, 1977), 89–91, lines 409a9–409b18.

  6. 6.

    Mythology in most cultures and tribes was first passed down from one generation to the next as oral traditions and lore; therefore there are numerous variations in the genealogy, events in their lives, locals, participants, and shifting importance of mythological characters within a single culture. In another version of Selene’s birth, she is the granddaughter of Titan Pallas. It can become very confusing.

  7. 7.

    The allegorical representation of Luna (Figure. 1.1) is by the Dutch cartographer, atlas maker, and publisher Willem Janszoon Blaeu (1571–1638) and engraved by Dutch engraver Jousa van den Ende (c. 1584–1634). Blaeu was a student of Tycho Brahe [a.k.a. Tyge Ottesen Brahe (1546–1601)] and was qualified to be an instrument and globe maker.

  8. 8.

    Homer, Homeric Hymns, Homeric Apocrypha, Lives of Homer, edited and translated by Martin L. West (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, Loeb Classical Library number 496, 2003), Book 32, To Selene, 217, 219.

  9. 9.

    Thomas Bulfinch, Bulfinch’s Mythology (New York: Gramercy Books, 1979), 204. Other reference works on Greek mythology give differing variations on this romantic tale. Refer to the Bibliography.

  10. 10.

    Pliny, Natural History, Books 1–2, translated by H. Rackham (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press Loeb Classical Library, number 330, 1997), Book 2, Chapter 6, pages 193, 195, paragraphs 41–44. In Plny’s time, the Moon and planets were considered to be stars.

  11. 11.

    Quintus Smyrnaeus, The Fall of Troy, translated by Arthur S. Way (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, Loeb Classical Library number 19, 2006), Book X, lines 123–129. A “kine” is a cow or cows.

  12. 12.

    Pausanias, Description of Greece, Vol. III, translated by W. H. S. Jones (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, Loeb Classical Library, number 272, 1977), Book V: i §5, 383. Pausanias also claims that Endymion was not a shepherd, but the king of Elis.

  13. 13.

    When I mention the name of a lunar feature for the first time, I will include the feature’s selenographic coordinates (in degree.decimal format)as close to the center of the feature as determined by the United States Geological Survey’s Flagstaff office. Lunar coordinate systems are covered in detail in Chapter 6.

  14. 14.

    Description of his surroundings spoken by Buzz Aldrin [a.k.a. Edwin Eugene “Buzz” Aldrin Jr. (1930–202)], while at Statio Tranquillitatis on the surface of the Moon, July 20, 1969.

  15. 15.

    Aristophanes, The Clouds, Vol. 5 The Great Books of the Western World, translated by Benjamin Bickley Rogers (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1952), 497, lines 742–754.

  16. 16.

    Plutarch, The Obsolescence of Oracles, in Plutarch’s Moralia with an English Translation by Frank Cole Babbitt (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, Loeb Classical Library, number 306, 1957), 389, lines 416–417.

  17. 17.

    Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1970), 132.

  18. 18.

    N. K. Sandars, editor and translator, Poems of Heaven and Hell from Ancient Mesopotamia (New York: Penguin Books, 1971), 93.

  19. 19.

    Waldemar Bogoras, “Chuckee Tales” The Journal of American Folk-Lore 41 (No. 161) (July–September 1928), 320–322.

  20. 20.

    Bruce Hamilton, How the Moon Was Discovered, in Folk Tales of the Fuzzy Wuzzies (Sydney: Ayers & James, 1945), 8–18.

  21. 21.

    Katharine B. Judson, Myths and Legends of California and the Old Southwest (Chicago: A. C. McClug & Co, 1912), 47.

  22. 22.

    Ibid., 29–31.

  23. 23.

    Arthur M. Harding, Astronomy (Garden City, NY: Garden City Publishing Company, 1935), 159.

  24. 24.

    George Bird Grinnell, “A Blackfoot Sun and Moon Myth” Journal of American Folk-Lore 6 (No. 20) (January–March 1893), 44–47.

  25. 25.

    F. W. Hodge, Thirty-First Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1909–1910 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1916), 651.

  26. 26.

    Katharine Berry Judson, Myths and Legends of British North America (Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Company, 1917), 16, 17.

  27. 27.

    Ibid., 64.

  28. 28.

    Ibid., 28, 67.

  29. 29.

    J. Eric S. Thompson, “The Moon Goddess in Middle America: With Notes on Related Deities” Contributions to American Anthropology and History 29 (June 30, 1939), 127–173.

  30. 30.

    Ibid., 130.

  31. 31.

    Ibid., 138.

  32. 32.

    Philo, Philo Supplement II: Questions and Answers on Exodus, translated by Ralph Marcus (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, Loeb Classical Library, number 401, 1970), Book I: 9, 17.

  33. 33.

    Plutarch, Concerning the Face Which Appears in the Orb of the Moon, in Plutarch’s Moralia with an English Translation by Harold Cherniss and William C. Helmbold (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, Loeb Classical Library, number 406, 1957), 12:193.

  34. 34.

    Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars, translated by Robert Graves (Middlesex, England: Penguin Classics, 1973), 160.

  35. 35.

    Elder Edda, “Völuspá” in The Poetic Edda, Vol. 1, stanza 5, lines 1–10, translated by Henry Adams Bellows (San Bernardino, CA: Pacific Publishing Studio, 2011), 3.

  36. 36.

    K. Langloh Parker, Australian Legendary Tales (London: David Nutt, 1896), 8–10, 68, 69.

  37. 37.

    William Linklater, Hungry-Fellow Moon, in The Magic Snake (Sydney: The Currawong Publishing Company, c. 1941), 60–63.

  38. 38.

    Katharine B. Judson, Myths and Legends of the Mississippi Valley and Great Lakes (Chicago: A. C. McClurg and Company, 1914), 6, 7.

  39. 39.

    Lama Anagarika Govinda, Psycho-cosmic Symbolism of the Buddhist Stupa (Berkeley, CA: Dharma Publishing, 1976), 3, 87, 94.

  40. 40.

    Pliny, Natural History, Books 1–2, translated by H. Rackham (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press Loeb Classical Library, number 330, 1997), Book 2, Chapter 104, page 351, paragraphs 223–224.

  41. 41.

    Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos, translated by F. E. Robbins (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, Loeb Classical Library, number 435, 1944), 41, 43.

  42. 42.

    Plutarch, Concerning the Face Which Appears in the Orb of the Moon, in Plutarch’s Moralia with an English Translation by Harold Cherniss and William C. Helmbold (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, Loeb Classical Library, number 406, 1957), 12:39. The quoted lines are believed to be from a lost poem called the Phaenomena by the Greek poet Agesianax of Alexandria.

  43. 43.

    Robert B. Brown, The Unicorn: A Mythological Investigation (London: Longmans, Green, and Company, 1881), 69.

  44. 44.

    Pausanias, Description of Greece, Vol. III, translated by W. H. S. Jones (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, Loeb Classical Library, number 272, 1977), Book VI: xxiv §6, 151. The word “Eleans” is sometimes spelled “Eleians.”

  45. 45.

    William Sullivan, The Secret of the Incas (New York: Three Rivers Press, 1996), 294.

  46. 46.

    Pliny, Natural History, Books 1–2, translated by H. Rackham (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press Loeb Classical Library, number 330, 1997), Book 2, Chapter 6, page 197, para. 46.

  47. 47.

    Katharine Berry Judson, Myths and Legends of British North America (Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Company, 1917), 68.

  48. 48.

    Ibid., 69.

  49. 49.

    Joel Chandler Harris, Mr. Rabbit and the Moon, in Mr. Rabbit at Home (New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1895), 191–196.

  50. 50.

    A fourth twin Blue Moon year in the twentieth century was missed when a Blue Moon occurred in December 1933 and March 1934, interspersed by a single full moon in January 1934, and no full moon in February. It was an unusual occurrence of 2 Blue Moons in a 12-month period.

  51. 51.

    Robert A. Garfinkle, “SkyTalk, March 1999,” Mercury (January/February 1999), C–4.

  52. 52.

    Daniel Robinson, The Maine Farmers’ Almanac for the Year of Our Lord 1937 (Augusta, ME: Charles E. Nash & Son, 1937), 21. Also refer to Philip Hiscock, “Once in a Blue Moon” Sky & Telescope (March 1999), 52–55. Apparently this idea of monks coloring in the odd full moon blue is akin to an “urban legend.” Extensive searches of extant medieval church manuscripts, ephemerides, and lunar calendars held in European and American libraries, including the Vatican Library, failed to turn up any such colored blue moons. There were several manuscripts with blue moons, or monks heads representing a moon, but these had nothing to do with a fourth full moon in a single season.

  53. 53.

    L. J. Lafleur, “Sauce for the Gander” Sky & Telescope (July 1943), 17.

  54. 54.

    James Hugh Pruett, “Once in a Blue Moon” Sky & Telescope (March 1946), 3, 4. Also refer to Philip Hiscock, “Once in a Blue Moon” Sky & Telescope (March 1999), 52–55. The Hiscock article incorrectly attributes these two meanings to the Pruett article. The Pruett article refers to the Lafleur articles in the July 1943 issue of Sky & Telescope (p. 17) and the October 1943 issue of Sky & Telescope (p. 9). Phillip Hiscock (1952–202) does not mention these Lafleur references.

  55. 55.

    Lorenz Hart and Richard Rodgers, “Blue Moon” (New York: Robbins Music Corporation, 1934), 4 [Chorus].

  56. 56.

    Elin McCoy and John Frederick Walker, Mr. Boston Official Bartender’s Guide (New York: Warner Books, 1984), 55.

  57. 57.

    Gilbert White, The Natural History of Shelborne (London: Penguin Classics, 1977), 265. This quote is from his 1788 letter (number 45) to British naturalist Daines Barrington (1727–1800).

  58. 58.

    John Heywood, The Proverbs of John Heywood (1562) (Manchester: Printed for the Spenser Society, 1867), 205.

  59. 59.

    Ivan Kelley, James Rotton, and Roger Culver, “The Moon was Full and Nothing Happened: A Review of Studies on the Moon and Human Behavior and Lunar Beliefs” The Skeptical Inquirer 10 (No. 2) (Winter 1985–86), 129–143.

  60. 60.

    William Leitch, God’s Glory in the Heavens (London: Alexander Straham, Publisher, 1863), 78, 79.

  61. 61.

    Aratus, Phaenomena, edited and translated by G. R. Mair in Callimachus, Hymns and Epigrams (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, Loeb Classical Library, number 129, 1989), 267, lines 46–59; 269, lines 61–66, 69–71.

  62. 62.

    Dionysius Lardner, Popular Lectures on Science and Art Delivered in Principal Cities and Towns of the United States (New York: Greeley and McElrath, 1849), 500–510. Also refer to Dionysius Lardner, Popular Astronomy (London: Walton and Marberly, 1856), 7:115.

  63. 63.

    The name Rashi may also be derived from Rabban Shel YIsrael (Teacher of Israel), or Rabbenu She Yichyeh (Our Rabbi, may he live).

  64. 64.

    Sir Thomas More, A Dialogue Concerning Heresies and Matters of Religion (1528), in The Dialogue Concerning Tyndale by Sir Thomas More, edited by W. E. Campbell (London: Eyre and Spottiswood, 1927), 256 (modern text; p. 271). The “he” in this quote refers to Martin Luther.

  65. 65.

    John Heywood, The Proverbs of John Heywood (1562) (Manchester: Printed for the Spenser Society, 1867), 69.

  66. 66.

    When I met Buzz Aldrin on board the USS Hornet Museum, in Alameda, California, on July 24, 1999, I jokingly asked him about this and he replied with a twinkle in his eye, that the lunar green cheese had “tasted better than the NASA-provided meals for the mission.”

  67. 67.

    Philip Yampolsky, “The Origin of the Twenty-eight Lunar Mansions,” Osiris 9 (1950), 68.

  68. 68.

    Alexandre Volguine, Lunar Astrology, Translated from the French by John Broglio (New York: ASI Publishers Inc., 1974). (This is the English translation of the fourth edition [1972]. Book was originally published as Astrologie Lunaire, 1936.)

  69. 69.

    Aryeth Kaplan, Sefer Yetzirah: the Book of Creation, in Theory and Practice (Boston: MA Weiser Books, 1997).

  70. 70.

    John Michael Greer, and Christopher Warnock, Translators and annotators. The Picatrix: Liber Atratus Edition: The Occult Classic of Astrological Magic Complete in One Volume. (No publication location given: Renaissance Astrology, 2010–11).

  71. 71.

    Lord John Russell (attributed to), Adventures in the Moon and Other Worlds (London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green and Longman, 1836), 2–146. As of 2016, there are only 5 known copies of this book in libraries according to WorldCat.org and three of them are e-book editions. I own another real original copy that was a presentation copy “From the author” [Lord Russell] to the Irish-born British novelist and friend Marguerite, Countess of Blessington (1789–1849). Her signature is on the full title page. Lord Russell’s calligraphy on the first title page has been authenticated as being his. I have several lunar travelogue anthologies and Lord Russell’s story is not included in any of them.

  72. 72.

    Aristotle, On the Generation of Animals, translated by Arthur Platt in Great Books of the Western World (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1971), 9:302, Book III, Chapter 10, number 762b, lines 16–24.

  73. 73.

    Plutarch, “Concerning the Face Which Appears in the Orb of the Moon”, in Plutarch’s Moralia, translated by Harold Cherniss and William C. Helmbold (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, Loeb Classical Library, number 406, 1957), 12:157.

  74. 74.

    Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, translated by C. H. Oldfather (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, Loeb Classical Library, number 303, 1935), 37–41.

  75. 75.

    Lucian, A True Story, translated by A. M. Harmon (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press; Loeb Classical Library, number 14, 1991), 1:281.

  76. 76.

    Lucian, Icaromenippus, or the Sky-Man, translated by A. M. Harmon (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press; Loeb Classical Library, number 54, 1999), 1I:289, 291.

  77. 77.

    Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, translated by Guido Waldman (Oxford 1983), pps 416–421 Canto 34, verses 50–92; p. 472, Canto 39, verse 57.

  78. 78.

    Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, The Adventures of Don Quixote, translated by J. M. Cohen (Baltimore: 1970), Part II, Chapter 41, 731, 732. In the 1970s, Donald Howard Menzel (1901–76) attempted to replace the name of the farside crater Wyld J with the name of Cervantes on Lunar Topographic Orthophotomap LTO-082A2. He placed additional names of artists, writers, and musicians on the LTOs that were being produced under his direction, but the International Astronomical Union (IAU) did not accept Menzel’s list of names. In spite of the IAU’s decision, Menzel published the maps with these spurious names on them. Refer to Appendix O.

  79. 79.

    Daniel Defoe, The Consolidator (Gloucester, UK: Dodo Press, 2009), 15, 16.

  80. 80.

    Jeanne K. Welcher and George E. Bush Jr., Gulliveriana I (Gainesville, Florida: Scholars’ Facsimiles and Reprints, 1970), ix.

  81. 81.

    Ibid., 103.

  82. 82.

    William Watkins, “Ballooning to the Moon, In Verse” The Whitby Spy (C. Webster on the Crag, 1784), 57–63, 185–191, 217, 218.

  83. 83.

    This book was also known as The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen, and reprinted and expanded by other authors over the years.

  84. 84.

    Raspe, Rudolf Erich, The Adventures of Baron Munchusen (New York: Cassell & Company, 1865), 60–67.

  85. 85.

    Ibid., 187–195.

  86. 86.

    John Campbell, Journey to the Moon, and Interesting Conversation with the Inhabitants Respecting the Condition of Man (London: Howard and Evans, c. 1811), 4, 5.

  87. 87.

    George Tucker, A Voyage to the Moon: With Some Account of the Manners and Customs, Science and Philosophy, of the People of Morosofia and other Lunarians (New York: Elam Bliss, 1827), 38.

  88. 88.

    Ibid, 69, 70. In reality, the Pacific Basin is too young to be the terrestrial location from which the Moon is derived.

  89. 89.

    Ibid., 72.

  90. 90.

    Ibid., 72, 73.

  91. 91.

    Ibid., 147, 148.

  92. 92.

    Ibid., 152.

  93. 93.

    Edgar Allan Poe, The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe With Selections of His Critical Writings (New York: Dorset Press, 1989), 160–195.

  94. 94.

    Lord John Russell (attributed to), Adventures in the Moon and Other Worlds (London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green and Longman, 1836), 2–146.

  95. 95.

    In 2014, this work was adapted translated into English by Brian Stableford as An Unknown World.

  96. 96.

    Clarence Augustus Chant, “Notes and Queries” Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada 31 (9) (267) (November 1937), 404, 405.

  97. 97.

    Korish, The Cellular Cosmogony (Estero, FL: The Koreshan Unity, 1922), 110, 201.

  98. 98.

    Charles S. Muir, A Trip to Polaris: or 264 Trillion Miles in an Aeroplane (Washington, D. C.: The Polaris Company, 1923), 17, 19.

  99. 99.

    Refer to Table L.1 for more information on all flights, both intended, failed, and successful, to the vicinity of the Moon.

  100. 100.

    Samuel Butler. The Elephant in the Moon, and Miscellaneous Thoughts by Samuel Butler (London: N. Merridew, c. 1800), 4, lines 23–26. The poem was a satirical attack on the British astronomer and politician Sir Paul Neile [a.k.a. Neale (1613–86)].

  101. 101.

    The feature name is enclosed in parenthesis if it is different from the individual’s name.

  102. 102.

    In 1988, Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr. legally changed his name to Buzz Aldrin.

  103. 103.

    Thomas Milner, The Gallery of Nature (London: William S. Orr & Company, 1852), 76.

  104. 104.

    Homer, The Iliad of Homer, translated by Alexander Pope (London: J. Walker, 1813), 199, 200, Book VIII, lines 685–698.

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Garfinkle, R.A. (2020). The Moon in Mankind’s History and Lore. In: Luna Cognita. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-1664-1_1

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