Within the original cultures of Australia, a story is told, called Dreamtime, reflecting the world at the time of colonization of the continent and it uses the constellations of Orion and Pleiades to tell it’s story of hunters chasing women. The same story is told in Greece, and so believe the story to have the same source due to overlapping information.
In this video I’ll explore these myths, the similarities, but also potential problems in the early source hypothesis. The result is that these stories are very old, but are they as old as we think they are?
*If you want to support my research and see behind the scenes work, watch my videos early, and other insights then please become a Patreon here:*
https://www.patreon.com/crecganford
*References:*
Allen, R. H. 1899, “Star names and their Meanings New York, Leipzig: G.E. Stechert
Andrews, Munya. 2018, The Seven Sisters of the Pleaides. Spinfex
Avilin, T., 1998, The Pleiades in the Belarusian tradition: folklore texts and linguistic areal studies, Folklore, 72, 141-158
Burnham Jr., R., 1978, Burnham’s Celestial Handbook: An Observer’s Guide to the Universe Beyond the Solar System, New York: Dover Publications.
Dempsey, F. 2009, Aboriginal Sky Lore of the Pleiades Star Group in North America, JRASC, 103, 233
Hertzog, K. P. 1987, Ancient Stellar Anomalies, QJRAS, 28, 27
Krupp, E. 1994, Echoes of the Ancient Skies, Mineola, NY: Dover Publications
Kyselka, W. 1993, On the rising of the Pleiades, Hawaiian J. History, 27, 174
Massola, A., 1968, Bunjil’s Cave, Melbourne: Lansdowne Press
Mountford, C.P. 1939, An Anyamatana Legend of the Pleiades, Victorian Naturalist, 56, 103
Mountford, C.P. 1976, Nomads of the Australian Desert, Adelaide: Rigby
Sparavigna, A. 2008, arXiv:0810.1592
Norris, R. P., & Norris, C. M. 2009, Emu Dreaming: An Introduction to Australian Aboriginal Astronomy, Sydney:Emu Dreaming
27 Comments
If people were to truly read what the Greeks said about the ancient world, when they were new, meaning, what was ancient to them, none of this will be a mystery. What we are dealing with is a kin to the planet of the apes, trying to hide that not only were humans once ruled the world, but that they came from humans.
We have in our slavish chronologies that aren’t true, and at best, or misinterpreted a view of the evolution of our world to fit the progress myth that we cling to in order to justify our almost masonic beliefs in progress
The truth is that these giant fairytales that are now nice. Bedtime stories were the current news of the ancient world. A world that had nothing to do with our three major western religions.
Is there any or strong correlation between the dream stories and any early african tribal stories? You mentioned several versions you haven't been able to cover, and I'm curious in not just this video, but say the Dragon video or even the flood videos – whats the African equivilant? Why don't you base back to that as opposed to two mutations of the story over time in different locations? Both are good listens and great learns, but isn't the later useless without knowledge where it relates to the former, or the 'origin story', if you will.
Pre islamic arabia used to call the Pleiades "The Star" and see them as one entity. They also had a myth about them where a poor man (Aldebaran) wanted to marry The Star but she refused, so he forever follows her.
India knows about this story
its interesting communities were creating stories about stars 100K years ago. That suggests humankind had already evolved past daily survival by then
Smashed the Like button, and subscribed. Fascinating subject, Mate. Thank you!
The Islamic version may help explain the origins of the black cube of Saturn's material
So wait have you not heard of the stories where a planet was destroyed and they had to seed the close by solar systems including earth ?!?! Around 100,000+ yo
So why are the Pleiades called the Seven Sisters, when only six stars can be seen with the eye? In fact, the number of stars you can see within the Pleiades cluster, using just your eye, varies depending on your own eyesight, local atmospheric transparency and light pollution levels. Some people simply see fainter stars than others. It’s possible that early skywatchers, whose skies were darker and clearer than our modern skies, more often saw more than six stars here. Even today, people with exceptional vision see seven, eight or more stars in the Pleiades with the unaided eye
Phallus chased vagina and caught herpes daughter of syphilis and gonorrhoea
The question of, “how are similar stories told in different parts of the world?”
Also goes for the flood stories and an Arc.
And the actual physical anomalies of Pyramids on every continent on the planet, built when, and by whom.
Seven sisters!,! I. am 92 and have had a reasonable education and cannot say that I have ever heard of them.
I'm confused about the wording of the description.. The Dreamtime isn't *a story ,it's many stories .. you make it sound like it's the name of this particular story .. and the understanding of colonisation is when the British turned up .. not when the Aboriginals did .. the definition of colonisation is far from what the Aboriginals did .. I hate to be that guy but as an Australian who's father was a history teacher , the description is very misleading.. ✌️
This is not the oldest story … Not even close
This was fascinating. Youtuber Parallax Nick has covered some similar topics. In his video on Sirius, he notes that ancient cultures across the world have associated this star with dogs, and suggests similarly that this could possibly indicate that the association pre-dates humans' dispersal out of Africa
A forgotten Web of Telepathic Shamen?
Wonderful story – thank-you so much!
Is it possible that there was a seventh object that has "blinked out" in one way or another? People have likely been observing the Pleiades since they developed eyes, so there was an awfully long time when an older star in the same area of the sky could have gone nova, or something along those lines. Maybe there was even something like a ball of ice close to earth that looked like a star for some time.
We all going to watch this video and IGNORE that Pleiades Mythology origins are globally all around the world and NOT just in those two places 🙄
Were the stars any closer 100.000 years Ago ? Could they zee the 7th star?
I first heard of the Plaides from the Red hot chillI pepper song.
in Europe you can't see the Southern Cross. Can anyone in Australia see Orion's belt in the night sky? If not, where did this story come from?
The masses have lost their sky, their legends and the old men at the camp fire telling the stories of long ago and it has been replaced with a sky washed with city lights, fake science and controlled release bull-shitters with 7 plus figure incomes.
or…
It could be so simple that 250 000 years ago, some African man hunted some good looking women…
Then he noticed some star hunting some other stars, he noticed… As in a coincident just the hunted stars where the same number as the sisters he was once trying to get laid with…
So, he later told the story of the stars to his children, that a great hunter is chasing those beautiful sisters, but the hunter never catch them…
The story is passed on generation to generation in it's simplest form… until very much later some decide to paint the story in more colors… keeping the core… that is the hunter and the sisters… and evolved a similiar but unique story around it…. different for different cultures and geographic locations….
And yea… prove me wrong.
Yea! I know I am stupid and I just made this up… But still?
Anyway, thumbs up on your video…
Orion, the guy was taller than the sea, how big were they seven sister’s?
12:30 "…the other mystery; why you haven't pressed the like button."
It's hardly a mystery.
I will not, as a matter of principle, like any video on YouTube until they bring back the number of dislikes. Knowing the raw number of likes is worthless without knowing the ratio between likes and dislikes.
This is nothing to do with you personally, it's about YouTube's attitudes.
I presented a talk about the antiquity of the Seven Sisters myth at this years Mythologium. In fact, my talk is very similar to this video (structure and things mentioned…)!! I know what paper you read that formed this video! Fascinating study. Edit: did not see the Norris and Norris paper from 2021 in your reference list, although this is the study that discusses the age of the Pleiades mythology and identifies why we only see six today.