From The Alpha and the Omega - Volume III
by Jim A. Cornwell, Copyright © July 20, 2002, all rights reserved
"Volume III - The Eleventh Month - Constellation Names for Piscis Austrinus"
In the Eleventh Month - Aquarius.
Piscis Austrinus, the Southern Fish.
The constellation name for Piscis Austrinus:
- Piscis Austrinus in New Latin: Latin piscis, fish + Latin austrinus, southern. The constellation appears on the Meridian on October 10. It has been occasionally shown as two fish, but it is more commonly seen as a single fish, sometimes drinking from a stream of water poured from the jar held by Aquarius, which lies just north of it. An older, but incorrect, form of its name is Piscis Australis.
- Sumerian KU6, Akkadian nunu, "The Fish," Piscis Austrinus, a Fomalhaut (Arabic, fish's mouth). See star names for more information.
- From www.lexline.com, "The Fish (KU6) d.Ea, the lead star of the stars of Ea."
- Sumerian ku6, kua: fish (kú, 'food', + a, 'water').
- Sumerian *ha: fish (pronounced cha, but not the usual word for fish, but the fish sign may get its syllabic reading of HA from *h 'many' + a 'water' = 'fish', an alternative to the usual ku6, kua).
- Arabic Famm-al-Hut, or Fomalhaut is the "Mouth-of-the-Fish."
- Sumero-Akkadian Sila-Da-Kha-Bi.
- Sumerian sìla, šál: measure of capacity - 0.842 liter in the Neo-Sumerian period; measuring pot (si14, 'a small pot', + lá, 'to weigh'; but cp. also, sal, 'uterus').
- Sumerian a-dar-túnku6: a fish ('water' + 'to slice' + 'to smash').
- Sumerian ku: to base, found, build; to lie down (reduplication class).
- Sumerian kú: (cf., gu7).
- Sumerian kù: (cf., kug).
- Sumerian ku4: (cf., kur9).
- Sumerian ku5: (cf., kud).
- Sumerian ku7: (cf., kuruš).
- Sumerian ku10: (cf., gíg).
- Sumerian enku: fishing overseer (en, 'lord', + ku6/kua, 'fish'; same signs (ZAG.HA
) as ešsad).
- Sumerian ešsad: fisherman (éše, 'rope', + sud, 'to immerse, sink'; same signs (ZAG.HA) as enku).
- Sumerian zag, zà: boundary, border, limit, side; territory, district; sanctuary; percentage; a measure for fish; shoulder; right (side); front; outside of.
Akkadian nunu.
- Allen states the constellation name for Pisces in the Babylonian was Nunu, and in Syriac Nuno.
- Sumerian agargaraku6 [NUNtenû]: a fish.
- Sumerian nun: n., prince, noble, master, adj., great, noble, fine.
- Note: -a-a or -A-A NUN-HU, The Great Sea-Lord, Nanshe.
- Sumerian hu: bird (earlier word than mušen).
- Sumerian hu-luh, ha-luh: to scare; to become scared, frightened ('birds/fish' + 'to sweep away').
- Urash was the First Phoenician Dynasty for "Sea Lord," the sign of "the great Fish" or "Sea Serpent of the Deep."
- In the Egyptian standard he calls himself "The Great Sea Lord of the Lands of the Seven Seas." Nanshe, goddess of fish.
- Sumerian abzu: the 'sentient' sea - the sea personified as a god (aba/ab, 'sea' + zu, 'to know').
- Sumerian aba, ab: lake; sea.
Babylonian-Assyrian Nunnagabi.
Egyptian/Coptic:
- On the Denderah Zodiac, Piscis Austrinus is seen as a fish under the falling water from the vials of Aquarius.
- Piscis Austrinus is known as Aar, a stream.
- In "The Witness of the Stars," by E.W. Bullinger, seen on page 89 "In the Denderah Zodiac it (Piscis Austrinus) is called Aar, a stream."
- One source claims Piscis Austrinus as, "This path leads through Piscis Austrinus and Capricornus; the scapegoat which will restore the past king into the kingdom to come. On the Denderah stone, Piscis Austrinus is shown accurately under Aquarius."
Sumero-Semites, the priests of Ea-Oannes, Lord of the Deeps (shown as a fish-goat or fish-ram) wore a fish-skin, and of note that the fish headdress of Ea's priest later became the mitre of the Christian bishops.
To the ancient Syrian this constellation represented the god DAGON (Middle East). Allen states, La Lande asserted that Dupuis had proved this to be the sky symbol of the god Dagon of the Syrians, the Phagre and Oxyrinque adored in Egypt; and it even has been associated with the still greater Oannes.
- Dagon.
- Dagan, god of Ashdod (in modern Israel), represented as half-man and half-fish. The Philistines placed the captured Ark of the Covenant in his temple. The next morning the statue of Dagon was found lying on the ground, doing honor to the Ark. Josephus relates that this happened twice, and was followed first by an epidemic, which decimated Ashdod, and then an army of mice, which consumed the growing crops. Later a conquering Israelite army burnt down Dagon's temple.
- Hebrew Dagown, daw-gohn, from Heb. dag, dawg, or da'g, from Heb. dagah, daw-gaw', to move rapidly, a fish (as prolific), or from Heb. da'ag, daw-ag', be anxious (as timid), in the sense of squirming, moving in the vibratory action of the tail of a fish, fish, (probably fish) was a Canaanite and Philistine (deity) fish god from Dab, "fish," or a god of agriculture, from Dagan, "grain." Dagon was the chief god of the ancient Philistines and later the Phoenicians represented as half-man and half-fish. Originally worshipped by the Canaanites before the Philistine invasion of Canaan, as indicated by place-names such as Beth Dagon in Judah (Josh 15:41) and in Asher (19:27). Found in 1 Sam. 5:2 "the house of Dagon," who was represented under a monstrous combination of human head, breast, and arms, joined to the belly and tail of a fish. Dagon (grain god) was the offspring of El (Baal, Hadad, Ramman, Rimmon) and Asherah. Dagan was the Babylonian god of the earth and on the wall of the palace in Babylon he is shown as half fish.
- Phoenician Dag: "Constellation-Fish-of-the-Canal," the canal is the stream of water from the Urn of Aquarius.
- In Greece, Dagan was later connected to the cult of Apollo as to Apollo Smintheus who could drive away mice.
- Ashdod.
- Hebrew 'Ashdowd, ash-dode', from Heb. shadad, shaw-dad', to be burly, i.e. (fig.) powerful (pass. impregnable), by implication to ravage, thus ravager, other sources claim it means stronghold, fortress, in the NT "Azotus". It was a city of southwest Israel on the Mediterranean Sea west of Jerusalem, 34 miles north of Gaza. It is near the site of ancient Ashdod, but now called Esdud (711 B.C. Sargon II of Assyria took it), an important Philistine city-state that was settled as early as the Bronze Age.
- The myths and legends of Ugarit have provided knowledge of Canaanite religion. Thus references to Baal and Anat, Nikkal, Keret, Aqhat, El, who was known as Father of Man, Creator of Creators, Bull El. His consort was Asherah, a fertility goddess. Among the many offspring of El and Asherah was Dagon, a grain god whose son Baal was of great prominence. A god of rain and storm, Baal, whose proper name was Hadad (Thunderer), also figured in the fertility cycle. Hadad, the supreme god of Syria is also identified with the Assyrian air-god Ramman, i.e., Rimmon. Baal was also called Aliyan Baal, Dagon's Son, Servant of El, Rider of Clouds, and Baal-Zebub (2 Kings 1; Matt. 12:24). In Israel the priest of Baal lost an important contest with the prophet of God on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18). Baal's sister and wife, the virgin Anat (Anath), goddess of love and fertility and goddess of war, is known in the OT as Astarte or Ashtoreth. Baal mates with his sister and also with a heifer. Anat slaughters people and wades in blood and gore. These tablets and the OT elucidate each other.
- Beth Dagon.
- Hebrew Beyth-Dagown, beyth-daw-gohn', or beth' da'gon, house of Dagon, was a town in Shephelah of Judah (Josh 15:41), five miles from Lydda and identified with Khirbet Dajun. The name suggests worship of the Philistine god Dagon, revealing how far such worship went beyond Philistine territory. He was represented by a monstrous combination of a human head, breast, and arms, joined to the belly and tail of a fish. This name was used of a town on the border of Asher (19:27).
Other names for Piscis Austrinus: Al Hut al Janubiyy, Haut el genu'bi, Ahaut' Algenubi, Fum al Hut, Os Piscis Meridianni, Os Piscis Notii.
- Allen claims: When the Arabians adopted the Greek constellations and names this became Al Hut al Janubiyy, the Large Southern Fish, distorted in late mediaeval days into Haut elgenubi, and given by Chilmead as Ahant Algenubi; but their figure was extended further to the south than ours, and so included stars of the modern Grus.
- Fomalhaut, from the Arabic Fum al Hut, the Fish's Mouth, has long been the common name for this star, Smyth saying that Fom Alhout Al-genubi appears, with its translation Os Piscis Meridiani, in a still existing manuscript almanac of 1340 (Bayer cites it, in Piscis Notius (Piscis Austrinus)).
- Seen as the Italian Pesce Australe; the French Poisson Australe; and the German Sudliche Fisch.
Pisces Constellation - Dagim, Fishes
- Hebrew word Dagim, which means "The Fishes" referring to or closely connected to a multitude. Rolleston also promotes this in her work.
- Fishes.
- Hebrew dag, dawg, or da'g, from Heb. dagah, daw-gaw', to move rapidly, a fish (as prolific), or from Heb. da'ag, daw-ag', be anxious (as timid), in the sense of squirming, moving in the vibratory action of the tail of a fish, fish.
- Fisher, as in "Fishers of Men."
- Hebrew dayag, dah-yawg', from Heb. diyg, deeg, from Heb. dag, dawg, or da'g, action of the tail of a fish, thus to fish, fish, thus a fisherman, fisher.
- Dagon.
- Hebrew Dagown, daw-gohn, from Heb. dag, dawg, from Heb. dagah, daw-gaw', (probably fish) was a Canaanite and Philistine fish god from Dab, "fish," or a god of agriculture, from Dagan, "grain." Found in 1 Sam. 5:2 "the house of Dagon," who was represented under a monstrous combination of human head, breast, and arms, joined to the belly and tail of a fish. Dagon (grain god) was the offspring of El (Baal, Hadad, Ramman, Rimmon) and Asherah.
See Star Names of Piscis Austrinus.
This page was updated on July 15, 2008.
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