Texts in Conversation
In Works and Days, Hesiod tells his brother to plough when the Pleiades and Orion set. In the Greek Septuagint translation of Job 38, God asks Job whether he understands the Pleiades and Orion, the same stars Hesiod uses as signs of the seasons.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Hesiod, Works and Days 609
Classical
[609] But when Orion and Sirius are come into mid-heaven, and rosy-fingered Dawn sees Arcturus [in September], then cut off all the grape-clusters, Perses, and bring them home. Show them to the sun ten days and ten nights: then cover them over for five, and on the sixth day draw off into vessels the gifts of joyful Dionysus. But when the Pleiades and Hyades and strong Orion begin to set [the end of October], then remember to plough in season: and so the completed year [constellation cycle] will fitly pass beneath the earth.
Date: c. 700 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
LXX Job 38:31
Septuagint
31 And do you understand the band of Pleias, and have you opened the barrier of Orion? 32 Or will you reveal Mazuroth in his season, and the evening star with his rays? Will you guide them? 33 And do you know the changes of heaven, or the events which take place together under heaven?
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Notes and References
“... A section on the heavenly bodies follows upon the representation of precipitation and frost in a way that makes sense meteorologically (vv. 31–33). From the “deep” (ἄβυσσος, v. 30), the glance turns once more to the sky (cf. v. 7) and makes the Pleiades and Orion (v. 31) its theme. [...] These constellations were viewed in the ancient Near East and in antiquity as bearing a close causal relation to the weather. The Pleiades and Orion were considered the cornerstones of seasonal change. In Babylonian mythology, they are answerable to Marduk’s decree, in Greek mythology, to Zeus’ decree; in Job 38, it is the God of Israel alone who determines the changing of the times and knows the “turns of heaven” (τροπαὶ οὐρανοῦ). Yet even as the stars provide cues for agriculture, for navigation at sea, and for setting festal cycles, and may be classified through astronomical observations, human beings are ultimately no more capable of understanding these than events on earth. [...] On this, see Hesiod, Op. 382–86, 563–68, 571–72, 608–16, and Aratus, Phaen. 255–67, but also Homer, Il. 18.483–89; Apollonius of Rhodes, Argon. 2.1099; 3.226, and Callimachus, Frag. grammatica 407.41–42. ...”
Witte, Markus
"Cosmos and Creation in Job 38 (Septuagint)" in Duggan, Michael W., et al. (eds.) Cosmos and Creation: Second Temple Perspectives
(p. 65–66) De Gruyter, 2020
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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