The Royal Stars of Persia

    The Persians of 5,000 years ago had no 6 o'clock news, no newspapers and not even a reliable calendar.  The modern calendar was a long way off from being invented.  But they had surely noticed that certain stars were dominant during each of their four seasons; and they had assigned royal status to four of the major stars, one for each season.  Thus, they could relate events to
whichever star was "in power" at the time, so to speak.

    Scholars know which were the four royal stars.  They also know their given Persian names.  But no one knows for sure which name goes with which star. Unfortunately, the scheme has been lost in antiquity.  The best guess is that Aldebaran was known as Tascheter, the Winter star; Regulus was Venant, the Spring star; Antares was Satevis, the Summer star; and Fomalhaut was Hastorang, the Autumn star.

    There are some 20 first-magnitude stars in the heavens but the four that were chosen are stars about six hours apart in right ascension, which neatly avoids conflict.  One fades as the other gains prominence.  They are each solitary stars, each standing alone with no nearby pretenders to the throne. And each conveys an unmistakable haughtiness, an aura of royalty.

    Clearly, the astronomers of Persia knew what they were doing.
 

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