jay@npois.UUCP (Anton Winteroak) (04/09/85)
Earth and Venus are the only female planets, true enough Muffy. There are some other bodies named after mythical females though. Ceres, Io, Europa, Titania, to name a few of the biggest. If you are pointing out a bias towards male names, you are justified. Anton Winteroak
muffy@lll-crg.ARPA (Muffy Barkocy) (04/11/85)
In article <273@npois.UUCP> jay@npois.UUCP (Anton Winteroak) writes: > > Earth and Venus are the only female planets, true enough Muffy. >There are some other bodies named after mythical females though. >Ceres, Io, Europa, Titania, to name a few of the biggest. If you are >pointing out a bias towards male names, you are justified. > > Anton Winteroak Actually, I hadn't really considered it, it just occurred to me at the time. Now I'm curious. What *is* the distribution of male/female/animal/ thing names for stars, planets, constellations, etc? Has anybody paid any attention to this rather useless (but vaguely interesting) statistic? Muffy
fisher@wsgate.DEC (04/12/85)
> Ceres, Io, Europa, and Titania to name a few (non-planetary female heavenly > bodies) What is the heavenly body Titania? The masculine form Titan is a moon of Saturn. Also, what is the mythical female Europa? Was the continent of Europe named after her also? (I always thought the moon Europa was named after the continent!) Burns UUCP: ... {decvax|allegra|ucbvax}!decwrl!rhea!dvinci!fisher ARPA: fisher%dvinci.dec@decwrl.ARPA
phl@drusd.UUCP (LavettePH) (04/17/85)
>Actually, I hadn't really considered it, it just occurred to me at the >time. Now I'm curious. What *is* the distribution of male/female/animal/ >thing names for stars, planets, constellations, etc? Has anybody paid any >attention to this rather useless (but vaguely interesting) statistic? > > Muffy It's not as useless as you may think, Muffy. The naming of celestial objects and the boundaries of the constellations are sometimes the subject of intense international debate. I dug most of this out of the RASC's Observer's Handbook. Assigning masculine or feminine gender to a constellation is a rather simple thing, but you should keep in mind that other objects are contained within the borders of the constellation. A good example is Taurus. The bull is definitely masculine, but the constellation contains the Pleides which is a cluster made up of Atlas, his wife Pleione and his seven daughters Alcyone, Merope, Asterope, Taygeta, Celaeno, Electra and Maia. For those who keep score Taurus would have to go into the record books as: Males (2) - Females (8). I didn't include the eighth daughter who hid her face in shame when Troy fell to the Greeks. The constellation names are also those published in the New General Catalog that was published around 1898 and are in current useage by international agreement. Virtually every civilization over the last 3500 years has grouped the stars and referred to them differently than we do now. The Japanese, for example, refer to the Pleides as Suburu. Take a good look at the logo on their cars and trucks. I took the liberty of assigning all "objects" into the "Neuter" category even though some of them like Sagitta, the arrow, have feminine endings. Except for obvious animals like Leo, Taurus and Aries I didn't even try to categorize the animals, fish, birds and bugs. Latin was never my strong suit. |-) It looks like the constellations shape up as: Males (20) Females (5) Objects (29) Animals (36) CONSTELLATION SUBJECT GENDER Andromeda Ethiopian princess rescued by Perseus Female Antlia The air pump Neuter Apus The bird of paradise Animal Aquarius The water carrier Male Aquilla The eagle Animal Ara The altar Neuter Aries The ram Male Auriga The charioteer Male Bootes The herdsman Male Caelum The chisel Neuter Camelopardalis The giraffe Animal Cancer The crab Animal Canes Venatici The hunting dogs Animal Canis Major The large dog Animal Canis Minor The small dog Animal Capricornus The goat Animal Carina The keel Neuter Cassiopeia Mother of Andromeda Female Centaurus The centaur Male Cepheus Father of Andromeda Male Cetus The whale Animal Chamaeleon The chameleon Animal Circinus The compasses Neuter Columba The dove Animal Coma Berenices Berenice's hair Female Corona Australis The southern crown Neuter Corona Borealis The northern crown Neuter Corvus The crow Animal Crater The cup Neuter Crux The cross Neuter Cygnus The swan Animal Delphinas The dolphin Animal Dorado The goldfish Animal Draco The dragon Animal Equuleus The little horse Animal Eridanus A river Neuter Fornax The furnace Neuter Gemini The twins Male Grus The crane (bird) Animal Hercules Son of Zeus Male Horologium The clock Neuter Hydra The water snake Female Hydrus The water snake Male Indus The indian Male Lacerta The lizard Animal Leo The lion Male Leo Minor The small lion Animal Lepus The hare Animal Libra The scales Neuter Lupus The wolf Animal Lynx The lynx Animal Lyra The lyre Neuter Mensa Table mountain Neuter Microscopium The microscope Neuter Monoceros The unicorn Animal Musca The fly Animal Norma The square Neuter Octans The octant Neuter Ophiuchus The serpent bearer Male Orion The hunter Male Pavo The peacock Male Pegasus The winged stallion Male Perseus Rescuer of Andromeda Male Pheonix The pheonix Animal Pictor The painter Male Pisces The fishes Animal Piscis Austrinas The southern fish Animal Puppis The stern Neuter Pyxis The compass Neuter Reticulum The reticle Neuter Sagitta The arrow Neuter Saggitarius The archer Male Scorpius The scorpion Animal Sculptor The sculptor Male Scutum The shield Neuter Serpens Caput The serpent's head Animal Serpens Cauda The serpent's tail Animal Sextans The sextant Neuter Taurus The bull Male Telescopium The telescope Neuter Triangulum The triangle Neuter Triangulum Australe The southern triangle Neuter Tucana The toucan Animal Ursa Major The great bear Animal Ursa Minor The small bear Animal Vela The sails Neuter Virgo The maiden Female Volans The flying fish Animal Vulpecula The fox Animal - Phil
freeman@spar.UUCP (Jay Freeman) (04/19/85)
#### sacrificial offering to the line-eater #### The issue of constellation boundaries and types is particularly interesting in connection with the zodiac: The word means "circle of life" -- that's "zo-" as in "zoology" and "-dia-" as in "diameter"; and indeed, all the classic constellations along the plane of the ecliptic are animate objects. [The "-c" is a tribute to a computer language developed at Bell labs. :-) ] Except for one! Libra -- the scale of justice -- may well have been the most recent addition to the zodiacal constellations. It was clearly formed from part of its neighbor, the Scorpion: The names of its prominent stars still mean "northern claw" and "southern claw". And the modern constellation boundaries mix things up a little more. One can sometime perplex a believer in astrology by mentioning that so-and-so was born when the sun was in Ophiuchus. :-) Along the classic zodiac, I count eight male figures (Gemini is two), one female, and a bunch of known-but-to-themselves.