The Nautical Almanac # 50 --- Nunki, the Proclamation of the Ocean

Nunki, "The Proclamation of the Ocean."

The star Sigma Sagitarii is the fiftieth star in the Nautical Almanac. It is the second-brightest star in the Zodiacal constellation of Sagittarius The Archer. Not especially bright as seen from Earth, Sigma Sagitarii shines with a lapis lazuli-like light that makes it instantly noticeable. 

Lapis lazuli. The blue stone was associated with blue Nunki, but also with Enki and Enli's sister Inanna, the goddess of war. Sagittarius The Archer was her commander in the field. Sumer's Inanna eventually evolved into Egypt's Ishtar.

If it is noticeable today it was more noticeable in ancient days before light pollution ruined most humans' ability to study the stars. Sigma Sagitarii has been known since the dawn of time. The ancient Sumerians of Eridu, the oldest city in the world --- founded before 5800 BCE --- listed this star in "The Tablet of The Thirty Stars" the first stellar almanac ever devised. The proper name they gave it is still in use today. They called it Nunki, "The Proclamation of The Sea." 

Nunki is part of the asterism of the Teapot (also called the Milk Jug). The Greeks named this star Pelagus (but that name didn't endure). Nunki has always been associated with rivers and oceans for it reminded the ancients of the calm color of life-giving waters. 

The Sumerians declared Nunki to be the gateway star to what they named (and what is still called today) The Celestial Sea, the region of the sky which was most prominent during the Mesopotamian rainy season. The denizens of the Celestial Sea include Capricornus The Sea Goat (Capricorn), Aquarius The Water Bearer, Pisces The Fishes, Piscis Austrinus The Southern Fish; Delphinus The Dolphin, Cetus The Whale (or Sea Monster), and Eridanus The River. 

Ancient Eridu was not only the oldest city on earth, but the largest. It was eventually surpassed by Ur, and then by Uruk --- but neither boasted that the gods had once dwelt there.

Nunki was, for thousands of years, the patron star of Eridu (today's dusty village of Tell Abu Shahrain in Iraq). Ancient Eridu was the City of The Gods, where deities and men coexisted for immeasurable time until Man tried to ascend to heaven just as the gods came down to earth. The gods threw down mankind's great ziggurat, and made men quarrelsome and incomprehensible to each other thereafter. 

What is left of Eridu, the world's oldest city, now just a rough patch on the ground in the village of Tell Abu Shahrain, Iraq.

According to Sumerian legend, the city was founded by Enki Ushumgal the Serpent God, who created the first man, named Adampa. Enki also created the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, the rain, agriculture and writing. He was the god of wisdom, who gave Adampa a choice --- he could eat either from the Tree of Life or from the Tree of Knowledge that grew near Eridu in the countryside of E-din. Adampa chose Knowing over Immortality, but afterward regretted it. 

A ziggurat, much like the tower men built to reach the abode of the gods. The story has come down to us as the Biblical Tower of Babel.

When Enki's wicked brother Enli decided to destroy mankind by causing the rivers to rise and flood the land in-between, Enki commanded the good, wise, and devout Ziusudra to build an Ark and to place two of every animal within to save them from the deluge, which would last seven days and nights, a quarter of a Month of The Moon. If any of this sounds vaguely familiar, stop me . . . 

The Hebrews (who were in their beginnings Sumerians) were very well-acquainted with the Serpent God, but having taken up with the worship of the One God, they changed wise Enki into the villain of their creation myths. The story of Adam and Eve and the Apple is well-known, but less well-known is the actual Hebrew moral of the story: The One God's anger was kindled because Adam had listened to Enki, and put another god before Him in violation of the First Commandment. In Judaism, Adam's choice to eat from the Tree of Knowledge was not the Original Sin, nor did Man "fall." Enki was not even branded as Satan. All that came later, under Christian theology. The Sumerians would have shaken their heads sadly had they been around to see their good god turned on his horned head. 

Nunki is not a Behenian Star (interestingly enough), but astrologically it is the star of new ventures, risk-taking, and new religions (which may have something to do with the "fringe of blue" the One God commanded the Hebrews to place on their garments). 

Tzitzis (fringes) on a tallit (prayer shawl) still used by the Jews (who may in fact be the last Sumerians). The Biblical God commanded the Jews to wear a "fringe of blue" on the garment. There are very specific instructions regarding the making of the proper dye, but no one now knows which mollusk the Book refers to as the source of the base color, and so the original shade is not duplicatable.

The ancient Hindus and later the Buddhists, believed Nunki was associated with healing, and lapis became the color of healers. The blue-bodied Medicine Buddha, Bhaiṣajya-guru-vaiḍūrya-prabhā-rāja, is known as the "King of Medicine and Master of the Lapis Lazuli Light."

Nunki is hot. It has a surface temperature of 36,000 degrees Fahrenheit and burns with a bright-dark blue light. A 31 million year old star in the midst of its Main Sequence, Nunki is burning its fuel so rapidly that it may not live more than 50 million years. Nunki's mass is eight times that of the Sun and its radius is 4.5 times that of the Sun. Like other hot blue stars it rotates quickly, at 370,000 miles per hour.

Moderately bright at the Second Magnitude, Nunki is dimmed by its distance of 228 light years from Earth. Nunki is 3,300 times as bright as the Sun even though much of Nunki's light is radiated in the ultraviolet range. If we could see UV, Nunki would be by far the brightest star in our skies. Nunki also generates vast amounts of X-Rays. If the Earth were circling Nunki, we would have to be in Neptune's orbit in order for life as we know it to survive.