This is a color composite image of the Pleiades from the Digitized Sky Survey. Credit: NASA/ESA/AURA/Caltech
The poem describes the night sky over Greece more than 2,500 years ago. “This is an example of where the scientific community can make a contribution to knowledge described in important ancient texts, ” said Manfred Cuntz, physics professor . “Estimations had been made for the timing of this poem in the past, but we were able to scientifically confirm the season that corresponds to her specific descriptions of the night sky in the year 570 B.C.” Sappho’s “Midnight Poem” describes a star cluster known as the Pleiades having set at around midnight, when supposedly observed by her from the Greek island of Lesbos.
…The moon has set
And the Pleiades;
It is midnight,
The time is going by,
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