Calendar
Homer is not directly mentioning the god where the feast is all about, but it is the feast of Apollo. The god of the sun. It was so obvious that Homer not even mentions the fact that, tomorrow is the last day of the (solar) year, the start of winter or the winter solstice. In our modern calender that is around December 21st.
Our current calendar is actually a bit of a mess. Our New Years Day isn't at winter solstice. And our months are to long with an average of about 30.5 days. From a full moon to the next full moon takes only 29.5 days. Our 12 months are stretched to fit a dozen moons into one year. The moon and our months are 11 days off, each year!
The ancient Bronze Age calendar was plain sun and moon. A sun's cycle is a year, a moon's cycle is a month. That's it. The Bronze Age people didn't need calendars to determine Apollo's Day. It is easy to find out. Homer already showed us the trick, but we didn't notice it. When Odysseus left Ogygia (the island of Kalypso) on November 22nd. We determined that the Pleiades arose at sunset and set at sunrise. From that day it is excactly one moon (29.5 days) to Apollo's Day. So, if the moon is half on November 22nd, Apollo's Day will be when the moon is half again.
Our current calendar is actually a bit of a mess. Our New Years Day isn't at winter solstice. And our months are to long with an average of about 30.5 days. From a full moon to the next full moon takes only 29.5 days. Our 12 months are stretched to fit a dozen moons into one year. The moon and our months are 11 days off, each year!
The ancient Bronze Age calendar was plain sun and moon. A sun's cycle is a year, a moon's cycle is a month. That's it. The Bronze Age people didn't need calendars to determine Apollo's Day. It is easy to find out. Homer already showed us the trick, but we didn't notice it. When Odysseus left Ogygia (the island of Kalypso) on November 22nd. We determined that the Pleiades arose at sunset and set at sunrise. From that day it is excactly one moon (29.5 days) to Apollo's Day. So, if the moon is half on November 22nd, Apollo's Day will be when the moon is half again.
Apollo_Belvedere
So, Odysseus left Kalypso exactly one moon before Apollo's Day. That is what Odysseus was waiting for, before sailing off to Scheria. He estimated that it would take him one moon to return to Ithaca in time.
So, the moon is important to determine Apollo's Day, and Artemis is the goddess of the moon. She is Apollo's twin sister. The cycle of the moon and the cycle of the sun don't match within a year. They are undepended gods and have undepended cycles. But they are twins though, is there any relationship between both cycles?
Yes there is, they are synchronized in what is called the 'Cycle of Meton'. In the span of 19 years there are exactly 235 full moons. Meton (fifth century BC) was not the first to notice this cycle, Meton only wrote it down and gave name to it. For us this cycle is relatively unknown, but for the people in the Bronze Age this was the most important cycle of all. It is the cycle of a generation.
Apollo is always depicted as a (beardless) young man and what would you think, about 19 years old? The same age as Telemachos? Yes, of course!
So, the moon is important to determine Apollo's Day, and Artemis is the goddess of the moon. She is Apollo's twin sister. The cycle of the moon and the cycle of the sun don't match within a year. They are undepended gods and have undepended cycles. But they are twins though, is there any relationship between both cycles?
Yes there is, they are synchronized in what is called the 'Cycle of Meton'. In the span of 19 years there are exactly 235 full moons. Meton (fifth century BC) was not the first to notice this cycle, Meton only wrote it down and gave name to it. For us this cycle is relatively unknown, but for the people in the Bronze Age this was the most important cycle of all. It is the cycle of a generation.
Apollo is always depicted as a (beardless) young man and what would you think, about 19 years old? The same age as Telemachos? Yes, of course!