The assignment of Gertrude as patron of cats and the designation of the cat as one of her attributes seems to date from the 1980s. It is not mentioned at all in Madou's extensive historical survey from 1975. A more superficial association of Gertrude with the cat as a mouse hunter goes further back. Her veneration as protector against rats and mice dates from the early 15th century during the Black Death and spread from southwestern Germany to the Netherlands and Catalonia. Some 20th-century folklore studies research conflated her with the Germanic goddess Frigg, who may have been depicted riding a cat. The authoritative Handwörterbuch des deutschen Aberglaubens (published in multiple volumes, 1927–1942) does not verify the connection to cats. The first major English-language publication presenting her as patron of cats is a 1981 catalogue of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
I have since found that the Stellarium app (open-source planetarium software) includes "Sky Cultures" plugins. You can switch the labels from Western to Chinese, Indian, Japanese, or Arabic to see the names mapped directly onto the modern sky.
It’s always interesting to see what other cultures see in constellations.
The modern constellation Orion lies across two of the quadrants, symbolized by the White Tiger of the West (西方白虎, Xī Fāng Bái Hǔ) and Vermilion Bird of the South (南方朱雀, Nán Fāng Zhū Què), that divide the sky in traditional Chinese uranography.
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in reply to Katherine Bond • • •Benedictine abbess and saint (626-659)
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in reply to Katherine Bond • • •It’s always interesting to see what other cultures see in constellations.
The modern constellation Orion lies across two of the quadrants, symbolized by the White Tiger of the West (西方白虎, Xī Fāng Bái Hǔ) and Vermilion Bird of the South (南方朱雀, Nán Fāng Zhū Què), that divide the sky in traditional Chinese uranography.
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