Indus

Indus was created between 1595 and 1597 and depicting an indigenous American Indian, nude, and with arrows in both hands, but no bow. Created at the time when Portuguese explorers of the 16th century were exploring North America, the constellation is generally believed to commemorate a typical American Indian that Columbus encountered when he reached the Americas. He was intending to reach India by sailing west and assumed it was ocean all the way around, and when he encountered land he thought for a short time that it was India and called the people he saw Indians. Despite the mistake, the name Indian stuck, and for centuries the native people of the Americas were collectively called Indians [2]. The peoples of India are, of course, also known as Indians, and the name of the country Indonesia means 'Indian Island'. Nowadays American Indians are known as Indigenous Americans.

The word Indus comes from the name of India. It originally derived from the river Indus that originates in Tibet and flows through Pakistan into the Arabian Sea. The ancient Greeks called this river Indos. Related words are: Hindu, indigo (Greek indikon, Latin indicum, 'from India', a blue dye from India, derived from the plant Indigofera), indium (the element is named after indigo, which is the color of the brightest line in its spectrum), sandia (a watermelon), sendal (a fabric, from Greek sindon, fine linen), sindon (fine linen fabric; thing made of it; altar frontal, winding-sheet, etc). Surnames: Syndall, Sindle.

Though not a recognized cognate, the name Indus resembles the Latin suffix indu-, meaning 'in' (From I.E. *en), and cognate with Greek endos, 'within', formed from Greek en- 'in', + -dos which is the base of domos, literally meaning 'domain', or '-dom', hence Greek endos, can mean 'living within'. Nowadays American Indians are collectively known as Indigenous Americans. Indigenous comes from the Latin indu-gena, (from Old Latin indu, from earlier endo), and -gen, 'beget'. Indigenous in the strict sense means typically found, living, or originating in a specific place [4]. Greek endos 'within' is the first element in indagate (to search out, investigate), indigent, industry [Klein]. The term indigenous can be used about any ethnic group that have the earliest historical connections to a place, but is generally used of Indigenous Americans in particular as that is the name they choose to call themselves, and this name might have earlier connotations: "Many tribes and nations call themselves, in their own languages, 'the first people', the 'original people', or the 'real people'" [The Earth Shall Weep, James Wilson].

"Indus, king in Scythia, first discovered silver which Erichthonius (Auriga) was first to bring to Athens" Hyginus Fabulae (ca. 64 BC – AD 17)

The Latin word for silver is argentum, where its chemical symbol Ag derives, and comes from the Indo-European root *arg- 'To shine; white; the shining or white metal, silver'. Derivatives: argent (silver or something resembling it), Argentine (from Latin argentum, silver), argosy (a large merchant ship), argot (street talk), argil (potter's clay, from Greek argillos, white clay), argue (from Latin denominative arguere, to make clear, demonstrate), agrimony (possibly from Greek argos, white < *argros). [Pokorny ar(e)-g- 64. Watkins]

Indus and Pavo, the Indian and the Peacock, are two constellations usually depicted together. Indus, king of Scythia, first discovered silver, Latin argentum, the word is cognate with the word Argus, and the argus pheasant (according to Klein) and Argus Panoptes the hundred-eyed giant of Argos in the Peloponnese, employed by Hera to spy on Io, her husband's lover. Argus' name is said to be cognate with the Argo of Argo Navis whom Jason entrusted the building of the ship to Argus, after whom it was named. Argus' many eyes represent the starry heavens. After he was killed by Hermes, Hera rewarded Argos for his service of watching Io by placing his hundred eyes on the tail of the peacock, adjacent Pavo, representing the starry heavens. The argus pheasant, Argusianus argus (a relative of the peacock), is named after Argos, having long tail feathers marked with brilliantly colored, eyelike spots. 'Argus-eyed' is used to describe an alert or watchful person; a guardian.

According to John Ayto the English word silver probably originated in Asia Minor. Its unidentified source word was borrowed into prehistoric Germanic as *silubr-. The English word silver resembles the Latin word silva, translated 'wood', sylvan (with y for i) is due to the influence of Greek ule, 'forest', from which silva was supposed to derive. Related words are: savage, Silas, Silvester, Silvia [Klein]. Silvanus or Sylvanus - Sylvester, from a Roman name meaning 'of the forest' from Latin silva 'wood, forest'. Silvanus was the Roman god of forests, groves and wild fields.

The association of India with indigo is reflected in the Greek word for the "dye", which was indikon (ινδικόν). The Romans used the term indicum, which passed into Italian dialect and eventually into English as the word indigo [5]. Indigo is a blue dye from India, derived from the plant Indigofera, and was a rare commodity in Europe throughout the Middle Ages; woad (or glastum), a dye derived from a related plant species, was used instead. Blue jeans are dyed blue with indigo. The blue pigment in woad leaves is the same as in indigo dye, although the Indigofera species yield more dye.

The color electric indigo is used to symbolically represent the sixth chakra (called Ajna), which is said to include the third eye. This chakra is believed to be related to intuition and gnosis (spiritual knowledge) [5].

"Liberal American Indian leaders now believe the name 'Indian' was not used by Columbus because he thought he had reached India, but because he called the native people 'en dios,' instead of indios as the records show. Thus the word 'Indian,' according to the spiritual malfeasance of Liberal linguists, is believed to have derived from 'en dios,' or, ‘in God.’" [David Yeagley, FrontPageMagazine]

The name Indus and its cognates is not completely understood. Even though the understanding of the meaning of Indios as Columbus intended as 'una gente en dios' (a people in God) is believed to be incorrect, it still may have some relevance in describing the people. David Yeagley goes on to say of Columbas who first encountered the nude people on sub-tropical island in the Bahamas: "The spirituality of these indigenous folk was not something Columbus initially noted, but rather the lack of it. (Of course, to him, spirituality comprised ritualistic Catholicism, so he certainly didn’t associate nakedness with spirituality)".

Unlike other races these people had no temples or obvious religious ritualism, their type of religion was a more inner thing; they had an intimate relationship with nature, and used intuition and inner visions in their ceremonies. Perhaps the 'en dios,' or, ‘in God’ would be more appropriately translated than 'God within'. The saying of Jesus "... because the kingdom of God is within you." (17:21b) might also describe the meaning of the name of this constellation.

Indo-gene might be resolved into 'kingdom inside'. The suffix '-gene' is related to the word 'king'. Latin prefix indu-, meaning 'in', and cognate with Greek Greek endos, 'within', formed from Greek en- 'in', and -dos which is the base of domos, literally meaning 'domain', or '-dom'. Or it might be resolved into  'en dios,' or, ‘God within’.

"Critically, as opposed to those of us who grew up in the Western Christian tradition, the Native American experienced earth as home. ... First of all, the 'Kingdom of Heaven' is actually happening here and now, not in some mythical place in the future. ... According to Native American spirituality, everything is imbued with spirit. Perhaps John Mohawk most eloquently expresses the indigenous relationship to creation when he writes: The natural world is our bible. We don’t have chapters and verses; we have trees and fish and animals. Native American cultures are full of stories about the particular significance of certain rocks or hills, and these are often used in key rituals and rites of passage. These places, especially mountaintops or isolated areas of wilderness, are where, in indigenous cultures, initiation ceremonies take place, people go to fast and pray, and visionary dreams are revealed"  Native American Spirituality]

According to the Roman historian Livy, Jupiter Indiges is the name given to the deified hero Aeneas [6]. Wikipedia elaborates: In Latin calendars of the Augustan age, there is recorded, under the date of August the ninth, a public sacrifice to the Sun (Sol Indiges) on the Quirinal Hill. The meaning of the epithet 'Indiges' here applied to the Sun is ambiguous and has been variously interpreted by modern scholars. If it implies that the Sun was reckoned among the ancient native gods known as Di indigetes, which we may render as Indigenous Gods, it proves that among the Romans the worship of the Sun was of immemorial antiquity, for the Di indigetes belong to the oldest stratum of Roman religion. On this interpretation, which is the most obvious and natural one, the Indigenous Sun (Sol Indiges) is analogous to the Indigenous Jupiter (Jupiter Indiges), who had a sacred grove in Latium near the river Numicius, and whom Roman mythologists afterwards identified with the deified Aeneas [7].

From the word Aeneas we get enigma and enigmatic, from Greek ainos 'tale, story, saying; praise; proverb; riddle'; - "American Indians always have been enigmatic in the minds of Euroamerican scholars" [8]. The names Eneas, a variant of Aeneas (Greek) 'he who is praised', derived from Greek aine meaning 'praise'. Eneas has 3 variant forms: Enneas, Ennes and Ennis. Aeneas fathered the twins Romulus and Remus with Rhea Silva.

Indus is depicted as an indigenous American Indian with arrows in both hands, but no bow. Arrows are also used as a directional symbol to indicate (from Latin index, indicator, forefinger).

© Anne Wright 2008.