THE CELESTIAL DAVID and GOLIATH
by F. Graham Millar
Halifax Centre, ASC (Royal Astronomical Society of Canada)
Website use with permission of the late copyright-holding author and based on the author's significant pioneer article which appeared in the Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Vol. 89, No. 4, Aug. 1995, pp.141-154.

The Biblical story of David and Goliath is familiar to most people:

And David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone, and slang it, and smote the Philistine (Goliath) in his forehead, that the stone sunk into his forehead; and he fell upon his face to the earth. - (I Samuel 17:49) .

This story is echoed in many similar mythic tales around the world. We concentrate here on versions of the story which can be found in Irish folklore: Lugh killing Balor, Cet killing Concubar, or Finn killing the One-Eyed Wizard. Many myths, especially those of the Greeks, have been interpreted as legends of the stars (Allen, 1963), but not the story of David and Goliath. Although Irish folklorists have recognized the David and Goliath theme in Irish myths, no one up to now has suggested that it has an astronomical source.

As argued here, the characters in the story of David and Goliath can be recognized in the stars as some of the familiar constellations. In particular, David appears likely to be associated with the constellation of Boötes, his sling with nearby Corona Borealis, and Goliath with the constellation of Orion on the other side of the sky.

It is therefore suggested here for the first time in scientific literature that "David and Goliath" was an international myth of the stars, originating among the prehistoric speakers of Sanskrit.

[Note from LexiLine: We have divided Millar's article into several web pages for easier reading. Millar's references for the entire article are found below.]

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