Mirach

latin: Mirach · arabic: mīʾzar (مئزر)

Definition

Mirach is the beta star of the constellation Andromeda, designated Beta Andromedae, marking the left hip of the chained-princess figure on the celestial sphere. The Arabic name mīʾzar (مئزر, 'girdle' or 'apron') reflects the star's position on the figure's hip. The Egyptologist Flinders Petrie in his 1940 Wisdom of the Egyptians (pls. III-IV) tentatively located one Ramesside-tomb star — the head of the bird-figure — at Mirach, with the neck of the same figure at Hamal.

In Tradition

In the modern Western fixed-star tradition Mirach is one of the named bright stars carrying interpretive significance by direct conjunction-aspect to natal points. The star is not part of the canonical Behenian-15 or the Manazil al-Qamar indicator-star scheme; its principal historical attestation in the canonical-references corpus is Flinders Petrie's tentative 1940 identification of a Ramesside hourly-table star, which Belmonte and Lull characterise as one of several competing reconstructions of the Ramesside corpus.

In Practice

Practitioners reading Mirach work primarily from its longitude as a per-star fixed star in conjunction-aspect to natal points; Mirach lies well north of the ecliptic in the figure of Andromeda, so paranatella and parallel-of-declination work supplement direct longitudinal aspect. The star sits in the same northern-sky region as the head of Cassiopeia and the figure of Perseus, so practitioners reading any of these often consider the Andromeda complex as a whole. The Petrie 1940 Egyptian-tomb identification of a Ramesside star at Mirach is a tentative scholarly reading, not a continuous tradition; Belmonte and Lull's 2018 synthesis lists Petrie's identification alongside Renouf 1874 and Leitz 1995 as one of several competing readings of the Ramesside corpus and explicitly does not endorse Petrie's specific placement at Mirach. Practitioners who use the star in modern fixed-star work should treat the Egyptian-tomb attribution as scholarly-tentative rather than canonical.

Historical Origin

Mirach's principal attestation in the canonical-references corpus is via Flinders Petrie's 1940 Wisdom of the Egyptians (pls. III-IV) tentative identification of a Ramesside-tomb star at the position of Mirach as the head of a bird-figure. Belmonte and Lull's 2018 Astronomy of Ancient Egypt records the Petrie 1940 reading alongside Le Page Renouf 1874 and Leitz 1995 as competing reconstructions of the Ramesside corpus. The Arabic name mīʾzar is medieval Islamic-astronomical, inherited into the Western fixed-star tradition through medieval Latin transmission.

Etymology

Origin: Arabic. Meaning: From Arabic mīʾzar (مئزر), 'girdle' or 'apron', describing the star's position on the hip of the figure of Andromeda..

Definition

In Tradition

In Practice

Historical Origin

Etymology

Further Reading