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So, today’s the day we celebrate the minor crater inside Alphonsus, at 12.7° S, 2.1° W on the lunar surface. The sub-crater Chang-Ngo was selected as a potential landing site for the Apollo missions. It’s that tiny, darkish diagonal line on the middle left of Alphonsus there about 2/3rds of the way across the picture.
(You can take a closer look in this doc file, if you don’t mind waiting for it to load up. Or at The Lunar Republic Atlas.)
Apollo, of course, is the name we gave our first manned missions to the moon, after the Greek god of the sun, archery, colonization and science (well, medicine, at least). Great name for a rocket that’s plunging arrow-like to other worlds, yeah?
Apollo replaced Helios as sun god, sort of, after an unfortunate incident in which Helios’ son drove the chariot of the sun a little too close to earth, nearly burned us all alive, and thus got whacked in mid-air by Zeus.
For the ancient Greeks, the moon was under the patronage of Artemis, Apollo’s twin sister, a chaste and mysterious huntress. She was a dangerous woman who liked to keep her secrets to herself, but, like her brother, had some connections to wisdom and medicine (or, well, midwifery at least). For the Chinese, though, the Woman in the Moon was Chang-Ngo (or Chang Er, or Chang’e, or a bunch of other variations on that theme).
Now here’s the funny thing — Chang-Ngo was married to a famous archer, Hou Yi, who, in some versions of the tale, became famous for shooting down extra suns. And, in some versions, Hou Yi and Chang-Ngo are both descendants of the Jade Emperor — practically brother and sister — who came down to live among humans. And their fates are wound around a very special medicine.
The story goes something like this:
One day, the Jade Emperor (who is often busy working on other things) failed to attend to his 10 sons, allowing them to become rambunctious and boastful. They had transformed themselves into 10 suns in the sky to reflect their inner radiance, but in their self-absorption failed to see that they were burning the earth and everyone on it.
The people were desperate, and called for the famous archer, Hou Yi. He took his bow and his best arrows and THWANG! THWANG! THWOCK! shot down nine of the suns — sparing the earth, but killing the sons of the Jade Emperor.
As a reward for his service to humanity, the king granted Hou Yi a powerful boon: the elixir of immortality.
Now, there are two versions of what happened next. It might be that Hou Yi became proud and cruel, made himself a new king and would have stayed a cruel and proud king forever unless Chang-Ngo did something to stop him. Or it may be that Chang-Ngo became too curious and too vain, refused to wait for her husband to share the elixir — he had gotten two doses, after all — and crept into his room, unlocked the chest where the elixir was kept and stole it all for herself.
Either way, what happened next is clear. She swallowed the elixir. But, alas, it was too strong for one person! She was so filled with the power of life that she began to rise up into the heavens! She rose higher and higher until she eventually landed on the moon. And there she stays to this day.
Some people say she misses her husband terribly and regrets her hasty decision. Those people also say that today, the 15th day of the 8th month on the lunar calendar, is the one day when the Jade Emperor allows her to descend to earth so she and Hou Yi can be together. But other people say she’s glad to be apart from her terrifying husband, but sorry she’s forever imprisoned on the moon with nothing but her mirror for companionship. Those people also say the Jade Emperor took pity on her, and put a Jade Rabbit on the moon to keep her company. The rabbit stays busy up there, working a mortar and pestle to pound out medicines — including fresh doses of the elixir of immortality. Maybe some day, he’ll create an antidote that will allow Chang-Ngo to descend safely back to earth.
There’s another echo of ancient Greece in the Chinese moon, too. Besides the folks who say the lady’s stuck up there, and the folks who say she’s hiding from her husband up there, there are also folks who say there’s another guy up there but he’s pretty rotten company. Like Heracles fighting the Hydra or Sisyphus endlessly rolling his stone uphill, he’s stuck doing a task that continually undoes itself.
He’s a woodcutter, and the Jade Emperor has him eternally chopping branches off the cassia tree of life. (Mmmm. Cassia.) He can leave as soon as all the branches are off, but as soon as he cuts off a branch, a new bud grows to take its place. Since this is the Tree of Life he’s hacking away at, he’s something like the Fates, actually, or the Grim Reaper. Only on the moon.
It’s also a good holiday for toads, chrysanthemums and women in general, but let’s not get too confusing. And just for another coincidental kick, the October full moon is traditionally known as the Hunter’s Moon. Stalking secretly through the woods, you know. Like Artemis, or Hou Yi.
Have a happy Autumn Moon Festival.
And, here, if you want to celebrate with little kids — I made this for Daughter, but maybe you can use it too.
| It’s COLORING! (Click for the big version.)
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Yeah, I’m no artist. Even when I’m doing the computer graphics version of tracing. But that never stops Daughter once she’s got the crayons out.
