For the Romans, Venus is the beautiful goddess that guards Love and Beauty. For the Persians, in the deep of Venus dwells the purest goddess Anahita who gives life and fertility to the world. For the Mayans, every motion of Venus has impact on the world’s fate, dooming the peace and the war of the Earth. For the Cous, Venus is the wise elder sister that leads her younger brothers and sisters to the future bravely…… 在羅馬神話裡，金星的化身是女神維納斯（Venus），代表了愛與美。 在波斯神話裡，金星的深處住了純潔的女神安納西塔（Anahita），孕育了生命與富饒。 在馬雅神話裡，金星的一舉一動都象徵了天命，動靜間決定了世界的祥和或戰亂。 回到了我們的鄒族神話，金星則化為智慧的長姊，負責引領弟妹勇敢地向前邁進……
Cou people call the star that shines on the western sky every twilight as ‘Paicʉ’, which is Venus in our language. It is a common name for Cou girls: The famous Cou diva Paicʉ Yatauyungana (Chinese: Francesca Kao) is named after the star. Cou people like to name the oldest daughter as Paicʉ in hope that the daughter could lead her younger brothers and sisters with the wisdom of Venus to a brighter future bravely! Around every 30 days when Venus is close to the Moon, there will be a conjunction between the two. The most recent time of the conjunction of Venus and the Moon is 05:04am (GMT+8) this early morning in Taiwan and so the people in Taiwan could not see the conjunction as both of the stars lied below the horizon. Fortunately we have this beautiful photo from NASA to approximate the beauty and the wisdom of Paicʉ 🙂
鄒族人將這顆每到了傍晚，就會出現在西方天邊的明亮行星稱為 Paicʉ（白紫），也就是我們所稱的「金星」。 Paicʉ 在鄒族裡是個相當常見的女性名字，像鄒族的知名女歌手高慧君的名字即是 Paicʉ。 族人並喜歡將家中的長女取做 Paicʉ，期待她們能永遠以金星般的智慧，來引領弟弟妹妹勇敢向前！ 約莫每 30 天，Paicʉ 就會靠近月亮一次。最靠近月亮之時，也就是俗稱的「金星合月」。 最近的金星合月是在今天台灣時間的凌晨 05:04；可惜對於在台灣的我們來說，金星和月亮早已在地平線下而不可見。只好透過這張由美國 NASA 提供的金星合月假想圖，來驚嘆 Paicʉ 的美麗與智慧 🙂
