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What cultures, if any (besides Ancient Egypt), believe(d) that the stars are other worlds/lands/islands?

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    "besides Ancient Egypt" Did they? So far I've only heard of Nut essentially being the sky with stars on her body. Is there some older mythology I haven't heard of?
    – Mario
    Jul 27, 2016 at 6:59
  • According to one book, but admittedly I haven't seen it in other sources.
    – inzenity
    Jul 27, 2016 at 15:48
  • Maybe add that (as a) source to your question?
    – Mario
    Jul 27, 2016 at 16:45
  • In Antiquity they mostly beleived the stars were pretty lights or gems, not other worlds
    – Reed -SE is a Fish on Dry Land
    Sep 11, 2016 at 21:28
  • In the early dynasties it was believed the dead Pharaoh would ascend to the stars to rule over a kingdom/world around that star. This is detailed in the pyramid texts.
    – Codosaur
    Aug 23, 2020 at 13:44

1 Answer 1

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Judaism, according to one interpretation in the Talmud of the verse in Judges 5:23:

"“Curse Meroz!” said the angel of the LORD. “Bitterly curse its inhabitants, Because they came not to the aid of the LORD, To the aid of the LORD among the warriors.”"

"...As it is written: “Curse bitterly its inhabitants” (Judges 5:23), in reference to all those sitting together with Meroz...And Ulla said: Barak ostracized Meroz with the blowing of four hundred shofarot due to his failure to come. As for the identification of Meroz, some say that he was a great man and that he was ostracized because he did not join in the war effort. And others say that the reference is to a star and not a human being, and that it did not aid the Jewish people in their battle, as it is stated: “The stars fought from heaven; in their courses they fought against Sisera,” (Judges 5:20). This star, which did not help the Jewish people, was cursed." (Tractate Mo'ed Katan, 16a)

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  • Is the down vote because people think Judaism is just a religion and not a culture? If that's the reason, then I recommend education...
    – Harel13
    Dec 24, 2020 at 18:57
  • I haven't voted yet. I like the Talmud answer very much, but, having glanced at the Freitas book, I'm not convinced it's a reliable source. (Perhaps break the answer into two? My sense of Freitas is that it's a form of modern mythology, based on modern interpretation of ancient text...)
    – DukeZhou
    Apr 20, 2021 at 19:38
  • @DukeZhou When you put it like that, I suppose the downvote makes more sense. I'm just a little annoyed that people leave comment-less downvotes. How would people know what they did wrong? So you think I should just erase the Freitas quote?
    – Harel13
    Apr 20, 2021 at 19:52
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    Break out the talmud section, and I'll upvote. I'm not hostile toe Frietas from the standpoint of modern mythology, but check his references and determine how reliable you think his assertions are. (i.e. breaking down Frietas has value, even if he's an unreliable source, b/c "ancient aliens" is such a persistent modern mythology.) Regarding the rudeness of the unexplained downvote, don't take it personally—it's a function of social media!
    – DukeZhou
    Apr 20, 2021 at 19:57
  • @DukeZhou Done. I'm not an expert on what Frietas wrote, so I'll trust you on this.
    – Harel13
    Apr 20, 2021 at 20:06

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