WELCOME TO THE GREAT ISLE OF WIGHT
PLANETARY TREASURE HUNT!
A large Sun turns up in the Orrery Cafe, Ryde, Isle of Wight.
Due to a large rogue Sun, unexpectedly turning up in the Orrery Cafe in Ryde, cafe staff have now decided to take advantage of this unusual phenomenon and are launching a fun competition. A set of Solar System planets have been made to the same scale as the Sun. The set includes Pluto. This set is presently displayed in the Orrery cafe. Three days prior the the Hunt they will be removed and then placed in proportinal distance from the Sun presently residing in the cafe.
We are very pleased that coverage of this hunt will be undertaken by the Isle of Wight County Press and we hope that on the day of the hunt Isle of Wight Radio will announce when Planets have been found. If any planets have not been found by 1pm then we hope Isle of Wight Radio will relay clues to help those lost in space.
The success of this competition depends on the generosity of sponsors (All SPONSORS WILL BE LISTED AND LINKED BELOW).
Sponsors:
Greaves & Thomas will supply some 12" globes from their collection for some of the Planets.
Bestival organisers have allocated a pair of tickets for their superb Festival.
If you would wish to sponsor a planet then please contact us info@theorrery.co.uk . While we hope that several big sponsors will come forward for an individual planet, we very much hope that small firms, sole traders, artists, crafts people etc. will offer small/services prizes which when combined will be equally worth while in hunting for its designated planet.
As the Isle of Wight is a holiday destination, we think it prudent to make one of the prizes for finding planet Saturn a collection of holiday related prizes. The prizes will be valid during a specific 1-2 week period on the Isle of Wight next summer (May or June 2008). Accommodation, Theater Tickets, Restaurant Vouchers, Sailing Tuition, Museum Tickets etc. In other words the best holiday ever! This should also be eligible only for someone who does not live on the Isle of Wight and is on the island at the time of the Hunt because of Holiday/Business or the Hunt itself.
Pluto, despite the fact several scientific bodies no longer recognise it as a planet it has been included (give a dog a bone!). However because Pluto is so small, under 3mm, it is possible that a large map will be provided showing its orbital path on the Isle of Wight, all who wish to enter will be invited to insert an addressed pin, the nearest pin to a designated point (on the reverse side) decided by an island celebrity, will be the winner of Pluto's prize.
Sponsors:
Greaves & Thomas will supply some 12" globes from their collection for some of the Planets.
If you would wish to
sponsor a planet then please contact us info@theorrery.co.uk
RULES: Watch this space!
The Planets of the Solar System are attributed to a god, consequently we hope sponsors might consider backing the planet that best suits their business:
Mercury (Hermes) was the god of commerce, wrestling, and gymnastic exercises, thieving (sorry no stolen goods accepted as prizes!), and all that required skill and dexterity. Mercury was the messenger of Zeus, and wore a winged hat and winged shoes. He held a rod entwined with two serpents and wings, called the caduceus, and invented the lyre. The god thieves, before he was a day old he stole Apollo's cattle. Finally Zeus ordered him to return the cattle to Apollo. Apollo heard Mercury play the lyre. He like the music so much, that he decided to give Hermes his cattle and his shepherd staff in exchanged for the lyre. While Mercury was considered cunning and dishonest he was also helpful to mortals. He was the patron of travellers and wayfarers, He gave a sickle of admanate to Perseus to use to sever Medusa's head. He gave Odysseus a plant known as moly, that made the hero immune to Circe's magic.
Venus principally associated with love and beauty and fertility, the equivalent of the Greek goddess Aphrodite. She was the consort of Vulcan. She was considered the ancestor of the Roman people by way of its legendary founder, Aeneas, and played a key role in many Roman religious festivals and myths.
Earth: No Roman or Greek god available, probably because they had not realised we were actually on a planet! Nevertheless prizes are needed for planet Earth.
Mars was the Roman god of war, the son of Juno and either Jupiter or a magical flower. As the word Mars has no Indo-European derivation, it is most likely the Latinized form of the agricultural Etruscan god Maris. Initially the Roman god of fertility and vegetation and a protector of cattle, fields and boundaries, Mars later became associated with battle as the growing Roman Empire began to expand, and he was identified with the Greek god Ares. He was also a tutelary god of Rome, and as the legendary father of its founder, Romulus, it was believed that all Romans were descendents of Mars.
He was called Juppiter Optimus Maximus Soter (Jupiter Best, Greatest, Saviour) as the patron deity of the Roman state, in charge of laws and social order.
Saturn was a major Roman deity of agriculture and harvest. He was identified in classical antiquity with the Greek deity Cronus, and the mythologies of the two gods are commonly mixed. Saturn's wife was Ops, Rhea's equivalent -- not Magna Mater. Saturn was the father of Ceres, Jupiter, and Veritas, among others. Saturn had a temple on the Forum Romanum which contained the Royal Treasury. Saturn is the namesake of Saturday (dies Saturni), the only day of the week to retain its Roman name in English. The planet Saturn is also named after the Roman god, being the furthest observable planet of the seven classical planets of antiquity.
Neptune was the god of the sea, as well as of horses and, as "Earth-Shaker," of earthquakes. The sea gods Rodon in Illyrian mythology, Nethuns in Etruscan, and Neptune in Roman mythology were sea gods analogous to Poseidon. Poseidon also has many family members such as Zeus, Hera, and his many children.
Uranus is the Latinized form of Ouranos, the Greek word for sky. In Greek mythology Uranus is personified as the son and husband of Gaia, Mother Earth (Hesiod, Theogony). Uranus and Gaia were ancestors of most of the Greek gods. Other sources claim a different parentage of Ouranos. Cicero, in De Natura Deorum ("The Nature of the Gods") claims that he was the offspring of the ancient gods Aether and Hemera. According to the Orphic Hymns, Ouranos was the son of the personification of night, Nyx. His equivalent in Roman mythology was Caelus, likewise from caelum the Latin word for "sky".
The ancients Greeks and Romans knew of only five 'wandering stars' : Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Following the discovery of a sixth planet in the 18th century, the name Uranus was chosen as the logical addition to the series: for Mars (Ares in Greek) was the son of Jupiter, Jupiter (Zeus) the son of Saturn, and Saturn (Cronus) the son of Uranus. [edit] Consorts/Children
Pluto is an alternative name for the Greek god Hades, but was more often used in Roman mythology in their presentation of the god of the underworld. He abducted Proserpina, and her mother Ceres who then caused winter in her grief. Although he is often envisioned today as evil (for his similarities to the Christian Satan) the Romans did not view him as such. Pluto was originally not the god of the underworld. Pluto is cognate with the Greek word "Psloutas" (wealth, cf. plutocracy), and, under the original name Plutus, was considersed by the Romans as the giver of gold, silver, and other subterranean substances. Because these "gifts" were mined, Pluto became recognized as the god of the physical underworld, which in turn helped him become recognized as the god of the spiritual underworld and thus death. This brought about his mythological relationship to the Greek god Hades. Because the mythology of thse gods is more known than the actual religious roles of the gods, Pluto is identified as the counterpart to the Greek Hades (which is only wholly true in mythology).
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