Stephen R Wilk of Saugus, MA, April/May 1999: '.. Orion's Belt being a penis. I must congratulate you on this discovery, which I believe to be correct. ... [my dots-RW] I originally believed that the "sword" of Orion represented his penis, but your explanation of the belt being the penis is a far better explanation (even though proposed for the case of Egyptian Osiris), and fits in very nicely with my interpretations of the astronomical significance of the myth of Orion. I can provide further detials if you are interested.'
      I haven't received further details, but Stephen Wilk's interest is ancient Greek mythology and variable stars, suggested by a 1979 piece by a Prof. Lettvin of MIT: 'This is a connection I think most people have overlooked. I have a book forthcoming on the topic. "Medusa: Solving the Mystery of the Gorgon" is coming out in December of 1999 from Oxford University Press, and deals with connections between the constellations of Perseus, Andromeda, Cepheus, Cassiopeia, Pegasus, and Cetus with the myth of Medusa and Perseus.'
      Wilk's idea is that 'the variability of Algol was known in pre-classical Greece, and that knowledge of the period is reflected in the myth of Perseus. Moreover, knowledge of the variability of Algol, Mira, delta Cephei, and gamma Cassiopoeia accounts for all their parent constellations being associated in the same myth as antagonists of Perseus.' His book is not yet published, but the sample he sent me includes the suggestion that the immortality of two of the three gorgons corresponds with the two bright days of Algol, the third, eclipsed, day [of its 70 hour period] being represented by Medusa. The Perseid meteor shower 'appears to originate from the arm of the constellation of Perseus. It is very easy to see in the display Perseus hurling the eye of the Graeae into Lake Tritonis.' Wilk has many interesting related ideas: 'the most peculiar image associated with the myth—the birth of Chrysaor and Pegasus from the neck of Medusa.. [can be explained by] the constellations of Perseus (with Medusa's head) and Pegasus. If we interpret Hesiod's words to mean that Pegasus and Chrysaor sprang from the stump of the neck attached to the head, rather than from the stump attached to the body, then the scene is pictured in that grouping of stars.'

      Comments: I have a few miscellaneous suggestions which may or may not be original—I'm not sure:
    [1] It strikes me one of the purposes of myths may have been as a mnemonic in memorising star patterns. Personally I think—you may disagree—many of the constellations have such vague outlines that they could be redrawn arbitrarily (especially the long sinuous ones). There are exceptions, like Cassiopeia and I suppose the bears. However, in a period when reading the stars was an important navigational device, it would make sense to pass on the interpretation in the form of stories, rather than just listing the patterns and flatly stating which is which. Also of course it's more memorable to give them striking and anthropomorphic names. So myths may have had a serious teaching purpose, which nobody took literally.
    [2] On the same subject, I wondered whether you've looked into cross-cultural attitudes to the stars? Possibly there are completely different collections of stars used e.g. in Mongolia. For that matter, I wouldn't be surprised if e.g. mariners at one time emphasised different stars from land-based people. However, I admit this is very difficult to study!
    [3] As I understand it, although nobody seems to word it like this, the Egyptians used stars as a sort of clock—Sirius rising being so to speak a large example; on a daily basis other stars were used to time what we'd call 4 hours, or 6, or whatever. So they may have had a different idea of what a constellation is—i.e. a string of bright stars stretched out like a long necklace with just a few things on it, different from our localised clump of stars.
      '.. if you look into the astronomies of other cultures you usually find the constellations are very different. One of the headaches of this sort of study is finding the constellations of other cultures set down anywhere. .. In most cases we don't really know what the constellation looked like. Even for the case of Egyptian constellations, for which we have many depictions, the identification of actual star patterns with constellation names is still tentative..
    In some cases the constellations suggest a form, so we can see why the ancient people gave it the name they did, or the attributes they did. One particularly clear case is that of Taurus. The "V" shape defined by the Hyades pretty clearly suggests the horns of a bull. Another case is Scorpio, where the J + T shape of the stars suggests a scorpion's coiled stinger. .. Curiously, one case of interest to us both shows that our expectations are not always fulfilled. The constellation of Orion seems clearly defined, with the large rectangle of stars, marked by the three stars of the belt/penis. Yet most cultures do not consider the four stars of the rectangle part of the constellation at all! The three "belt' stars are seen as an arrow, or as cooking fires, or some such figure, and Betelgeuse, Rigel, Bellatrix are not even considered. This, by the way, is one reason I find Bauval's pyramid thesis convincing -- considering the belt apart from the other stars as a constellation is the way most of the world sees the constellation.'
    24th April 2000: Stephen Wilks has set up a website www.medusamystery.com (this may no longer exist).