[Dragaera] OT reference to the number 17

[Dorothy J Heydt]

There are seventeen contrade (districts) in Siena, Italy, and their
traditional rivalries are expressed twice yearly in the palio, the
horse race with all the pageantry and guys in Renaissance costume
waving flags.  (There used to be a lot more contrade, but they're
extinct now; but their banners are carried _in memoriam_ in the
parade that precedes the race.)  See Dundes and Falassi, _La Terra
in Piazza_.

Greek legend says that the dove coos _deka-okto, deka-okto_, "eighteen.
Seems the dove was once an old woman, at the time of the Crucifixion.
She was selling milk for eighteen coppers, and a sympathetic Roman
soldier wanted to buy some to relieve Christ's thirst.  But she went
on stubbornly saying "deka-okto, deka-okto," until she was turned
into a dove that goes on saying the same thing.  If she ever repents
and says "deka-epta," seventeen, she will regain her human form.  If
she becomes so greedy as to demand "deka-ennea," nineteen, the world
will end.  (Source: Gerald Durrell, one of his Corfu books.)


Dorothy J. Heydt
Albany, California
djheydt at kithrup.com