Rubbing the turtles

A few years ago, while on a campus tour of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, I rubbed the head of a turtle. For good luck, of course.

The Tri-Delt Armillary Sundial at Miami University

In the campus’ Central Quad is the Tri-Delt Sundial, a 6-foot bronze armillary sphere set on a ring of bronze turtles.

The sphere was a gift in 1962 from the Miami chapter of Delta Delta Delta sorority to celebrate the university’s 50th anniversary.

The sculpture’s rings represent the major circles of the Earth (such as the Equator or Meridian) and the two polar circles.

The signs of the zodiac are marked with golden figures, while the shaft, which represents the Earth’s axis, points to the North Star.

The bronze turtles at the base are emblems of eternity. My first reaction when I saw the turtles with the giant bronze sphere on their back was to chuckle and think “turtles all the way down.”

It’s likely that’s what the Sundial’s creator, architect and engineer Clifford M. Proctor, had in mind when he chose a ring of turtles to support the Earth.

Some people may think of John Green’s 2017 Young Adult novel “Turtles All the Way Down,” when they hear that phrase, but I was thinking of the story Stephen Hawking tells in his 1988 blockbuster, “A Brief History of Time.”

Hawking starts off his work about the Big Bang and black holes with an anecdote about a famous scientist giving a public lecture on astronomy and being scolded by an old lady who says everything he said was rubbish and the world was really a flat plate on the back of a giant tortoise.

The scientist asks her what then is that tortoise standing on, and she tells him he’s so clever, “but it’s turtles all the way down.”

The phrase is an expression of the problem of infinite regression and relates to the myth that the world rests on the back of a giant turtle and that turtle is then atop a column of turtles that goes on and on and on … all the way down.

The world supported on the backs of four elephants, themselves resting on the back of a turtle from Hindu beliefs.

The belief of the world resting on the back of a turtle has deep roots in many countries and cultures from around the world.

The belief is often called the World Turtle or the Cosmic Turtle, such as Chukwa from Hindu beliefs in India.

Following all the online links about the Cosmic Turtle is a bit “turtles-all-the-way-down" itself.

School legend at Miami has it that rubbing the heads of the turtles on the Sundial brings good luck and an “A” if you have an exam coming up.

I had no tests pending, but who can’t use some good luck?