Seven stars - Hugh Kolb

Seven Stars traces the meaning and origins of the Seven Stars pub sign back 1500 years to the legal codes of the Anglo-Saxons and beyond that to the mythological astronomy of the ancient Mediterranean region. It is believed that the sign of the Seven Stars originated in the star cluster of the seven Pleiades which was considered to be a bunch of grapes in the sky in a Dionysian and Bacchic world view and therefore used as a suitable tavern sign. The first half of the book briefly tells the history of public drinking and its associated signs, and then describes the oldest and most interesting Seven Stars pubs in England going back to the 14th century. The second part is a discussion of the various meanings that have been proposed for the Seven Stars sign, many of them based on ideas from ancient astronomy.