Hesiod would be very confused in Melbourne

Hesiod says to plough when the Pleiades set at dawn. They're getting there: every morning this month they hang a little lower in the west as the sky goes pale. In Boeotia that meant autumn, mud and wheat.

In Melbourne it's spring. My neighbour is already building tomato cages, because round here everyone plants tomatoes on Cup Day. Same stars, opposite season.

I've stopped trying to force the old calendar onto the southern sky. Now my notebook has two columns: what the stars meant in Greece, and what the land is actually doing here. The gods seem fine with it. Hestia has never once asked which hemisphere her hearth is in.