@
^•5^.,
By William Tyler Olcott
A Field Book of the Stars
In Starland with a Three-Inch Telescope
Star Lore of the Ages
Lur Lore of All Ages
A Collection of Myths, Legends, and Facts Concerning the Constellation the Northern Hemisphere
William T ?;.,.*,
Author of '« A Field Book ,.
Three-Inch T-.
With 50' Illustrations in t:, Illustr
G. P. Putniini's Sons
New York and London
Zbc fmiclictbocfter ^x-r^
1911
Star Lore of All Ages
A Collection of Myths, Legends, and Facts
Concerning the Constellations of
the Northern Hemisphere
By
William Tyler Olcott
Author of *' A Field Book of the Stars," '♦ In Starland, with a Three-Inch Telescope," etc.
With 50 Illustrations in the Text and 64 Full-Page Illustrations
G. P. Putnam's Sons
New York and London
Zbe fmicketbocker Press
1911
COPTKIGHT, IQtl BY
WILLIAM TYLER OLCOTT
S5
TCbe Knicfcetbocliet press, tKew Sod
G. H. O.
AND
L. S. S.
PREFATORY NOTE
The author's first book, A Field Book of the Stars was simply intended as a guide to the constellations. It was an effort on his part to acquaint the reader with the star groups and the individual star names. In his book, In Starland with a Three-inch telescope he sought to in- dicate to the amateur astronomer what could be seen of the stellar wonders with a modest telescopic equipment.
It follows naturally that having come to be on friendly terms with the stars, and having seen many of the beautiful sights that the night reveals, the tyro should wish to know more of the history of the stars and how the constel- lations came to be named, and the purpose of this book therefore is to satisfy that desire.
It is always a pleasure to trace back to their sources the traditions with which time has endowed the enduring, and thus the study of the myths and legends that surround the eternal stars possesses a surpassing charm for those who have learned to know them intimately and through nightly communion with them have come to love them.
The author quotes extensively from R. H. Allen's Star Names and Their Meanings, an exhaustive and scholarly work and an authority on the subject, and he here pays tribute to the author for the pleasure a close perusal of his book affords, and heartily commends it to all those who desire to make a closer study of the philology of the ancient star names.
INTRODUCTION
There are many persons who are familiar with the bright stars and constellations of these northern latitudes who are unaware of the beautiful myths and legends that time and fancy have woven about them.
As even a meagre knowledge of star lore has added greatly to the writer's pleasure in the study of the stars, and has served to render their appearance full of suggestion, he has been interested in collecting for this volume a portion of that varied history of the heavens that has been presented in terms imaginative by the peo- ples of all ages. Those who admire the beauty of the stars may learn to love them by reason of the literary and leg- endary associations recalled by their appearance.
Much that appears in these pages has been published from time to time in books on popular astronomy of com- paratively recent date, but to the writer's knowledge no comprehensive story has as yet been presented of the con- stellations, and of the stars they contain.
In the compilation of this volume, the purpose has been to include all matter pertinent to the subject, in order that the history of the constellations, as known and as written by all nations in every age, might be arranged in convenient form for the benefit of those who only know the stars by sight.
A further aim has been to revive an interest in the mythology that twines about the stars. It has seemed but right that this wealth of star lore, buried deep in the treas- ury of the past, should once more see the light, and add its increased charm and interest to those who scan the skies.
Such a history must ever serve to keep bright the memory
viii Introduction
of the earliest times, and fanciful though the constellation figures seem, our stars bear the same names that were given to them in the very dawn of civilisation.
In conclusion, it is hoped that the history of the heavens here set forth will awaken fresh interest in the stars, and will secure for them the attention that is their just due, on the part of all lovers of the beautiful.
W. T. O. Norwich, Conn, January, 191 1.
And all the signs through which Night whirls her car. From belted Orion back to Orion and his dauntless Hound, And all Poseidon's, all high Zeus's stars. Bear on their beams true messages to man.
Paste's Translation of Aratos,
CONTENTS
Prefatory Note Introduction
The Origin and History of the Ancient Groups .....
Andromeda, the Chained Lady .
Aquarius, the Water Bearer
Piscis Australis, the Southern Fish .
Aquila, the Eagle ....
Aries, the Ram
Auriga, the Charioteer
Bootes, the Bear Driver .
Canes Venatici, the Hunting Dogs .
Cancer, the Crab ....
'Canis Major, the Greater Dog .
Canis Minor, the Lesser Dog .
tAPRICORNUS, THE SeA GoAT
Cassiopeia, the Lady in the Chair Cepheus, the King .... Cetus, the Whale ....
Star
PAOB
V
vii 3
21 31
39 45 53 63 73 83 87 95 109
"5 125 135 143
XI
xu
Contents
Corona Borealis, the Northern Crown . 149
CoRvus, THE Crow 157
Crater, the Cup . . 165
Cygnus, THE Swan or the Northern Cross . 171
Delphinus, the Dolphin . . . 179
Draco, the Dragon . . . . . .185
Eridanus, the River Po . . . . 195
Gemini, the Twins ...... 201
Hercules, the Kneeler . . . 213
Hydra, the Water Snake . . . . 223
Leo, the Lion ....... 231
Lepus, the Hare ...... 243
Libra, the Scales ...... 249
Lyra, the Lyre ....... 257
Ophiuchus or Serpentarius, the Serpent-Bearer,
AND Serpens, the Serpent .... 267
Orion, the Giant Hunter ..... 275
Pegasus, the Flying Horse . . . .291
Perseus, the Champion 301
Pisces, the Fishes ...... 309
Sagittarius, the Archer . -317
Scorpio, the Scorpion ..... 325
Taurus, the Bull ...... 335
Ursa Major, the Greater Bear . . . 347
Contents xiii
Ursa Minor, the Lesser Bear .
Virgo, the Virgin .....
The Galaxy, or Milky Way
The Hyades and Pleiades, the Hyades
The Pleiades ......
The Minor Constellations
Argo Navis, the Ship Argo . Camelo'pardalis, the Giraffe CoLUMBA No^, Noah's Dove Coma Berenices, Berenice's Hair Lacerta, the Lizard ....
Leo Minor, the Lesser Lion
Lynx, the Lynx
MONOCEROS, THE UnICORN
Sagitta, the Arrow ....
Sextans, the Sextant ....
Scutum Sobiescanum, Sobieski's Shield
Triangulum, the Triangle .
VULPECULA Cum Ansere, the Fox with the Goose
Appendix
Index to Constellations ....
PAGE
391 401
429
431 432
433 433 434 435 435 436 436 437 438 438
439 443 451
ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGS
The Creation of the Sun and Moon PronUspiece
(Michelangelo) .
Ptolemy ........ 12
National Miiseum, Naples.
Perseus and Andromeda . . . . . 22
(Berlin).
Great Nebula in Andromeda .... 26 Ganymede and the Eagle .... 32
Museum of Vatican, Rome.
Ganymede Seized by the Eagle ... 46
Painting by Rubens. Gallery of the Prado, Madrid.
Ganymede ........ 48
Painting by George Frederick Watts.
Avenue of Ram-headed Sphinxes, Karnak . 56
From Piers's " Inscriptions of the Nile Monuments."
The Temple of Khonsu, Karnak ... 68
From Piers's " Inscriptions of the Nile Monuments."
Chariot 69
Atlas ........ 74
National Mtiseum, Naples.
XV
xvi Illustrations
PAGE
Spiral Nebula in Canes Venatici ... 84
The Temple at Luxor 100
God Anubis 102
Action Attacked by the Hounds of Diana . no
National Museum, Palermo.
Typhon . . . . . .116
Acropolis Museum, Athens.
Theseus Slaying the Minotaur . . . 148
Statue at Villa Albani.
The Minotaur ....... 150
Painting by George Frederick Watts.
Bacchus and Ariadne . . . . -152
National Gallery, London.
Ariadne Sleeping . . . . . -154
National Museum, Rome.
Medea 166
National Museum Naples.
Orpheus and Eurydice . . . .172
Painting by George Frederick Watts.
Cupid and Dolphin 180
National Museum, Naples.
Minerva ........ 186
Vatican Museum, Rome.
Temple of Thebes ...... 190
Illustrations xvii
PAGE
Phaeton Driving the Chariot of Apollo . .196
Painting by Max Klepper.
Temple of Castor and Pollux at Rome . . 202 Temple of Castor and Pollux at Girgenti . 204 Farnese Hercules . ., . . . .210
National Museum, Naples.
The Infant Hercules Strangling the Serpents
at Pompeii 214
Dejanira and Nessus . . , . .216
Painting by Lagr6n6e. Museum of the Louvre, Paris.
Hercules and Hesperides ..... 220
Villa Albani, Rome.
Star Cluster in the Centauri . . . 222
Hercules and the Hydra ..... 224
UfBzi Gallery at Florence.
Orpheus and Eurydice 258
Villa Albani, Rome.
Mercury, by Rubens ..... 260
Gallery of the Prado, Madrid.
Ring Nebula in Lyra 264
Laocoon 270
Museum of Vatican, Rome.
The Forge of Vulcan ..... 278
In the Ducal Palace, Venice.
xviii Illustrations
PAGE
Diana ........ 280
Capitoline Museum, Rome.
The Zodiac of Denderah 282
Great Nebula in Orion . . . . .286
Harvard Collie Observatory.
Bellerophon and Pegasus at Rome . . . 292 Perseus and Andromeda ..... 302
Painting by Rubens.
Perseus and Medusa . . . . . 304
Bronze by Cellini at Florence.
Venus and Cupid 310
The Rape of Europa . . . 338
Painting by Veronese. In the Ducal Palace, Venice.
Juno and Jove 352
National Museum, Palermo.
The Temple of Hathor at Denderah 362 Ceres . . . . . . . 384
In the Vatican, Rome.
The Sphinx 388
Juno Suckling the Infant Jove . . 394
Painting by Rubens. Gallery of the Prado, Madrid.
The Milky Way in Sagittarius . 396
The Dance of the Pleiades .... 408
Painting by Elihu Vedder.
Illustrations xix
rAcs
The Lost Pleiad ...... 420
By Randolph Rogers.
The Pleiades, Showing Nebula . . . 424
(Bruce 24-inch Telescope.) Courtesy of Prof. E. C. Pickering.
Temple of Edfu . . . . . . 432
Berenice 434
Bronze Bust in National Museum, Naples.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
In the compilation of this volume the author hereby acknowledges his indebtedness to the following publica- tions for much valuable information.
Star-Names and their Meanings
Starland
Influence of the Stars
A History of Astronomy
Astronomical Myths
Stellar Theology .
Primitive Constellations
Geography of the Heavens
The Story of the Stars
The System of the Stars
The Sidereal Heavens
Star Lore
Metrical Pieces
Astronomical Essays
How to Know the Heavens
Astronomy of the Ancients
Dawn of Astronomy
Star-Gazing
The Friendly Stars
The Astronomy of the Bible
The Children's Book of Stars
The Stars
Astronomy of Paradise Lost
Familiar Talks on Astronomy
History of the Heavens .
Ancient Calendars and Constellations
The Stars in Song and Legend
The Storyland of Stars .
Stories of Starland ....
Myths and Marvels of Astronomy .
The Flowers of the Sky .
The Expanse of Heaven .
xxi
. Richard H. Allen . Sir Robert S. Ball
Rosa Baughan Arthur Berry
. J. F. Blake
> Robert Brown, Jun.
. Elijah H. Burritt
George F. Chambers
. Agnes M. Gierke
Thomas Dick
J. A. Farrer
N. L. Frothingham
James E. Gore
Eward Irving
Sir George C. Lewis
Sir Joseph Norman Lockyer
Martha Evans Martin
E. W. Maunder
Geraldine E. Mitton
Simon Newcomb
T. N. Orchard
W. H. Parker
The Abbe Pluche
E. M. Plunket
. J. G. Porter
Mara L. Pratt
Mary Proctor
Richard A. Proctor
xxu
Bibliography
Handbook of the Stars ....
Astronomy of the Old Testament
Curiosities of the Sky ....
Pleasures of the Telescope
Astronomy with an Opera-Glass
Astronomy with the Naked Eye
New Astronomy .....
Celestial Objects for Common Telescopes
History of the Inductive Sciences .
Oriental and Linguistic Studies
Journal of American Folk-Lore
American Oriental Society's Journal
Memoirs of the London Anthropological Society
Popular Astronomy
The Works of John Playfair
. N. J. RoKe Giovanni Schiaparelli
> Garret P. Serviss
David P. Todd
Rev. T. W. Webb
. WiUiamWheweU
William D. Whitney
The Origin and History of the Ancient Star Groups
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE ANCIENT STAR GROUPS
Some man of yore A nomenclature thought of and devised, And forms sufficient found.
So thought he good to qaake the stellar groups, That each by other lying orderly, They might display their forms. And thus the stars At once took names and rise familiar now.
Aratos.
The origin of the constellations is still open to conjecture, for, though all nations since the dawn of history have recog- nised these ancient stellar configurations, and at one period or another employed them in some symbolic or representa- tive capacity, the fact remains that the researches of archae- ologists have failed to yield definite proof as to who first designed them and where they were first known.
There is little doubt that the constellations were the re- sult of a deliberate plan, as La Place affirms. Possibly they were an endeavour on the part of some patriarch of the ancient world to grave an imperishable record of a great event, or a series of noteworthy occurrences in the world's history, for all posterity to read, and although no Rosetta stone has been found as yet to enable the present race of man to decipher their meaning, still the problem attacked by the ablest savants of all nations has yielded theories re- specting the origin and purposes of the constellations that cannot be far from the truth.
In the very dawn of the world, when human instinct first inspired observation, primitive man began to look about him and take stock of his environment. The daily wants of
3
4 Star Lore of All Ages
nature supplied, the natural phenomena would claim man's attention, and first he would take cognisance of tl^e sun, moon, and stars that provided life's chief essential, light.
For purposes of identification alone, there must have been at an early date certain designations for the individual stars that gave rise to all subsequent stellar nomenclature. The sun, moon, and planets, the brighter luminaries, would first excite man's interest and attention, and then the brightest stars would attract and mystify him.
As time went on, observation would soon indicate to human intelUgence the relationship of the sun and moon to the fixed stars, and the seasonable difference in the ap- pearance of the nocturnal skies.
All this would be in strict accord with the natural laws of the observational faculties. Such elementary knowledge of the heavenly bodies would presently lead to the estabHsh- ment of certain facts relative to the stars, features con- cerning their apparent change in position, that if marked would render a service to the race.
Very early in the history of the world the stars must have served to record the passage of time, a service they have faithfully and accurately rendered mankind through all the ages to the present day.
The first tillers of the soil must have marked well the stars, and certain of them doubtless proclaimed the time of sowing and reaping. The circumpolar stars guided the rude crafts of the early navigators, and unquestionably in the earliest times they singled out ''the star that never moves," Polaris, as an unfailing and reliable beacon to direct their course.
The rising and setting of the stars thus became matters of paramount importance, governing alike the actions of the husbandmen and those who sailed the seas. Certain stars were also indicative of impending meteorological changes, and their appearance at particular seasons was watched for with keenest interest.
The wonder and mystery the stars inspired, and their
The Origin of Ancient Star Groups 5
utility in daily life, soon led to their becoming objects of idolatry, and as their importance increased, astrology, that pseudo-science, Kepler's "foolish daughter of a wise mother," sprang into being, and for a time suppressed, discouraged, and hampered the legitimate and scientific study of the heavens.
Thus early in the history of man we find the stars all-] important to his welfare. No coiu-se was pursued or plan adopted without first consulting the heavenly bodies. They governed alike the policies of nations and the actions of in- dividuals. They ruled absolutely over the destinies of the high and lowly, the rich and poor, and horoscopes became a necessity of life, and divination the highest pursuit of man.
In Sabianism, or star worship, we have, therefore, the earliest form of religion, and in astrology and the adoration of the stars the progenitors of the modem science of astronomy.
From this universal attention to the stars, there sprang! up the myriad fancies and peculiar notions, the products' of imagination, that peopled the sky with animals and' quaint figures, and gave rise to the constellated stellar groups that have come down to us, and figure on the modem charts of the heavens.
There are many traditions that have emerged from the mists that shroud the distant past respecting the origin of the constellations, and the science of astronomy, and as that origin is antediluvian, the knowledge that we have of the subject must perforce be largely traditional in its character.
An early tradition affirms that the immediate descend- ants of Adam cultivated a knowledge of the stars, and that Seth and Enoch inscribed upon two pillars, one of brick, the other of stone, the names, meanings, secret virtues, and science of the stars, with the divisions of the zodiac.
Josephus states that he saw in Syria the pillar of stone, which alone remained in his day. The history of two mys- terious pillars entwined with a serpent, the symbol of revo-
6 Star Lore of All Ages
lution, can be traced through all the ages, from remote antiquity until it reaches our dollar sign
Then there is a tradition that has siu-vived the ages, that Noah, who was also known as Cannes and Janus, was the inventor of astronomy. It is certain that Noah and his family were soon worshipped and inextricably mixed with stars and gods.
The Chaldeans attributed their knowledge of the stars to Noah, who became a two-faced deity, as he could look backwards and forwards. He was known as "the God of Gates," as he opened the door which God shut, and Noah and the Ark became Janus and Jana, solar and lunar deities. Of all this tradition meets us everywhere.
It is a remarkable fact that, from the earliest times, as far as we can judge from the cuneiform inscriptions and hieroglyphics that have been deciphered, the sign for God was a star.
Astronomy unites with history and archaeology in point- ing to the Euphrates Valley, and, as we might expect, the region /of Mt. Ararat, as the home of those who originated the ancient constellation figures.
Authorities agree, for the most part, that the originators of Sabianism and stellar lore in this region were not the Semitic Babylonians, but a people generally termed "Akkadians," a word meaning highlanders, or mountain- eers, the most ancient race known to us, who came down from the mountainous region of Elam or Susiana, to the east of Assyria, bringing with them the rudiments of writ- ing and civilisation.
The Babylonians, previous to the invasion of the Ak- kadai, unquestionably had some knowledge of the stars. It was thought in those early times that the mountains on the east supported the firmament, and that the zenith was fixed over Elam. There were observatories estab- lished in all the large cities of Chaldea, many of the shrines on the topmost terraces being dedicated to this purpose, and at an early date the stars were named and numbered.
The Origin of Ancient Star Groups 7
The Babylonian Tablets, the oldest records extant, re- veal that the Akkadians introduced their sphere and zodiac into Babylonia before the year 3000 b.c, and the zodiac of the Akkadians corresponds almost exactly with the signs we know to-day.
It seems almost folly to endeavour to set the date of the invention of the constellations, for that period must ap- proximate the age of the habitable world, and in all prob- ability the stellar figures known to us were not designed at any one time, and lost their originality by the varying conditions that time has wrought in the past, for even in comparatively recent years there have been many attempts to alter them.
Bailly, a brilliant scholar and eminent astronomer, con- tends that the phenomena of astronomy had been closely observed before the great races of mankind separated from the parent stock. He claims, and few would dispute him, an antediluvian race as the originators of astronomical science. In proof of this he cites the fact that there are ancient Persian records which refer to the four famous "Royal Stars" as having marked the four colures (the meridian points of the solstices and equinoxes), a fact only possible in antediluvian times.
Maunder, who has made a very careful study of archae- ology in its relation to the constellational figures, has revealed many interesting features in connection with them. He writes :
"The first feature which the old constellation figures present to us is a very striking one. They cover only a por- tion of the heavens, and a large region roughly circular in the southern hemisphere is left entirely vacant. Swartz was the first to make the significant suggestion that this space was left vacant because the inventors of the constel- lations Hved too far north to permit of their viewing this part of the heavens."
Pursuing this line of thought. Maunder considers that the designers of the figures lived, in all probability,
8 Star Lore of All Ages
between 36° and 42" north latitude, so that the constella- tions did not originate in Egypt or Babylon. By comput- ing where the centre of the vacant space coincided with the southern pole, we get the date 2800 B.C., which was prob- ably the date when the ancient work of constellation mak- ing was completed.
It has been remarked that among the constellation figures conspicuous by their absence are the following animals: the elephant, the camel, the hippopotamus, the crocodile, and the tiger, so it is reasonably safe to assume that neither India, Arabia, nor Egypt was the birthplace of the sphere. Greece, Italy, and Spain may be excluded on the ground that the lion figures as one of the constellations. We have left Asia Minor and Armenia, a region bounded by the Black, Mediterranean, Caspian, and ^Egean seas, as the logical birthplace of the stellar figures. The fact that we find a ship among the stars warrants us in believing that it is on the coast of this country, and not in its in- terior, that we should expect to find the land where the con- stellations were first known.
The division of the zodiac into twelve signs, the number of months in the year, is one of very great significance, for we infer from the fact that it was so arranged to assist in the observation of the position of the sun among the stars.
Many of the authorities hold that the zodiac was planned while the spring equinox fell in the constellation Taurus. In support of this claim it may be said that, if this is the case, the sun was ascending all through the signs that face the east, and was descending all through the signs that face the west, a sigrnficant and logical arrangement which could hardly be accidental.
The date of the zodiac is given as 3000 B.C., which agrees very well with the significant position of the four Royal Stars previously mentioned which marked the four card- inal points, and were thus especially prominent.
A close inspection of the stellar groups yields many points of interest, notably the fact that everywhere there
The Origin of Ancient Star Groups 9
is indication of design and not chance in the arrangement and configuration. There seems to have been a definite idea in some one's mind respecting them, a desire to per- petuate a vitally important record. It may be of interest to mention a few of the facts that have inclined scholars to this belief:
To begin with, we find many figures duplicated, and in most cases the two figures are close together in the sky. Thus we see the figures of two Dogs, two Bears, two Giants subduing Serpents, each pair in close proximity. Then there are two Goats, two Crowns, two Streams, and two Fishes bound together.
The zodiacal constellations are often clearly connected with neighbouring figures. We observe the Bull attacked by the Giant Hunter Orion, Aquarius pouring a stream of water into the mouth of the Southern Fish, the Scorpion attempting to sting Ophiuchus, and the Ram pressing down the head of the Sea Monster.
Again, one portion of the sky was known to the ancients as "the Sea," and here we find, as we might expect, many marine creatures, — the Dolphin, the Whale, the Fishes, the Sea Goat, and the Southern Fish.
Other features in support of the theory of design are found in the half-figures, Pegasus, Taurus, and Argo, and the so-called Deluge group, comprising the Ship stranded on a rock, the Bird, the Altar, the Centaur offering a sac- rifice, and the Bow set in the Cloud.
It is supposed that, at a time far remote, the Akkadians , were conquered by the Semitic race, and that the con- 1 querors imposed only their language on the conquered, adopting, it is said, the Akkadian mythology, laws, litera- ture, and system of astronomy.
At an early date in the world's history we find astronomy and astrology flourishing in China, India, Arabia, and Egypt.
The early astronomical annals of the Chinese reveal the fact that, before the year 2357 B.C., the Emperor Yao had
10 Star Lore of All Ages
divided the twelve zodiacal signs by the twenty-eight mansions of the moon.^
The Arabians are said to have received their astronomi- cal knowledge from India, and in China, Arabia, and India we find an almost identical system, i.e., that of the Lunar Stations, or Lunar Mansions, employed to indicate the daily progress of the moon amid the stars.
India has been claimed as the birthplace of the constella- tion figures, but modern research, says Allen, finds little in Sanscrit literature to confirm this belief.
There is a controversy as to whether Indian astronomy was derived from Greece or independent of it. In sup- port of the latter theory, it is said that the Brahmins were too proud to borrow their science from the Greeks or Arabs, and also that it was improbable that two rival Hindu sects, the Brahmins and Buddhists, should have adopted the same innovations in their calendars and re- ligious symbolism. Again, the Greeks held Indian as- tronomy in high esteem, while the Hindus only bestowed a moderate praise on the Grecian science.
The Egyptians, on whose early monuments the twelve zodiacal signs are found, acknowledged that they derived their knowledge of the stars from the Chaldeans, and they were in turn the teachers of the Greeks as early as the time of Thales and Pythagoras.
Herodotus states that the Egyptians were the first of all mankind who invented the year and divided it into twelve parts, a statement much at variance to the accepted testi- mony of the Babylonian Tablets.
Of the constellations outside the zodiac, we find a few groups and stars mentioned at an early date, notably in the Old Testament, where, in the Book of Job, there are references to the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades, names that have come down to us. Homer and Hesiod both mentioned
' It is of interest to note that the Chinese were called "Celestials" because their empire was divided after the Celestial spaces.
The Origin of Ancient Star Groups ii
the same constellations, which is indicative of the import- ance of these star groups in the eyes of the ancients. Hesiod also refers to the stars Arcturus and Sirius, and these two stars may well be considered the most ancient of all the stars from the standpoint of stellar nomenclature.
Authorities dififer as to the source from which the Greek knowledge of the stars was derived, but in all probability it did not come from any one source but was imported from Egypt, Chaldea, and Phoenicia.
The founder of the science of astronomy in Greece was Thales, the head of the Ionic School of Philosophy, a citizen of Miletus, who lived about 540 B.C. It is said that he first taught the Greek navigators to steer by the Little instead of the Great Bear.
Eudoxus, a native of Cnidus, who lived about the fourth century B.C., a contemporary of Plato, was the first Greek who described the constellations with approximate com- pleteness. He is reported to have visited Egypt and to have there received astronomical instruction. He wrote The Enopiion, or The Mirror, and The Phenomena or Appearances, both prose works and unfortunately not extant, but Aratos, the Alexandrine poet, versified the latter work about 270 B.C., and it has descended to our day.
Aratos was a native of Soli in Cilicia, and Court Physi- cian tor Antigonus Gonatas, King of Macedonia. He was a contemporary of Aristophanes, Aristarchus, and Theocritus, and he always mentions the constellations as of unknown antiquity. His sphere accurately represented the heavens of about 2000 B.C. His poem has been considered an authority on stellar nomenclature, and has been closely followed by all subsequent delineators of the constella- tion figures.
This sphere of Eudoxus, which has been transmitted to us through the verses of Aratos, contained forty-five con- stellations, twenty in the northern hemisphere, twelve in the southern, and thirteen in the zodiacal group, the
12 Star Lore of All Ages
Pleiades being considered as a separate constellation in addition to Taurus.
Allen makes the following interesting reference to this famous poem: "When the poem entitled The Phenomena of Aratos was introduced at Rome by Cicero and other leading characters, we read that it became the polite amuse- ment of the Roman ladies to work the celestial forms in gold and silver on the most costly hangings, and this had pre- viously been done at Athens, where concave ceilings were also emblazoned with the heavenly figures."
The Phenomena is the most ancient description of the constellations extant, and has been translated into all languages. Cicero and Germanicus Cassar both made translations of it, and no less than thirty -five Greek com- mentaries on the work are known to us.
Eudoxus considered the heavens as divided up into con- stellations with recognised names. "He did not deal with the stars singly, but gave a sort of geographic description of their territorial position and limits, according to groups, distinguished by a common name." His work's chief value consists in the comprehensive view of the heavens it affords, and in the description of the constellated heavens in their entirety.
Although the contributions of Eudoxus and Aratos to astronomical literature are highly regarded and authorita- tive, the acknowledged founder of our scientific astronomy is Hipparchus, who was the first to discover the perpetual and apparent shifting of the stars known as the Preces- sion of the Equinoxes. Only two of his works have come down to us, his Commentary, and the reproduction of his Star Catalogue by Ptolemy, who was known as "the Prince of Astronomers." This catalogue enimierated 1022 stars, of which 914 form constellations, and 108 are unformed. It is held in much respect even by modem astronomers, and agrees in the main with the enumeration of Aratos. Procyon, however, appears as a constellation, and the asterism Equuleus, the foremost Horse, is added,
Ptolemy National Museum, Naples
The Origin 6f Ancient Star Groups 1 3
an asterism that figures on modem star maps. The obser- vations of Hipparchus were made between 162 and 127 B.C., while those of Ptolemy embodied in the Syntaxis, as his work was entitled, were made from 127 to 151 a.d.
The Syntaxis was practically an epitome of the results of the early star-gazers of Greece and Western Asia, and comprised a list of 1028 stars classified in forty-eight con- stellations. Each star is named by its position in the figiure supposed to include the stars of the group. Thus the con- stellation Draco contains thirty-one stars, some of which received the following descriptive names: "the star upon the tongue," "the star in the mouth," "the star above the eye," etc. This method of naming the stars continued in use until the eighteenth century, when a letter or a number with the Latin genitive of the constellation was used. In Ptolemy's catalogue appears the first comparative list of stellar magnitudes.
The constellations of the Greeks were ultimately ac- cepted and adopted by the Persians, Hindus, Arabs, the nations of Western Asia, and the Romans, from whom they have been borrowed by the modem world. To Greece, then, we are indebted for the figures now depicted on otir celestial globes and the many interesting myths associated with them, notably the legend of Perseus and Andromeda, which is fully illustrated in the starry skies.
Although the savages of prehistoric times first be- queathed the stellar configurations to science, we listen to their harsh ideas, as Bacon puts it, "as they come to us blown softly through the flutes of the Grecians."
From the time of Ptolemy till the year 1252, no advance of importance was made in the matter of cataloguing the stars, but in this latter year there appeared the celebrated Alphonsine Tables compiled by Arabian or Moorish as- tronomers at Toledo under the auspices of the subsequent King Alphonso X., known as "the Wise."
A correction of Ptolemy's sphere was published by the Arabian astronomer Ulugh Beg in 1420 a.d., in which there
14 Star Lore of All Ages
was a description of the constellations derived from Al- Sufi's translation of five centuries previously.
The catalogues of Copernicus and Tycho Brahe followed, the former's great work laying the foundations of modern astronomy. In 1603 the Uranometria oi ]oha.nn Bayer ap- peared in Germany. This chart contained forty-eight con- stellations and a list of 709 stars. Bayer invented the system in vogue to-day of denoting each star by a letter of the Greek alphabet, the brightest star in each figure being desig- nated Alpha with the Latin genitive of the constellation. It was soon found that the stars in many of the groups ex- ceeded the number of letters in the alphabet, and such stars were denoted by the letters of the Roman alphabet.
Succeeding Bayer's catalogue there appeared consecu- tively the charts of Bartsch, Schiller, Kepler, Royer, Halley, and in 1690 that of Hevelius, who added the as- terisms of the Hunting Dogs, the Giraffe, the Lizard, the Unicom, the Lynx, the Sextant, Fox and Goose, and Sobieski's Shield, all recognised by modern astronomers.^
Flamsteed's catalogue, published in 17 19, comprised fifty-four constellation figures, and exhibited a new method of stellar designation, the stars being consecutively num- bered in the order of their right ascension, a method em- ployed in modern charts for the fainter stars.
La Caille, known as "the true Colimibus of the southern sky," in his publications of 1752 and 1763, invented fourteen new star groups which included the names of many instruments of the sciences and fine arts, the ma- jority of which have been rejected by modern delineators of the constellations.
» In the case of the charts of Bartsch and Schiller it is of interest to note that these astronomers endeavoured to do away for all time with the old constellation names, and Christianise, so to speak, the stellar hosts. On their charts the twelve Apostles were each represented by a constellation, and other Biblical names were substituted for the time- honoured figures. It is needless to add that this nomenclature was not popular and failed of general adoption.
The Origin of Ancient Star Groups 15
Subsequently Le Monnier, Bode, and Lalande published stellar catalogues, adding new asterisms, the latter's chart containing a total of eighty-eight constellations.
In 1840 the famous German astronomer Argelander pub- lished his star catalogue, the most complete that had appeared up to that time. It contained 210,000 stars. Argelander brought order where there had been much con- fusion, by separating one constellation from another by irregular boundary lines, so that all the stars would be embraced within the borders of some stellar figure. His system is employed in many of the modern charts of the heavens.*
To-day there are over a hundred large catalogues of the stars, but there is a discrepancy in the number of constel- lations accepted by astronomers. Prof. Young recognised sixty-seven as in ordinary use, and in these northern lati- tudes about fifty-five are generally known.
Allen tells us that "eighty or ninety may be considered as now more or less acknowledged, while probably a million stars are laid down on the various modem maps, and this is soon to be increased perhaps to forty million on the completion of the present photographic work for this object by the international association of eighteen observatories engaged upon it in different parts of the world."
In conclusion, it may be of interest to review briefly the conception of the firmament in vogue in ancient times among the different nations of the old world.
The Persians are said to have considered 3000 years ago that the whole heavens were divided up into foiur great districts, each watched over by one of the "Royal Stars," Aldebaran, Antares, Regulus, and Fomalhaut.
' Photography has played an important part in stellar catalogues of recent years, Kapteyn's chart made up from plates taken at Cape Town containing over 300,000 stars, and every year approximately 2000 plates of the heavens are taken by the astronomers in charge of the Harvard College Observatory Station at Arequipa, Peru.
i6 Star Lore of All Ages
The Assyrians looked upon the stars as divinities, en- dowed with beneficent or evil powers.
Among the Chaldeans the sky was regarded as a boat, shaped like a basket. The space below was the earth, which was flat and surrounded by water.
The Egyptians worshipped Osiris and Isis as ancestors, and showed Plutarch their graves, and the stars into which they had been metamorphosed.
The ancient Peruvians thought that there was not a beast or bird on earth whose shape or image did not shine in the sky. They considered the limiinaries and stars guardian divinities and worshipped them. They also thought that the stars were the children of the sun and moon.
The Hebrews had a notion that the sun, moon, and stars danced before Adam in Paradise.
The Bushmen, or early inhabitants of Africa, regarded the more conspicuous stars as men, lions, tortoises, etc. They believed that the sun, moon, and stars were once mortals on earth, or even animals, or inorganic substances which happened to get translated to the skies.
In New Zealand heroes were thought to become stars of greater or less brightness according to the number of their victims slain in battle.
The North American Indians believed that many of the stars were living creatures, and knew Ursa Major as a Bear, the same figure known in the Far East.
The Tannese Islanders divided the heavens into con- stellations with definite traditions to account for the canoes, ducks, and children that they see in the skies.
In the South Pacific islands dying men will announce their intention of becoming a star, and even mention the particular part of the heavens where they are to be looked for.
The Eskimos thought that some of the stars had been men and others different sorts of animals and fishes, which was also the mythical belief of the Greeks and Romans.
The Origin of Ancient Star Groups 1 7
According to Slavonic mythology the stars are regarded as living in habitual intercourse with men and their affairs.
An ancient legend was that there were no stars till the giants of old, throwing stones at the sun, pierced holes in the sky, and let the light of that orb shine through the holes which we call stars, — and Anaximenes thought that the stars were fixed in the dome of heaven like nails.
Thus we find, as some one has put it, that "astronomy like a golden thread runs through history and binds to- gether all tribes and peoples of the earth," and the girdle of stars we view nightly remains as the most ancient monu- ment, of the work of intelligent man, "the oldest picture book of aU."
Andromeda The Chained Lady
19
OAlgol
\4 Gloria O — ^'c 1
—^ FrederUai
Alptieratz ^
\
V
/
^^
ANDROMEDA
ANDROMEDA THE CHAINED LADY
And there revolves herself, image of woe, Andromeda, beneath her mother shining.
Aratos.
The origin of the constellation known to us as Androm- eda is lost in remote antiquity, but the myth that relates to Andromeda, the daughter of Cepheus and Cassiopeia, and associated with the constellation, is probably as well known to-day as any that has come down to us. Ac- cording to this mjrth, Cassiopeia boasted that she was fairer than the sea nymphs. This attitude was offensive to Neptune, who despatched a monster of the deep to ravage the seacoast. Cassiopeia, terrified at the pro- spect, besought the aid of the all-powerful Zeus, who ruled that her daughter Andromeda must be sacrificed to ap- pease the wrath of the sea god. Consequently Andromeda, amid great lamentation, was chained to a wave- washed rock, there to await the coming of the sea monster to de- vour her.
In accordance with this legend, we find the constella- tion Andromeda depicted in the old star atlases as a beauti- ful maiden chained to a rock, with Cetus the Whale or the sea monster represented near at hand about to devour her.
In Burritt's atlas, » Andromeda is represented with chains attached to her wrists and ankles. The rock to which she was said to have been bound does not appear in the picture.
» Geography of the Heavens, by Elijah H. Burritt.
21
22 Star Lore of All Ages
In the edition of the Alphonsine tables, Allen tells us Andromeda is pictured with an unfastened chain around her body, and two fishes, one on her bosom and the other at her feet, showing an early connection with the neigh- bouring constellation Pisces.
In the Leyden Manuscript, Andromeda is represented as lying partly clothed on the sea beach, chained to rocks on either side, and on a map printed at Venice in 1488 she is pictured as bound by the wrists between two trees.
The legend further relates that Perseus, flying through the air on his steed Pegasus, fresh from his triumph over the Medusa, espied the maiden* in distress, and like a true champion flew to her assistance.
Chained to a rock she stood; young Perseus stay'd His rapid flight, to woo the beauteous maid.
Holding the Medusa's head before him, he assailed the sea monster that threatened Andromeda, and immediately the creature was turned to stone, and the hero had the pleasure of releasing the wretched maiden.
For the statement that Perseus when he freed Androm- eda was mounted on his winged steed Pegasus, there is however no classical authority.
The constellation Andromeda is bounded on the west by Pegasus, and on the east by Perseus, and thus links the two constellations together. This dgubtless accounts for the presence of Pegasus in the myth.
Brown* thinks that in this legend of Andromeda and Perseus we have but another version of the all-pervading solar myth. Perseus may be Bar-Sav, the solar Herakles, and Andromeda his bride Schachar (the morning red).
The Hindus have almost the same story in their astro- nomical mythology, and almost the same names that have come down to us. They call the constellation "Antar- mada." In an ancient Sanscrit work are found draw-
» Stellar Mythology, by Robert Brown, Jr.
4
o
u
-a c m
ClJ ^
a.
Andromeda, the Chained Lady 23
ings of Antarmada chained to a rock with a fish beside her.
Sappho, the Greek poetess of the 7th century B.C., re- fers to Andromeda, and Eiiripides and Sophocles both wrote dramas about her, — but there is little doubt, as Allen states, that the constellation originated far back of classi- cal times in the valley of the Euphrates.
Plunket* is of the opinion that the constellation of An- dromeda dates from 3500 B.C. in accordance with the other constellations around it, and there is some ground for be- lieving that its date goes back to 6000 B.C.
In Dr. Seiss's mythology, Andromeda was intended for a prophetic symbol of the Christian church. Sayce claims that she appeared in the great Babylonian Epic of Creation of more than two millenniums before our era, in connec- tion with the story of Bel Marduk and the dragon Tiamat, which doubtless is the foimdation of the story of Per- seus and Andromeda.
The constellation Andromeda has borne the following names :
Mulier Catenata, the woman chained.
Persea, as the bride of Perseus.
Cepheis, from her father.
Alamac, from the title of the star Gamma.
Some authorities claim that Andromeda was a native of iEthiopia and regard her as a negress. The Arabian as- tronomers knew these stars as "Al mar 'ah al musalsalah," and to them they represented a sea calf or seal with a chain around its neck that united it to one of the two fishes.
Allen states that according to Csesius, Andromeda re- presented the biblical Abigail of the Books of Samuel, and Julius Schiller in 1627 made of these stars the Sepulchrum Christi, the new Sepulchre wherein was never man yet laid.
'Ancient Calendars and Constellations, by E. M. Plunket.
24 Star Lore of All Ages
Milton in his Paradise Lost thus refers to Andromeda:
the fleecy star that bears Andromeda far off Atlantic seas Beyond the horizon.
Kingsley's Andromeda is beautifully descriptive of the constellation.
Pluche' accounts for the names of the constellations Perseus, Andromeda, and Cepheus in the following in- genius way:
It was an ordinary turn of the Hebrew and Phoenician languages to say that a city or country was the daughter of the rocks, deserts, rivers, or moimtains that surrounded her or that were enclosed within her walls. Thus Jerusa- lem is often called "the daughter of Sion," that is, the daughter of drought or daughter of the barren hills con- tained within its compass. Palestine originally was no- thing more than a long maritime coast consisting of rocks and a sandy flat shore. It was proper to speak of this long coast as the daughter of Cepheus and Cassiope, Cepha signifying a stone. If you would say in Phoenician, a long coast or a long chain or ridge, you would call it Androm- eda. Palestine would have been destroyed had it not been for the assistance of the barks and pilots that voyaged to Pharos and Sais to convey provisions. Strabo informs us that the Phoenicians were accustomed to paint the figure of a horse upon the stem of their barks, but there was beside the winged horse (the emblem of navigation) a horseman bearing a peculiar symbol, and, as it were, the arms of the city of Sais. This was the Medusa's head. Furthermore, a bark in the vulgar tongue was called Per- seus, which means a runner or horseman. This then ac- cording to Pluche was the meaning of the fabled sacrifice of Andromeda: — Exposed to a cruel monster on the rocks of Joppa, in Syria, Andromeda (or the coast towns of Palestine) , owed her deliverance to a flying rider, Perseus
» History of the Heavens, by Abb6 Pluche
Andromeda, the Chained Lady 25
(the Phoenician barks), to whom the goddess of Sais had lent the frightful head of Medusa to turn all her enemies into stone with terror. Josephus wrote that in his day the inhabitants of Joppa showed the links and remains of the chain that bound Andromeda to the rock, and the bones of the sea monster.
Burritt suggests that the fable of Andromeda might mean that the maiden was courted by some monster of a sea captain who attempted to carry her away, but was prevented by another more gallant and successful rival.
Maunder^ claims that in the 12th chapter of the Apoc- alypse there is an allusion to what cannot be doubted are the constellations Andromeda, Cetus, and Eridanus : "And the serpent cast out of his mouth after the woman, water as a river, that he might cause her to be carried away by the stream." Andromeda is always represented as a woman in distress, and the sea monster has always been understood to be her persecutor, and from his mouth potu-s forth the stream Eridanus.
The constellation Andromeda presents a beautiful ap- pearance rising in the eastern sky in the early evening during the months of autumn. Low over the hills twinkle her chain of stars, sweeping down in a long graceful curve from the Great Square of Pegasus, like tiny lamps swing- ing from an invisible wire, a chain of gold with which heroic Perseus holds in check his winged steed.
Astronomically speaking, the great feature of interest in the constellation is the famous nebula, the so-called "Queen of the Nebulae," or Al Sufi's "Little Cloud," said to have been known as far back as A.D. 905. In the West it seems to have been first observed by Simon Marius, Dec. 15, 1612. It is the only naked eye nebula, and according to Marius it resembles "the diluted light from the flame of a candle seen through horn." An arc light gHmpsed through a dense fog is also descriptive of its
» The Astronomy of the Bible, by E. M. Maunder.
26 Star Lore of All Ages
naked eye appearance. ^ It is an enormous body, estimated to be in length as much as thirty thousand times the dis- tance of the earth from the sun (ninety- three million miles), a proportion inconceivable. Herschel thought that the nebula was resolvable into separate stars, although his glass failed to prove the fact. Later observations with more powerful telescopes confirmed his opinion. An exami- nation made at Cambridge in 1848 proved the existence of upwards of fifteen hundred minute stars within the nebula, while the nebulous character of the whole was still apparent. In the spectroscope this nebula gives clearly a continuous spectrum, thus proving that it is not a mass of incandescent gas but rather a highly condensed cluster of stars. Recent and more reliable calculations of its distance give it a light journey of about nineteen years.
The star Alpha Andromedas, or Alpheratz as it was called by the Arabs, was formerly associated with the con- stellation Pegasus, and called Delta Pegasi. The Arabs also knew this star as "Sirrah," and it represented to them the horse's navel. Alpheratz is situated at the north-eastern corner of the Great Square of Pegasus, a stellar landmark, and is known as one of the "Three Guides," marking the equinoctial colure, the prime meridian of the heavens, Beta Cassiopeiae and Gamma Pegasi being the other two guides. In astrology Alpheratz portended honour and riches to all bom under its influence. It culminates at 9 P.M., on the loth of November. Alpheratz is situated in the head of the figure of Andromeda, and was familiarly known as "Andromeda's Head" in England two centuries ago. In all late Arabian astronomy taken from Ptolemy it was described as the "Head of the Woman in Chains." According to Prof. Russell, Alpheratz has a dark com- panion spectroscopically revealed, revolving about it in a
* While Serviss says it resembles a whirlwind of snow, and the ap- pearance of swift motion and terrific force is startling.
Great Nebula in Andromeda
Andromeda, the Chained Lady 27
highly eccentric orbit, in a period of about one hundred days.
Gamma Andromedae was known to the Arabs as "Al- mach." Allen tells us this name was derived from a phrase meaning a small predatory animal similar to a badger. The propriety of such a designation here is not obvious in connection with Andromeda, and the name would indicate that it belonged to a very early Arab astronomy. In the astronomy of China, Gamma, with other stars in Androm- eda and Triangulum, was "Tien Ta Tseang," "Heaven's Great General." Astrologically this star was "honourable and eminent." The duplicity of Almach according to Allen was discovered by Johann Tobias Mayer of Gottingen in 1778, and Wilhelm Struve in 1842 found that its com- panion was a close double. Herschel regarded Almach as one of the most beautiful objects in the heavens, and Webb, Proctor, and Serviss all speak in glowing terms of the beautiful contrast in colour between the gold and blue of the primary and its companion. Almach certainly vies in beauty with the famous double Beta Cygni, and is perhaps with this exception the most charming of all double stars. It is an easy double for small telescopes and is conse- quently a great favourite with amateur astronomers. It re- quires a 5" glass at least to split the blue companion star. The celebrated meteor shower known as "the Andromedes IL," the so-called Bielid meteors of November, radiate from the vicinity of this star. There was a wonderful display of these meteors in 1872 and 1885. Delta An- dromedae marks the radiant point of the Andromedes I., a meteor shower due the 21st of July.
The fourth magnitude stars X, x, i Andromedae and the fifth magnitude star ^ Andromedae form a "Y "-shaped figure which bears the name of "Gloria Frederica" or Frederick's Glory, an asterism formed by Bode in 1787 in honour of the great Frederick II., of Prussia, who died in 1 786. The figure is thus described : " Below a nimbus the sign of royal dignity hangs, wreathed with the imperishable
28 Star Lore of All Ages
laurel of fame, a sword, pen, and an olive branch, to dis- tinguish this ever to be remembered monarch, as hero, sage, and peacemaker." This figure, with the exception of the nimbus, appears on Burritt's Atlas, but later atlases omit the asterism entirely, and it is seldom mentioned.
The remaining stars in this constellation require no special mention.
Aquarius The Water Bearer
39
The Water Jas 4
SadalMelik.
AQUARIUS
AQUARIUS THE WATER BEARER
While by the Horse's head the Water-Pourer Spreads his right hand.
ASATOS.
The astronomers of all nations, with the exception of the Arabians, have adopted the figure of a man pouring water from a jar or pitcher to express this constellation. The Arabs, being forbidden by law to draw the human figure, have represented this sign by a saddled mule carry- ing on his back two barrels of water, and sometimes by only a water bucket. They called the constellation "Al- Dawl," the "Well Bucket," and not the "Water Bearer."
For some reason, all the ancients imagined that the part of the sky occupied by the Water Bearer and neighbouring constellations contained a great celestial sea. Here we find the Whale, the Fishes, the Dolphin, the Southern Fish, the Sea Goat, the Crane, (a wading bird), and even Erida- nus, the River Po, is sometimes shown as having its source in the Waterman's Bucket. It also seems appropriate that Pegasus is situated in this region of the sky, for the winged horse was the Phoenician emblem of navigation, and the star Markab, as Alpha Pegasi was called by the Arabs, signifies a ship or vehicle.
According to Ideler, the reason for this designation of " the Sea" for this region of the heavens is because the sun passes through this part of the sky during the rainy season of the year.
An Egyptian legend averred that the floods of the Nile were caused by the Water Bearer sinking his huge urn into
31
32 Star Lore of All Ages
the fountains of the river to refill it, and accordingly this constellation represented to the Egyptians the rainy period of the winter season. However, the Egyptians were prob- ably indebted to some other people for their knowledge of this constellation, for Egypt is not a land subject to heavy rains.
Aquarius is represented even on very early Babylonian stones as a man or boy pouring water from a bucket or um ; around the waist is a scarf, part of which is held up by the left hand. For some reason, which is lost to us, his right arm is stretched backward to the fullest extent pos- sible so as to reach over almost the entire length of the con- stellation Capricomus, which bounds Aquarius on the west.
The significance of the pouring of the water from the urn into the mouth of the Southern Fish is also unaccounted for. The conception is such a singular and striking one that it was evidently the result of design rather than fancy. Maunder referring to this peculiar figure says: "Strangely enough through all the long centuries that the starry sym- bols have come down to us, Aquarius has always been shown as pouring forth his stream of water into the mouth of a fish, surely the strangest and most bizarre of symbols."
According to Norse mjrthology, Aquarius was considered Wali's palace, and it was supposed to be covered with silver. In the Indian zodiac, the name of the constellation is "Kumbha," meaning "Water Jar." Allen states that Kumbha is from xotx^Y], or Storm-god. Here again we find the constellation associated with rain and tempest.
Brown tells us that Aquarius in the Hebrew zodiac re- presented the tribe of Reuben, "unstable as water."
In Greek mythology, Aquarius represented Ganymede, the cup-bearer of the gods. Ganymede was a beautiful youth of Phrygia, and the son of Tros, King of Troy. He was taken up to heaven by Jupiter as he was tending his father's flocks on Mt. Ida, and became the cup-bearer of the gods in place of Hebe.
Photo by Anderson
Ganymede and the Eagle Museum of Vatican, Rome
Aquarius, the Water Bearer 33
In a Roman zodiac, Aquarius was represented by a pea- cock, the symbol of Juno, the Greek Here, in whose month Gamelion (Jan.-Feb.) the sun was in this sign. Aquarius has also been represented as a goose, another bird sacred to the goddess.
In February, the Aquarius month, the sun entered the Peruvian sign known by the name "Mother of Waters" and "Eagle Bridge." The Water Mother was figured as a sacred lake located in the Southern Fish and the Crane. The month of February marks the height of the rainy season in the Andes, and the rivers are then in flood so that the powers of the Mother of Waters are at this season most conspicuously displayed.
Allen' states that the New Testament Christians of the l6th and 17th centuries appropriately likened Aquarius to John the Baptist and to Judas Thaddasus the Apostle. In Babylonia thi:; constellation was associated with the nth month (Jan.-Feb.), called "Shabatu," meaning "the Curse of Rain," and the Epic of Creation has an account of the Deluge in its nth book, corresponding to this the nth constellation, each of its other books numerically coinciding with the other zodiacal signs. In that country an urn seems to have been known as "Gu," meaning a water-jar overflowing. Plunket tells us that "Gu" is possibly an abbreviation of "Gula," the name of a goddess. This goddess under another name was a personification of the dark water or chaos, hence the identification of the goddess Gula with the constellation Aquarius.
In the cuneiform inscriptions of western Asia we read: "The planet Jupiter in the asterism of th,e Urn lingers." Considering the imagined aqueous nature of this region of the sky it is not difficult, as Plunket says, to understand how the Vedic Rishis, who appear to have combined the characteristics of poets, scientists, and observers of the heavens, should have in 3000 B.C., when the sun was in
* Star Names and Their Meanings, by Richard H. Allen. 3
tmii^>: ::W'
34 Star Lore of All Ages
conjunction with Aquarius at the time of the winter solstice, have described the fire of the solstitial sun as "hiding in, being born in, and rising out of the celestial waters of the constellation Aquarius."
Some suppose Aquarius represents Deucalion, who was placed among the stars after the celebrated deluge of Thessaly in 1500 B.C., and the creation legend connected with this constellation identifies it with the Flood. It may- be that Noah, desiring to perpetuate the record of the Deluge, found in the scroll of night a parchment that never fades, and in the stars characters that time cannot efface.
Aquarius has also been identified with Cecrops, the Egyptian who journeyed to Greece and founded Athens.
Proctor in his Myths and Marvels of Astronomy tells us that Aquarius astrologically speaking is in the house of Sattim. Its natives, those bom between Jan. 20th and Feb. 19th, are robust, steady, strong, and healthy, and of middle stature, delicate complexion, clear but not pale, sandy hair, hazel eyes, and generally of honest disposition. It governs the legs and ankles, and reigns over Arabia, Petraea, Tartary, Russia, Denmark, Lower Sweden, Westphalia, Hamburg, and Bremen. It is mascuHne and fortunate, and an aqueous blue colour is attributed to it.
The Anglo-Saxons called Aquarius "se Waeter-Gyt," the "Water Pourer," and it was also known by the queer title "Skinker," which signifies a tapster or pourer out of liquor.
The astronomical symbol of the sign XXC, representing undulating lines of waves, is said to have been the hiero- glyph for water. The faint stars that seem to trail south- ward from the water- jar are many of them in pairs and triples, thus bearing out a stellar resemblance to a flowing stream.
In this region of the sky the 25th Hindu lunar station was situated. The Hindu name for it signified "having a hundred physicians," and it included a hundred stars, the
Aquarius, the Water Bearer 35
brightest being X Aquarii. The regent of the asterism was Varuna, the god of the waters.
The Arab lunar station or manzil known as "the feli- city of tents " was also located in this region of the heavens, and the early Christians saw in this constellation the figure of St. Jude.
Aquarius, in spite of the importance attached to it by the ancients, is an inconspicuous constellation. It is characterised by a "Y "-shaped figure representing the water-jar, composed of the stars Y, ^, r), x Aquarii. This figure was called Sittda or Uma by the Latins. A rough map of South America and a rude dipper are also to be traced out in the stars of this constellation.
Alpha Aquarii is but one degree south of the celestial equator. It was called "Sadalmelik" by the Arabs, which means "the fortunate star of the king." This star marks the Chinese lunar station or Sieu, which they knew as "God."
The star Beta Aquarii was called by the Arabs "Sadal Sud," "the luckiest of the lucky," a title supposed to refer to the good fortune attending the passing of winter. This star and ^ Aquarii constituted the Persian lunar station known as "Bunda." On the Euphrates Beta Aquarii was known as the "star of mighty destiny."
The star Delta Aquarii marks the radiant point of the meteors known as the Delta Aquarids which appear from the 27th to the 29th of Jul}'', and in this vicinity Mayer, in 1756, noted as a fixed star the object that was later identified by Sir William Herschel as the planet Uranus.
5 Aquarii is a double, the two suns revolving in 1624 years. They present a fine sight in a small telescope.
Piscis Australis The Southern Fish
37
PISCIS AUSTRALIS THE SOUTHERN FISH
Aquarius is so closely identified with the constellation Piscis Australis, or the "Southern Fish," situated directly- south of it, that a description of this asterism is worthy of notice in this place.
Piscis Australis, says Burritt, is supposed to have taken its name from the transformation of Venus into the shape of a fish, when she fled terrified at the horrible advances of the monster Typhon. It has been thought that the Southern Fish was the sky symbol of the god Dagon of the Syrians, the Phagre and Oxyrinque adored in Egypt, and it has even been associated with the still greater Cannes. It was especially mentioned by Avienus as the "Greater Fish," and Longfellow in the notes to his translation of the Divine Comedy, called it the "Golden Fish."
The Mosaicists held the asterism to represent the Barrel of Meal belonging to Sareptha's widow, but Schickard pronounces it to be the Fish taken by St. Peter with a piece of money in its mouth.
Aratos describes the figure as "on his back the Fish," but it generally appears in an upright position with mouth agape, drinking in the great stream which flows down the sky from the water- jar of Aquarius.
In the early legends the Southern Fish was the parent of the Northern and Western Fishes that make up the zodiacal constellation Pisces.
This constellation as a whole is inconspicuous in this hemisphere owing to its low position. Its lucida however, the brilliant first magnitude star Fomalhaut, rises well
39
40 Star Lore of All Ages
above the horizon and adorns the southern skies in the early evening during the autumn months. Fomalhaut is made the more conspicuous because it is the brightest star in this region of the sky. It is the farthest south of all the first magnitude stars we see, and ranks thirteenth among the brilliant stars in our hemisphere.
Mrs. Martin' thus refers to this great sun: "On early acquaintance the loneliness of the star, added to the sombre signs of approaching autumn, sometimes gives one a touch of melancholy, but its aspect when more familiar soon comes to suggest only sweetness and serenity, and a lover of Fomalhaut feels that a sustaining light has gone when, during the last of December, this beautiful star sinks gently down in the south-west and disappears from the evening sky not to return for more than seven months."
Fomalhaut is always associated in the mind of the star lover with Capella, the briUiant in the constellation Auriga, which rises far from it over the north-eastern horizon. As these two stars rise almost simultaneously, one naturally turns from a glimpse of one to the bright beams of the other.
The name Fomalhaut, pronounced Fo'-mal-o, is from the Arabic, meaning "the Fish's Mouth." Aratos men- tions it as "One large and bright by both the Pourer's feet." Among the early Arabs, Fomalhaut was known as "the First Frog."
Flammarion tells us that Fomalhaut was known as "Hastorang" in Persia 3000 B.C., when near the winter solstice. It was also called "the magnificent Royal Star," and was one of the four Royal stars of astrology, ruling over the four cardinal points of the heavens, the other stars be- ing Regulus, Antares, and Aldebaran. These four stars were also regarded as the four guardians of Heaven, senti- nels watching over the other stars.
About 500 B.C. Fomalhaut was the object of sunrise
« TTte Friendly Stars, by Martha Evans Martin.
Piscis Australis, the Southern Fish 41
worship in the temple of Demeter at Eleusis. With astro- logers it portended eminence, fortune, and power. Its position in the heavens has been determined with the greatest possible accuracy to enable navigators to find their longitude at sea, and it appears in the Ephemerides of all modern sea-going nations. It culminates at 9 p.m., on the 25th of October.
Fomalhaut is reddish in colour, and distant from the earth about twenty-one light years. So far as is known it has no companion. By one authority this star was thought to be the Central Sun of the Universe, and according to Allen no other star seems to have had so varied an orthography.
Aquila The Eagle
43
o
Vu'pecul* and
OAJbireo
In
CygnoB
O^. Sagltta
\1
DclphlDona
\ \ Job's CoflSa
A N T I N O ii S
AQUILA
AQUILA THE EAGLE
Aquila the next Divides the ether with her ardent wing Beneath the Swan, not far from Pegasus, Poetic Eagle.
The history of the constellation Aquila, the Eagle, is especially interesting both because in this case we can trace it back very clearly to the earliest times, and the original Euphratean name has been preserved.
The Sumerian- Akkadian Eagle was "Alula" (the great spirit) , the symbol of the noontide sun, and in all probability the origin of the present constellation. On a Euphratean uranographic stone of about 1200 B.C., there is a bird figured, known as the Eagle, which is supposed to represent the constellation of Aquila.
The Latins knew this constellation as Aquila, and their poets called it "Jovis Ales" and "Jovis Nutrix," the "Bird" and the "Nurse of Jove." Ovid called it "Me- rops," King of the island of Cos, in the Archipelago, turned into the Eagle of the sky, and placed among the stars by Juno. Others thought it some ^Ethiopian king like Cepheus.
Aquila is generally joined with Antinous, an asterism invented by Tycho Brahe. Antinous was a youth of Bithynia in Asia Minor, who came to an untimely death by drowning in the river Nile. So greatly was his death lamented by the Emperor Adrian, that he erected a temple to his memory, and built in honour of him a splendid city on the banks of the Nile.
45
46 Star Lore of All Ages
In Greece, the eagle was the bird of Zeus, and is re- presented as bearing aloft in his talons a beautiful boy. This youth is sometimes called Ganymede, whom Jupiter, as the story runs, desiring for his cup-bearer, sent the eagle to seize and carry up to heaven.
One of Ovid's Metamorphoses treats of Ganymede, the youthful cup-bearer, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning thus translates it in part:
But sovran Jove's rapacious bird, the regal
High percher on the Hghtning, the great eagle,
Drove down with rushing wings; and thinking how.
By Cupid's help, he bore from Ida's brow
A cup-boy for his master, he incUned
To yield, in just return, an influence kind;
The god being honoured in his lady's woe.
Aquarius as we have seen was also supposed to represent Ganymede, and there seems to have been a connection be- tween the constellations Aquarius and Aquila.
Another story claims that Jupiter himself asstmied the form of an eagle and seized and carried off Ganymede, and Aquila was known as the bird of Jove and bearer of his thunder.
Horace thus alludes to this famous bird:
Jove for the prince of birds decreed,
And carrier of his thunder, too. The bird whom golden Ganymede
Too well for trusty agent knew.
Gladstone's translation.
Some have imagined that Aquila was the eagle which brought nectar to Jupiter, while he lay concealed in the cave at Crete to avoid the fury of his father Saturn, and this is in accordance with the legend of the Rig- Veda that Aquila bore the Soma (the invigorating juice) to India, "rushing impetuously to the vase or pitcher" (the con- stellation Aquarius). This legend serves to corroborate
Photo by Anderson
Ganymede Seized by the Eagle Painting by Rubens. Gallery of the Prado, Madrid
Aquila, the Eagle 47
the view that the Water Bearer and the Eagle were closely associated.
Some of the ancient poets say that this is the eagle which furnished Jupiter with weapons in his war with the giants. In accordance with this version early re- presentations added an arrow held in the Eagle's talons. ManiHus wrote:
The tow'ring Eagle next doth boldly soar,
As if the thunder in his claws he bore;
He 's worthy Jove since he, a bird, supplies
The heaven with sacred bolts, and arms the skies.
On Burritt's map, Antinous is represented as grasping a bow and arrows as he is borne aloft in the talons of the Eagle. In this connection there may be a significance in the position of the asterism Sagitta, the Arrow, just north of Aquila.
Among the Australians Aquila is called "Totyarguil," and represents a man who, when bathing, was killed by a fabulous animal, a kind of kelpie, as in Greece Orion was killed by a scorpion and translated to the stars.
The Hebrews know this constellation as "Neshr," an eagle, falcon, or vulture. The Arabians called it "Al- "Okab," probably their black eagle. Grotius and Bayer both called the constellation " Altair," the name now borne by its brightest star.
The Turks called Aquila the "Hunting Eagle," and through all the ages it has been known as a bird of prey, the "Eagle of the Winds," the "Soaring Eagle," as contrasted with Vega near by, the "Swooping or Falling Eagle."
Here over the face of the waters as it were, just above the region of the sky known to the ancients as "the Sea," we find three birds in flight, two eagles and a swan, our Lyra, being anciently known as "the Falling Eagle." There is a significance in this arrangement that has never been satisfactorily explained. Dupuis advanced the idea that
48 Star Lore of All Ages
the famous three Stymphalian Birds of mythology were represented by the constellations Aquila, Cygnus, and Lyra, grouped near Hercules, whose fifth labour it was to slay them.
On the coins of many ancient countries the eagle ap- pears. On the coinage of Sinope it is shown perched on the dolphin. In connection with the story of Ganymede, it appears on the coinage of Chalcis and Dardanos. One coin bearing the prominent stars, says Allen, was struck in Rome in 94 B.C., by Manius Nepos, and a coin of Agri- gentum bears Aquila, with Cancer on the reverse, — the one setting as the other rises.
The Chinese have here the Draught Oxen mentioned in the book of Odes, compiled about 500 B.C., and strangely enough Alpha Aquilae, or Altair, is known among the Jap- anese as the boy with the ox. '
This constellation and Lyra are associated with the curious Chinese legend of the Spinning Damsel and the Magpie Bridge, a legend 'current in Korea also. It is as follows: A cowherd fell in love with the spinning damsel. Her father in anger banished them both to the sky, where the cowherd became a, ^, and y Aqmlae, and the spinning damsel the constellation Lyra. The father decreed that they should meet once a year, if they could contrive to cross the river (the Milky Way). This they were en- abled to do by their friends the magpies, who still once a year, the seventh night of the seventh moon, congregate at the crossing point, and form a bridge for them to pass over. In Korea if a magpie is seen about its usual haunts at this time the children stone it for shirking its duty. According to Lafcadio Heam, this legend is the basis of the Japanese festival called "Tanabata." The sky lovers here are known as "the Herdsman and the Weaver," and when the meeting occurs it is said that the lover stars burn with five different colours. If rain falls at the time set
' The early Christians likened this figure to St. Katharine and the Standard of Rome.
Photo by Holly er
Ganymede Painting by George Frederick Watts
Aquila, the Eagle 49
for the crossing, the meeting fails to occur. For this reason rain on the Tanabata night is called the rain of tears.
Dr. Seiss regards Aqtiila as symbolical of the Woimded Prince or Christ suffering for mankind.
Aquila contains a star of the first magnitude called "Altair," a Aquilae, to which Mrs. Martin in her delight- ful book, The Friendly Stars, thus charmingly refers: "Then there comes a soft June evening with its lovely twilight that begins with the last song of the woodthrush and ends with the first strenuous admonitions of the whip- poorwill, and almost as if it were an impulse of natiu-e one walks to the eastern end of the porch and looks for Altair. It is sure to be there, smiling at one just over the tree-tops with a bright companion on either side, the three gently advancing in a straight line as if they were walking the Milky Way hand in hand and three abreast."
Allen tells us that the name of this beautiful star is from a part of the Arabic name for the constellation, and means the flying vulture.
Ovid thus alludes to the rising of Altair:
Now view the skies And you '11 behold Jove's hook'd-bill bird arise.
This star was ill omened in astrology, and supposed to portend danger from reptiles. It is an important star for the mariner, however, as the moon's distance is taken from it for computing longitude at sea.
According to Dr. Elkin, Altair is fifteen light years dis- tant from the earth. It is said to be approaching the earth at the rate of twenty-seven miles per second, and culmin- ates at 9 P.M. on the ist of September.
The radiant point of the meteors known as the Aquilids, visible from June 7th to August 12th, is located about five degrees east of Altair. Strangely enough in the year 389 A.D., a famous temporary star, or comet, appeared in this vicinity. Cuspinianus stated that it equalled
50 Star Lore of All Ages
Venus in brilliancy. It vanished after three weeks' visibility.
Altair with its two companions Beta and Gamma Aqtdlae constitute the so-called "Family of Aquila." The line joining these stars is five degrees in length. In China these stars were known as "Ho Koo," meaning "a river drum," and the Persians-called them the "Star Striking Falcon." They formed the 23d Hindu lunar station known as "the Ear." The regent of the asterism is Vishnu, and these three stars represent the three steps with which Vishnu is said in the early Hindu mythology to have strode through heaven. A trident is often given as the figure of this group.
Eta Aquilas is a remarkable variable star. Its greatest brightness continues but forty hours. It then gradually diminishes for sixty-six hours, when its lustre remains stationary for thirty hours. It then waxes brighter and brighter until it appears again as a star of the third magni- tude. From these phenomena, says Burritt, it is inferred that it not only has spots on its surface like our sun, but that it also turns on its axis. The spectrum of this star is similar to that of our sun. Lockyer thinks it is a spectroscopic binary, that is a star with a companion too close to be revealed by the most powerful telescope.
Aries The Ram
s«
.Algol ^ In Pecseus
I
Triangulum
\
The
Northern \Fish
HamalO — -
2 .c 3
Musca - The Fly
A*
ARIES ^
Steratan Mesarthim
AlBisciia
Oetu3
ARIES
ARIES THE RAM
First from the east, the Ram conducts the year; Whom Ptolemy with twice nine stars adorns, Of which two only claim the second rank, The rest, when Cynthia fills the sign, are lost.
Aries has been called the "Prince of the Zodiac," the "Prince of the Celestial Signs," and the "Leader of the Host of the Zodiac." It has also been associated with the ram into which Zeus changed himself to escape the piirsuit of the giants. He fled to Egypt, and there the constellation was called "Jupiter Ammon."
In Chaldea, where the constellation is supposed to have originated, the ram simply represents the favourite animal of the shepherds. Considering the fact that Aries is in an inconspicuous part of the heavens, and comprises only three stars of any importance, it is surprising the wealth of lore and legend that surrounds it, and the attention paid to it by the ancients, unless we attribute to it some ex- traneous claim for notoriety, such as the position of these stars as regards the sun at a certain period of the year. There is little doubt that this is the real cause of the im- portance of this constellation.
" If," says Plunket, "we find Aries equally honoured by several nations in very early times, either these nations, independent of each other, happened to observe and mark out the sun's annual course through the heavens at exactly the same date, and therefore chose the same date, or we must suppose that they derived their calendar and know- ledge of the zodiac from observations originally made by some one civilised race." y
53
54 Star Lore of All Ages
It is easy to see, as Brown avers, that the comparison of the sun to a ram or bull is a line of thought which nat- urally and spontaneously arises in the mind of archaic man.
In the Euphratean Valley, the probable birthplace of the constellations, the sun was styled a "Lubat," meaning old sheep, and ultimately the planets were called "old sheep stars." Hence the symbolic view of the sun as an old sheep or ram is necessarily of a remote antiquity.
In Aries we have very clear proof that many of the con- stellations must be regarded as mere symbols, and in no- wise to be thought of as owing their names to a fancied resemblance to some creature or object, for the obtuse angle formed by the three principal stars in Aries could only resemble at best the hind leg of a sheep or ram, and so we are boimd to the conviction that the ram is simply a symbol.
One theory holds that the solar ram, the stm who opened the day, was in time duplicated by the stellar ram, who in 2540 B.C. opened the year, and "led the starry flock through it as their bell-wether."
Unfortunately for this theory, as Maunder points out, we know that the constellations were mapped out at a far earlier epoch, when the equinox fell not in Aries, but in the middle of the constellation Taurus.
In mythology Aries has always represented the fabled ram with fleece of gold. Manilius thus describes it:
First Aries, glorious in his golden wool. Looks back and wonders at the mighty BuU.
The old fable is as follows: Phrixus and Helle were children of Athamas, the legendary King of Thessaly. Their step-mother treated them with such cruelty that Mercury took pity on them, and to enable them to escape their mother's wrath sent a ram to bear them away. Mounted on the ram's back the children sped over land
Aries, the Ram 55
and sea, but unfortunately Helle neglected to secure her hold, and fell from her seat while the ram was flying across the strait which divides Europe from Asia, In memory of this catastrophe this strait was afterwards known as the Hellespont. ManiHus thus refers to this episode:
First golden Aries shines, who whilst he swam Lost part of 's freight and gave to sea a name.
Longfellow also alludes to Helle's fall:
The Ram that bore unsafely the burden of Helle.
Phrixus landed safely at Colchis, at the eastern end of the Black Sea. Out of gratitude for his safe deliverance, he sacrificed the ram and gave the golden fleece to the king of the country, who hung it in the sacred grove of Ares, under guard of a sleepless dragon.
The golden fleece has always been associated in Greek mythology with the voyage of the ship Ar go, and the cele- brated Argonautic expedition which set forth in search of it.
The theory has been advanced that the stellar symbols were intended simply as a record of this famous expedi- tion. Even so good an astronomer as Sir Isaac Newton held this view, but Maunder on the contrary claims that there was nothing in the story of the neighbouring con- stellations to support the legend of the golden fleece.
Curiously enough Aries is the leading sign in all the sys- tems of astrology which have come down to us through the Greeks, and it figures as the leading sign in most of the explanations of the constellation figures which are on record. Maunder considers that this fact proves that these astrological systems, and these theories concerning the constellation figures, not only took their rise at a later epoch, but that when they did so, the real origin and mean- ing of the designs had been wholly lost.
56 Star Lore of All Ages
One peculiar fact respecting Aries for which there is no apparent explanation, is that the ram is always repre- sented with reverted head. On a coin type of Cyzicus, about 500-450 B.C., the ram is thus depicted, Allen notes as an exception to this almost universal figure, the ram erect in the Alhumasar of 1489.
Berosus, a Babylonian priest in the time of Alexander the Great, said that the ancients — those ancient to him — believed that the world was created when the sun was in Aries.
Pliny said that Cleostratos of Tenedos first formed Aries, but there is no doubt that the constellation origin- ated many centuries before this.
Plunket informs us that in the Egyptian calendars no reference is made to Aries, but in Egyptian mythology the importance of the ram is revealed. Amen or Amon, the great god of the Theban triad, is sometimes represented as ram-headed. The great temple to him in conjunction with the sun, i.e., to Amen-Ra, is approached through an avenue of gigantic ram-headed sphinxes. At the season of all the year when Aries specially dominated the eclip- tic, the statue of the god Amen was carried in procession to the Nekropolis, from which place the constellation Aries was fully visible. "The preparations for this great festi- val began before the full moon next to the spring equinox, and on the fourteenth day of that moon all Egypt was in joy over the dominion of the Ram. The people crowned the Ram with flowers, carried him with extraordinary pomp in grand procession, and rejoiced in him to the ut- most." The ancient Persians, who called Aries "Bara," had a similar festival.
Between 1400 and iioo B.C., when Rameses II. dedicated the temple of Aboo Simbel, the sun when it penetrated into the shrine of the temple was in conjunction with the first stars of the constellation Aries, and this fact doubtless led the King to honour Aries in connection with the god Amen. The Egyptians called Aries "the Lord of the Head."
s ^
-a 5
I a
Aries, the Ram 57
Not only the Egyptians, but all the great civilised na- tions of the East, had traditions of a year beginning when the sun and moon entered the constellation Aries.
Jensen is of the opinion that Aries may have been jfirst adopted into the zodiac by the Babylonians when its stars began to mark the vernal eqmnox. Plunket on the con- trary, thinks that the choice of the constellation as Prince and Leader of the signs was made, not when its stars marked the spring equinox, but when they indicated the winter solstice. According to this view Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricomus marked the four seasons and the cardinal points in 6000 B.C.
In the Rig-Veda, the first lunar station in the Indian series is named "Aswini." The two chief stars in the station are the twin stars as they may be called, ^ and y Arietis. Joyous hymns were addressed to the twin heroes, the Aswins, which may properly be called New Year's hymns, composed in honour of these stars, whose appear- ance before sunrise heralded the approach of the great festival day of the Hindu New Year. Next to Agni and Soma, the twin deities named the Aswins are the most pro- minent in the Rig- Veda. They are celebrated in more than fifty entire h3rmns, while their name occurs more than four hundred times. These twin heroes of Hindu myth- ology correspond to the famous twins of Grecian mythology. Castor and Pollux.
The Arabs, whose first manzil or lunar station was formed by these same two stars, knew them as "the two tokens," that is to say of the opening year. They called the constellation Aries "Al-Hamal," the Sheep, while the early Hindus called it "Aja," and "Mesha."
The Hebrews called the constellation "Teli," and as- signed it in their zodiac to either Simeon or Gad. Dr. Seiss, following Caesius, regarded Aries as symbolising the Lamb of the World.
Aries, the April sign according to Ha^ar, was known in Peru as "the Market Moon" or "Kneeling Terrace.**
58 Star Lore of All Ages
At this season the early crops were harvested and borne home on the backs of Hamas. The festival was called "Ayri huay" or that of the axe, and referred to the reaping of these crops. This conception of the con- stellation is decidedly at variance with the Eastern idea of it.
The Syrians called Aries "Amru" or "Emru," while the Turkish name for the constellation was "Kuzi."
The Romans generally called the constellation "Aries," but Ovid named it "Phrixea Ovis" and "Comus." Other Latin names for it are "Vemus Portitor," the Spring- bringer, and "Arcanus."
As one of the zodiacal twelve of China, Aries was first known as "the Dog," and later as "the White Sheep." At the time when it was sought to reconstruct the constella- tions on BibUcal lines, Aries was selected to represent Abraham's ram caught in the thicket, or St. Peter.
The Anglo-Normans of the 12th century called Aries "Multuns," and the poet Dante refers to it as "Montone."
In Italy, France, and Germany, Aries is called respec- tively, "Ariete," "Belier," and "Widder." The symbol of the constellation Y probably represents the head and horns of the animal. In this region of the sky a brilliant temporary star appeared in the year 1012 a.d.
Astrologically considered Aries is the house and joy of Mars, and signifies a dry constitution, long face and neck, thick shoulders, swarthy complexion, and a hasty passion- ate temper. It governs the head and face, and all dis- eases relating thereto. It reigns over France, England, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Lesser Poland, Syria, Naples, Capua, Verona, etc. It is a masculine sign, and is regarded as fortunate.
According to Eleanor Kirk, who is a great authority on the subject, people bom under Aries, that is between Mar. 20th and Apr. 19th are usually very executive, earnest, and determined. They are leaders, and dominate those about them. They are noble, generous, progressive,
Aries, the Ram 59
and have occult power. They are good scholars, bright, genial, and witty.
The natal gem of Aries is the bloodstone, the symbol of good luck; the natal flower, the violet; the metal, iron.
Alpha Arietis was called "Hamal" or "Hamel" by the Arabs, meaning a sheep, and the name " Al-Nath" has also been found for it on some of the ancient Arabic globes. "Arietis" is another name for this star.
Among the Greeks in early times, Hamal held the im- portant office of sunrise herald, at the vernal equinox. In Ptolemy's list it is described as "The one above the head" (of the Ram), and astrologers regarded it as dan- gerous and evil, denoting bodily hurts.
Brown asserts that the stellar Ram was in the first place only the star Hamal, the constellation being formed around it afterwards. Chaucer refers to the star as "Alnath," that is to say the "horn push," a name more commonly associated with the star in the tip of the northern horn of the Bull, a star common to the constellations Taurus and Auriga.
Other Euphratean names for this star have been "Lu- lim" or "Lu-nit," the ram's eye, and "Simal," the Horn Star. It was also called "Anuv" and "Ku," meaning the Prince or the Leading One, the ram that led the heavenly flock.
Of the Grecian temples, at least eight, at various places^ and of dates ranging from 1580 to 360 B.C. were oriented to this star, and it is the only star to which Milton makes individual allusion.
Hamal is much used in navigation in connection with lunar observations, and culminates at 9 p.m. on the nth of December. It is approaching our system at the rate of nine miles per second. According to Miss Gierke, ^ Hamal is distant from the earth about forty light years.
The star Beta Arietis was known to the Arabs as "Shara-
« The System of the Stars, by Agnes M. Gierke.
«
6o Star Lore of All Ages
tan," meaning "a sign," this star having marked the vernal equinox in the days of Hipparchus.
Gamma Arietis has been called the "First star in Aries" as at one time it was nearest to the equinoctial point. It is a beautiful double star, easily visible in a small tele- scope, and was discovered to be double by Dr. Hooke in 1664. This star was known to the Arabs as " Mesarthim," meaning the "two attendants," a reference to Beta and Gamma Arietis, these two stars being considered as at- tendants on Hamal. The Persians called these stars "The Protecting Pair."
The faint stars east of Hamal on the back of the Ram form a little group known as "Musca Borealis," the Northern Fly. The figure appears in Burritt's Atlas. According to Allen the inventor of this asterism is unknown. Musca has been also styled "the Wasp" and "the Bee." It comes to the meridian on the 17th of December at
9 P.M.
Auriga The Charioteer
6i
fv
I
AURIGA
AURIGA THE CHARIOTEER
Close by the kneeling Bull behold
The Charioteer who gained by skill of old
His name and heaven as first his steeds he drove,
With flying wheels, seen and installed by Jove.
Manilius.
The origin of this ancient constellation is lost. It has been represented for ages as a mighty man seated on the Milky Way, and like a shepherd carrying a goat on his shoulder, and a pair of little kids in his hand. The first magnitude star Capella shines in the heart of the imaginary goat.
Allen says: "The results of modern research give us reason to think that this constellation originated on the Euphrates, in much the same form as we have it to-day. It certainly was a well established sky figure there mil- lenniums ago. A sculpture from Nimroud is an almost exact representation of Atiriga, with the goat carried on the left arm."
On the Assyrian tablets Auriga was the "Chariot," and in accordance with this in Grseco-Babylonian times the constellation "Rukubi," the Chariot, lay here nearly coincident with our Charioteer.
Seen rising in the north-east, it needs but little imagina- tion to trace in the stars of Auriga a resemblance to an ancient Roman chariot, so that the title "Chariot" seems more appropriate than "Charioteer."
Ideler thinks that the original figure was made up of the five stars a, ^, e, 1^, yj. The driver (represented by the
63'
64 Star Lore of All Ages
star Capella) is imagined as standing on an antique sloping chariot, marked by ^, The other stars represent the reins. The illustration, although contrary to Ideler's conception, seems a much easier figure to trace. Here as in Ideler's figure Capella represents the driver's head. (See p. 69.)
Plunket suggests 3000 B.C. as the date of the invention of the constellation Auriga, for then Capella, the brightest star in this region of the sky, was on the meridian in con- junction with the sun at noon of the spring equinox, and in opposition at midnight of the autumnal equinox.
Capella has by several writers been identified with the star "Icu of Babylon," mentioned in many of the Baby- lonian texts, and the star of Marduk. If this is correct we should credit the Babylonian astronomers with the delinea- tion of the figure of Auriga.
Auriga has also been identified with Erichthonius, the son of Vulcan and Minerva, who being deformed and un- able to walk invented the chariot, an achievement that secured him a place in the sky.
Bold Erichthonius was the first who join'd Four horses for the rapid race designed, And o'er the dusty wheels presiding sate.
Dryden.
Swinburne sings of this famous inventor in the follow- ing lines:
Thou hast loosened the necks of thine horses, and goaded their flanks
with affright, To the race of a course that we know not on ways that are hid from our
sight; As a wind through the darkness the wheels of their chariot are whirled, And the light of its passage is night on the face of the world.
Manilius thus refers to the Charioteer :
Near the bent Bull a seat the Driver claims, Whose skill conferr'd his honour and his names.
Auriga, the Charioteer 65
His art great Jove admired, when first he drove His rattling Car, and fix't the Youth above.
According to Lempri^re, Erichthonius became the con- stellation Bootes instead of Auriga.
Brown identifies Erichthonius with Poseidon, the lord of the abyss below the surface of the earth, the stormy earth-shaking divinity, and thus accounts for the stormy influence that the Greeks attributed to Capella, the Goat-star.
The Greek name for Auriga was 'Evtox©?, "the holder of the reins," a name preserved for us in the Arab name for Beta Auriga5, " Menkalinan," meaning "the shoulder of the rein-holder."
Blake' thinks that the proximity of the chariot (Ursa Major) accounts for the name of the Charioteer applied to the constellation.
On a French chart of 1650 Auriga figures as Adam with his knees on the Milky Way, and the she-goat climbing over his neck.
Dr. Seiss claims that Auriga represented to the Greeks the Good Shepherd, a symbol foretelling the coming of Christ.
Caesius likened it to Jacob deceiving his father with the flesh of his kids.
Auriga has also been identified with Myrtilus, the charioteer of CEnomaus, with Cillas, Pelethronius, Hip- polytus, Bellerophon, and St. Jerome, while Jamieson is of the opinion that Auriga is a mere type or scientific symbol of the beautiful fable of Phaeton, because he was the at- tendant of Phoebus at the remote period when Taurus opened the year.
Auriga in its glorious lucida Capella contains a star fam- ous in the history of all ages. To the early Arabs Capella was known as the " Driver," because it appears in the even- ing twilight earlier than the other stars, and so apparently
^Astronomical Myths by J. F. Blake.
66 Star Lore of All Ages
watches over them, or still more practically as the " Singer" who rides before the procession cheering on the camels, which last were represented by the Pleiades. They also called it "the Guardian of the Pleiades."
Capella is a singularly beautiful object, and lies nearer the Pole than any other of the first magnitude stars. It rises almost exactly in the north-east, and July is the only month in the year when it is not visible in these latitudes sometime before midnight.
Seen in the cool evenings of early fall, flashing its won- derful prismatic rays from the low eastern sky, it seems like a herald of old announcing the coming of a mighty host, the brilliant stellar pageant that graces our clear winter nights, and renders them gorgeous with light and Ufe.
Mrs. Martin thus refers to the rising of this famous star, a star which Tennyson designates as "a glorious crown": "When you watch the birds congregating in noisy flocks in the morning for the fall migration, and in the afternoon gather the first fringed gentians, look for Capella in the north-eastern sky in the evening . . . the fair, golden, bright Capella, that decks the sky in its season. We fol- low it in its course visible to us across the heavens, we joy in its beauty, and feel the kindly influence that astrologers have always ascribed to it."
Eudosia thus alludes to the brilliance of Capella:
And scarce a star with equal radiance beams Upon the earth.
Capella means "the little she-goat," the goat which suckled the infant Jupiter. The story runs that having in his play broken off one of the goat's horns, Jupiter en- dowed the horn with the power of being filled with what- ever the possessor might wish, whence it was called "the Cornucopia," or "horn of plenty." This title is also ap- plied to the horn of Capricomus the Sea Goat.
Auriga, the Charioteer 67
In India, Capella was worshipped as the Heart of Brahma. The ancient Peruvians called it "Colca," and connected it with the affairs of shepherds. English poets have alluded to it as "the Shepherds' Star." These al- lusions have reference doubtless to the time of Capella's culmination, which corresponded with the season when the shepherds watched their flocks.
Probably the oldest allusion to Capella extant is that which was found on an old tablet in Akkadian, which has been translated as follows: "When on the first day of the month Nisan the star of stars (or Dilgan) and the moon are parallel, that year is normal. When on the third day of the month Nisan the star of stars and the moon are parallel, that year is full."
"The star of stars" of the inscription, says Maunder, is no doubt Capella, and the year thus determined by the setting together of the moon and Capella would begin on the average with the spring equinox about 2000 B.C. The date of the Akkadians is about 4000 years ago.
Allen tells us that Capella's place on the Denderah zodiac is occupied by a mummied cat in the outstretched hand of a male figure crowned with feathers. While al- ways an important star in the temple worship of the great Egyptian god Ptah, the Opener, it is supposed to have borne the name of that divinity, and probably was observed at its setting 1700 B.C. from his temple, the noted edifice at Kamak near Thebes. Another recently dis- covered sanctuary of Ptah, at Memphis, was also oriented to Capella. Lockyer thinks at least five temples were oriented to its setting.
A stormy character has been attributed to Capella, and hence it has sometimes been called "the rainy Goat- starre." Aratos alludes thus to its stormy influences:
Capella's course admiring landsmen trace, But sailors hate her inauspicious face.
68 Star Lore of All Ages
Similarly the poet Callimachus who lived about 240 B.C. wrote:
Tempt not the winds forewarned of dangers nigh, When the kids glitter in the western sky.
The Kids are represented by the three fourth magnitude stars, £,Z„ and tq Aiirigas, which form a small isosceles tri- angle close to Capella and serve to identify that star. They were sometimes called "the stormy Hasdi," and were so much dreaded as presaging the stormy season on the Medi- terranean, that their rising early in October evenings was the signal for the closing of navigation.
All classical authors who mentioned the stars, says Allen, alluded to the direful influence of Capella, and a festival, the "Natalis Navigationis, " was held when the days of that influence were past.
Astrologically Capella portended civic and military honours, and wealth.
Some astronomical facts relative to Capella may be of interest. Capella in its spectrum almost exactly resembles the sun. It is a spectroscopic binary, its duplicity being alone revealed by the spectroscope. Its period of revolu- tion is 104 days, and its unseen companion has a spectrum resembling that of Procyon, a star further advanced in the order of development than Capella.
In brightness Capella ranks third of all the stars we see in these latitudes, and fifth of all the stars in the firmament. Its mass is eighteen times that of the sun.
Dr. Elkins gives its parallax, that is its distance from the earth, as approximately thirty-four light years. A light year is the distance light travels in one year, at the terrific speed of 186,000 miles a second.
Capella is receding from the earth at the rate of about fifteen miles a second, and in about 3,000,000 years will ap- pear as a second magnitude star.
The Temple of Khonsu, Karnak From Piers's " Inscriptions of the Nile Monuments"
Auriga, the Charioteer 69
Ptolemy, El Fergani (loth century), and Riccioli have all called Capella red.
If the earth were midway between Capella and the sun, we should receive 250 times as much light from Capella as from our little solar star. According to Newcomb, Capella is 120 times as bright as the sun, and the sun at the dis- tance of Capella would appear as a 5.5 magnitude star. The star culminates at 9 p.m. on Jan. 19th.
"Beta Aurigag is supposed to be a very close binary. The two practically equal stars that compose the pair are estimated to be only seven and one half millions of miles apart, and revolving in a period of about four days with a relative velocity of fully 150 miles a second accord- ing to Prof. Pickering. It is receding from the earth at the rate of about seventeen miles a second."
Gamma Aurigas, called by the Arabs "Al-Nath," is common to the constellations Taurus and Auriga, and marks the tip of the Bull's right horn.
The remaining stars in the constellation call for no special comment, but Auriga is rich in star clusters, M. 37 being especially noteworthy. Smith calls this "a magnificent object, the whole field being strewed, as it were, with spark- ling gold dust; and the group is resolvable into about 500 stars. Even in small instruments this cluster is extremely beautiful, one of the finest of its class."
# CAMILLA
Bootes The Bear Driver
71
<y Corona
J Borealiso 3
Serpens H .^s"^ Gei^a"^ "^
V
Libra.
Ifekkar
Seglnus
CorCaroU —
in
Canes Venatict
^;^
K.
^.
BOOTES
BOOTES THE BEAR DRIVER
And next Bootes comes whose ordered beams Present a figure driving on his teams.
Manilius.
The original title of this constellation was in all prob- ability "Arcturus," the present title of the lucida of the constellation, a famous star of the first magnitude. The title Bootes, pronounced Bo-o'-tez, appeared in the Odys- sey, and according to Allen has been in use for at least three thousand years.
The stars in this region of the sky seem to have attracted the admiration of almost all the eminent writers of anti- quity. Aratos pays this tribute to Bootes:
Behind and seeming to urge on the Bear Arctophylax, on earth Bootes, named Sheds o'er the arctic car his silver light.
And eight hundred years later Claudian wrote:
Bodtes with his wain the north unfolds.
Bootes is represented by the figure of a mighty man with uplifted hand, holding in leash two hunting dogs. He seems to be pursuing the Great Bear around the Pole, and hence Bootes is often referred to as "the Bear Driver."
Carlyle in Sartor Resartus thus mentions the constella- tion: " What thinks Bootes of them as he leads his Hunt- ing Dogs over the zenith in their leash of sidereal fire?"
Bootes is also represented as a Herdsman and a Plough-
73
74 Star Lore of All Ages
man, guiding the Wain, as the constellation Ursa Major is sometimes called. Cicero takes this view, and adds that Bootes was sometimes called " Arctophylax " from two Greek words signifying "bear keeper" or "bear driver."
The name Bootes, according to some authorities, is de- rived from the Greek ^ou?, meaning ox, and wOecv, to drive. Others claim that the title was derived from ^oTQTTQi;, meaning clamorous, descriptive of the shouts of the driver, or the call of encouragement to the hounds, hence the constellation has been sometimes called "Voci- ferator" and "Clamator."
The mythology of the constellation is interesting. Ac- cording to some of the Greeks it represented Icarius the father of Origone, others claim it represented Erichthonius, the inventor of the chariot. It was also said to be Areas, the son of Zeus and the nymph Callisto.
Plunket claims the date 6000 B.C. and latitude 45 degrees north, for the time and place of the invention of this con- stellation, as then and there Bootes might be seen at mid- night of the summer solstice standing upright on the northern horizon, his head reaching nearly to the Pole. Never since that date has he held so commanding a posi- tion in the sky, nor at any more southern latitude could his whole figxire have been represented as standing on the horizon.
Bootes has also been called "Atlas" from its nearness to the Pole, and because it appeared to hold up the heavens. In all probability Bootes has been deprived of an arm, the stars formerly representing it now forming the constella- tion of the Northern Crown. Proctor thinks that this change was made at some time preceding that of Eudoxus, who was bom about 300 B.C.
The risings and settings of Bootes which took place near the equinoxes portended great tempests. Bootes sets in a perpendicular position, and takes eight hours to make his exit, hence allusions to his sluggish and tardy movements
Photo by Brogi
Atlas National Museum, Naples
Bootes, the Bear Driver 75
are found in the works of the ancients. Manilius thus re- fers to this peculiarity of the Herdsman:
Slow Bootes drives his ling 'ring teams.
And Aratos describes him as :
When tired of day At even lingers more than half the night.
Bootes is an early riser so to speak, making up for his late hours, as he rises horizontally, "all at once," as Aratos wrote.
According to Allen the early Catholics knew Bootes as St. Sylvester. Caesius said it might represent the prophet Amos, the Herdsman or Shepherd, and Dr. Seiss thought it represented the Great Shepherd and Harvester of Souls.
The shepherd idea as connected with Bootes is borne out by its proximity to the Pole, which the Arabs regarded as a sheepfold, and Bootes has accordingly been called "Pastor" by some, meaning Shepherd. This title con- forms to the title "Sibzianna" for the constellation, which appears on the ancient Euphratean star list, and which means "Shepherd of the Life of Heaven."
Burritt informs us that the ancient Greeks called this constellation "Lycaon," a name derived from Xu/og which signifies "a wolf." The Hebrews called Bootes "Caleb Anubach," meaning "the Barking Dog," while the Latins among other names called it "Canis."
This allusion to a barking dog and a wolf in connection with Bootes seems to refer again to the Arabs' polar sheep- fold. Their imaginary picture contained a flock of sheep, a shepherd and his dog, and a wolf or hyena lurking near by in search of prey.
"Seginus," "Nekkar," and "Alkalurops" are names that have also been applied to this constellation, but now they appear as individual star names.
76 Star Lore of All Ages
Bootes also figures as a spear or lance bearer, the shep- herd's staff which he was represented as bearing having been changed into a more formidable weapon.
In Burritt's Atlas Bootes appears with his back turned to the bear which his hounds are closely following, and his attitude is anything but one of pursuit.
Landseer and Lalande both held that the Bear Driver was the national sign of ancient Egypt, the myth of the dismemberment of Osiris originating in the successive settings of its stars, and that there it was called "Osiris," "Bacchus," or "Sabazius," the ancient name for Bacchus and Noah.
The star Alpha Bootis bears the name "Arcturus." This glorious star has excited the admiration of all man- kind, and from the earliest times we find it mentioned. Without doubt it was one of the first stars to be named. Arcturus is one of the few stars alluded to in the Bible, where we find a reference to it in the Book of Job, hence it is sometimes called "Job's star."
Arcturus probably owes its name to its proximity to Ursa Major, as it means "the watcher of the Bear." The name of this star according to Gore is derived from the Greek words agxzoq and oiipdc, which signify a bear's tail, so called because it lies nearly in the continuation of the Great Bear's tail.
Virgil frequently mentions Arcturus, and Manilius in his reference to Bootes thus speaks of its position in relation to the figure of the Herdsman :
Below his girdle, near his knees, he bears The bright Arcturus, fairest of the stars.
In early days Arcturus represented a spear in the hunter's hand, and with the Arabs it was "the Lance Bearer." Emerson, in his translation of the Persian poet Hafiz, wrote:
Poises Arcturus aloft momii^ and evening his spear.
Bootes, the Bear Driver 77
Like many other prominent stars Arctunis shared its name with the constellation. Miss Gierke is of the opinion that Arctunis received its name long before the constella- tion was thought of, forming the nucleus of a subsequently formed group.
Allen states that this star was famous with the seamen of early days even from the traditional period of the Arcadian Evander, and regulated the annual festival by its move- ments in relation to the sun.
Mrs. Martin thus paints a scene of springtime to which Arctunis lends its lustre: "What more gracious day's progress in beauty could there be than to travel with the eyes from the cheerful hepaticas dotting the soft ground among the trees to the round, white, silent blossoms of the dogwood fringing the late April woods, and thence, when the evening falls, to the bright yet gentle light of Arctu- nis in the sky, announcing the end of the purple twilight."
The Chinese designated Arctunis "the palace of the Emperors." They also called it "Ta Kio," meaning the " Great Horn," four small stars near by being " Kang Che," the "Drought Lake."
The Eskimos called Arctunis "Sibwudli," and it is the timepiece of the seal netters during the great night fish- ing in December and January. The position of this bril- liant star as it circles round the Pole enables them to judge how the night is passing.
The Arab name for Arcturus was "Al-simak-al-Ramih," meaning "the simak armed with a lance," also trans- lated "the leg of the Lance-Bearer," and "the lofty Lance- Bearer." Gore states that according to the Persian astronomer Al-Sufi, who wrote a description of the heavens in the loth century, the word simak means "elevated," referring to the high altitude the star attains above the horizon. Schjellenip however, thinks that the word re- fers to the brilliancy of the star and not to its altitude. The Arabs also knew Arcturus as "the Keeper of Heaven."
In India, Arcturus marked the 13th lunar station, known
78 Star Lore of All Ages
as "the Good Goer" or perhaps "sword," but figured as a coral bead, gem, or pearl. It was also known in India as "the outcast." As might be expected of so conspicuous a star, we find many of the Egyptian temples oriented to it.
Al-Biruni mentioned Arcturus as "the Second Calf of the Lion," the star Spica representing the First Calf. Allen states that this star has been identified with the Chal- deans' "Papsukal," the "Guardian Messenger," while ac- cording to Smith and Sayce, Arcturus was "the Shepherd of the Heavenly Flock," or "the Shepherd of the Life of Heaven," undoubtedly the Sib-zianna of the inscriptions. Strange to say the Eskimo title for the star, Sibwudli, has the same first syllable as the title of the Euphratean hieroglyphics.
Arcturus was long supposed by the ancients to be the nearest star to the earth. Its influence was always dreaded, as the writings of Aratos and Pliny testify, and its rising and setting were supposed to portend great tempests.
Hippocrates, who lived about 460 B.C., made much, says Allen of the influence of Arcturus on the human body, in one instance claiming that a dry season after its rising agrees best with those who are naturally phlegmatic, and that diseases are especially apt to prove critical in these days.
Astrologically those bom under Arcturus were destined to have honour and riches conferred on them.
Arcturus is a remarkable star by reason of its rapid motion through space, indeed it may rightly be called "a runaway star." Since the days of Ptolemy it has moved over a distance equal to fully twice the moon's apparent diameter, and even to the naked eye it no longer fits the alignment with other stars which Ptolemy described. Its proper motion in miles per second is given by different authorities as anywhere from one hundred to three hund- red miles.
There is also great discrepancy in the estimate of the brightness of Arcturus as compared with the sun. Prof.
Bootes, the Bear Driver 79
Russell claims that Arcturus exceeds our sun in brilliance one hundred and fifty times, while some make Arcturus equal in illuminating power to six thousand such suns as ours.
According to Mrs. Martin it takes the light of Arctu- rus more than one hundred years to reach us. Serviss puts this estimate at forty or fifty years, and states that Arctu- rus is relatively an aged sun surroimded with a blanket of absorbing metallic vapours, which cut off a large part of his radiant energy, and gives to him a ruddy, fiery hue, especially when he is seen just rising from the horizon. At this time the scintillating colours of Arcturus as viewed in a telescope are beautiful to behold.
It has been proved that we do not receive from Arctu- rus more heat than we should from a candle at a distance of five or six miles.
Many who were fortunate enough to witness Donati's great comet of 1858 will recall that at one time that comet's head almost occulted Arcturus, and yet its splendour was undiminished.
Prof. Nichols's account of this wonderful sight is worth quoting in this connection:
" It was a spectacle the like of which no one might see again though he should spend on earth fifty Uves. At the beginning the comet was like a plume of fire, shaped like a bird of paradise, but it soon brightened into a stupendous scimitar, brandished in the sunset, and when it swept over Arcturus the whole astronomical world was watching to see what would happen to the star."
Arcturus comes to the meridian on June 8th at 9 p.m.
Whitman wrote the following beautiful poem to Arctu- rus:
Star of resplendent front: thy glorious eye Shines on me still from out yon clouded sky, Shines on me through the horrors of a night More drear than ever fell o'er day so bright.
8o Star Lore of All Ages
Shines till the envious Serpent slinks away
And pales and trembles at thy steadfast ray.
Hast thou not stooped from Heaven fair star, to be
So near me in this hour of agony ?
So near, so bright, so glorious that I seem
To lie entranced as in some wondrous dream,
All earthly joys forgot, all earthly fears
Purged in the light of thy resplendent sphere,
Kindling within my soul a pure desire
To blend with those its incandescent fire,
To lose my very life in thine, to be
Soul of my soul through all eternity.
The stars P, y. ^ ^^^ V- form a trapezium. This figure was known to the Arabs as "the Female Wolves." They also called the star s Bootis, "Izar" or "Mizar," mean- ing girdle or waist cloth. This is a double star and its exquisite beauty has earned for it the name "Pulcherima," a title bestowed on it by the elder Struve. The two stars can be seen in a small telescope as the components are 3" apart.
Canes Venatici The Hunting Dogs
8i
Hercules
\
N>
'^..
''erpens
1 Qsphja
\.
\ Virgo
\
\
If 4 Corona
V Borealis
/
/
/ Boo.tes ^
cL
^rcturoi
K.
Obiiw^
„°oo
Conui 3erenlce#,
O D»itt*<*l»i la I«9
CAN-ES VEWATICI
«r Cor CaroU
tt\ • ^
\ t*Superba
\4
X\
i^
9
CANES VENATICI
CANES VENATICI THE HUNTING DOGS
The asterism Canes Venatici, or the Hunting Dogs, is so closely associated with Bootes that a description of it comes properiy in this place.
This star group is a modern one, having been formed by HeveHus in 1690. These stars are supposed to represent two hunting dogs or hounds, which, held in leash by the Bear Driver, pursue the Great Bear as it circles the Pole. The northern dog is named "Asterion," the southern "Chara." In the neck of the latter is situ- ated the lucida of the asterism, a third magnitude star which bears the name of "Cor Caroli," or "Charles's Heart." It was named by Sir Charles Scarborough in memory of Charles I., not Charles II., as often appears. Although it is said Charles II. deserved the honour, as he had the good sense to found Greenwich Observa- tory. Allen states that this star was set apart in 1725 by HaUey, when Astronomer Royal, as the distinct figure Cor Caroli. In China this star was known as "Chang Chen," "a seat," and three stars near the head of Asterion they called "the Three Honorary Guardians of the Heir Apparent." It is a wide double and is easily seen in a small telescope, hence it is a favourite object with amateur astronomers.
Cor Caroli is one of the four stars forming the famous figure known as "the diamond of Virgo," and comes to the meridian at 9 p.m. on the 20th of May.
About seven degrees north and two degrees west of Cor Caroli is the 5.5 magnitude red star which Father Secchi
83
84 Star Lore of All Ages
called "La Superba," because of "the superbly flashing brilliancy of its prismatic rays."
The great Spiral Nebula of Lord Rosse, sometimes called "the Whirlpool Nebula," can be seen in this region with a low power about three degrees south-west of tj Ursae Majoris.
Spiral Nebula in Canes Venatici
Cancer The Crab
85
Acubens
\
A
£ead of. Hydra
. ^ v'*Asellas Borealis
Austral is/o "^^rafepe* The Bee Hive
•Tegmen
PoUusO--
Casto
1 "'^^^ Minor O Procyon
CANCER
CANCER THE CRAB
The Scorpion's claws here clasp a wide extent. And here the Crab's in lesser clasps are bent.
Cancer, in spite of the fact that it is the most inconspicu- ous of all the zodiacal constellations, is very ancient, and has won almost universal recognition in all ages. Be- cause of its dim appearance it has sometimes been called "the Dark Sign," and described as "black and without eyes," and it has been said that among all the constella- tions not one has been the subject of more idle opinions and more romantic suppositions than Cancer.
Macrobius states that the Chaldeans named the con- stellation "Cancer" because the crab is an animal that walks backward or obliquely. The sun likewise arriving at this sign begins his apparent retrograde motion and again descends obliquely.
According to Chaldean and Platonic philosophy, "the gate of men, " by which souls were supposed to descend into human bodies, was located in this constellation. Plunket tells us that in Babylonia it seems to be established that a tortoise, not a crab, represents the constellation Cancer. It was so figured there and in Egypt in 4000 B.C.
In Egypt, as we learn from the zodiacs of Denderah and Esne, it was the scarabaeus, the beetle, emblematic of immortality, that held the place given to the crab in the Grecian Sphere. Burritt thinks that as the Hindus in all probability derived their knowledge of the stars from the Chaldeans, the figure of the crab in this place is more ancient than the beetle. .'
87
88 Star Lore of All Ages
The crab, tortoise, and beetle, the creatures selected to represent Cancer, are similar in many respects. They are hard shelled, insignificant in appearance, and slug- gish in their movements, and in this latter attribute would well typify the sun's apparent movement when it arrives in this constellation,
"If it is admitted," says Plunket, "that in Egyptian astronomy the beetle played the important part of mark- ing as a constellation one of the quarters of the ecliptic circle, then the fact that extraordinary honour is paid in Egyptian symbolic art to this lowly and unattractive in- sect is explained."
Aratos called the constellation xapx^oq. Latinised it is found as "Carcinus," in the Alphonsine tables. In some Eastern zodiacs Cancer is represented by the figure of two asses, and some of the mediaeval astronomers re- presented it as a lobster or crayfish. In these similes we have, as in the case of the crab, tortoise, and beetle, slow- moving creatures used to represent the constellation, so that there is little doubt that this sign was meant to em- phasise the apparent movement of the sun when it was in this part of the zodiac.
According to the Greek legend, this is the crab that seized the foot of Hercules when he was fighting with the Lernean Hydra. The hero crushed the reptile to pieces under his heel, but Juno in gratitude for the offered service, placed the crab in the heavens. Another legend relates that Bacchus, afflicted with insanity, betook himself to the temple of Jove. On the way thither he came to a great marsh, over which he was carried by an ass, one of two which happened to be near at the time. In return for this service, he transformed both creatures into stars. Still another story respecting these stars claims that they owe their place in the heavens to the fact that they were of service to the gods in their battle with the giants. Si- lenus and Bacchus rode them, and the loud braying of the asses frightened their enemies.
Cancer, the Crab 89
Allen states that Cancer is said to have been the Ak- kadian "Sun of the South," perhaps from its position at the winter solstice in very remote antiquity, but after- wards it was associated with the fourth month "Duzu" (our June- July), and was known as "the Northern Gate of the Sun." In Yucatan one of the temples was dedicated to Cancer, and the sun when it occupied that sign was sup- posed to descend at noon like a bird of fire, and consume the sacrifice on the altar.
Cancer is celebrated chiefly because it contains the great naked eye star cluster "Praesepe," the so-called "Manger," from which two asses, represented by stars near by, are supposed to feed. This cluster is known in English as- tronomical folk-lore as "the Beehive," a name we do not know the origin of. This marvellous aggregation of suns presents on a clear night a dim misty appearance. It has often been mistaken for a comet.
The "Beehive" is especially interesting historically as it afforded Galileo one of the earliest telescopic proofs of the existence of multitudes of stars invisible to the naked eye. He wrote: "The nebula called Praesepe, which is not one star, only, but a mass of more than forty small stars. I have noticed thirty stars besides the Aselli." The great telescopes of the present day reveal in this cluster three hundred and sixty-three stars.
Praesepe has been regarded as representing the Manger in which Christ was bom, and Caesius likened it to the Breastplate of Righteousness, Schiller claimed that Prae- sepe and the Aselli represented St. John the Evangelist.
The most ancient scientific observation of Jupiter that is known to us was noted by Ptolemy as having occurred eighty-three years after the death of Alexander the Great, when Jupiter happened to pass over the Manger. This was in 240 B.C.
In June, 1895, all the planets except Neptune were in this quarter of the heavens, and here it was that Halley's celebrated comet appeared in 1531.
90 Star Lore of All Ages
The Manger was a celebrated weather portent, as early as the days of Aratos and Homer. Aratos thus speaks of it in this connection :
And watch the Manger like a little mist.
Far north, in Cancer's territory, it floats,
Its confines are two faintly glimmering stars,
One on the north, the other on the south,
These are two asses that the Manger parts,
Which suddenly, when all the sky is clear,
Sometimes quite vanishes, and the two stars
Seem closer to have moved their sundered orbs.
No feeble tempest then will soak the leas.
A murky Manger with both stars
Unaltered, is a sign of rain.
If while the Northern Ass is dimmed
By vaporous shroud, he of the south gleams radiant.
Expect a south wind. Vapour and radiance
Exchanging stars, harbinger Boreas.
Pliny wrote: "If Prassepe is not visible in a clear sky it is a presage of a violent storm."
In China the Manger was known, says Allen, by the un- savoury appellation, "Exhalation of Piled-up Corpses," and within one degree of it Mercm-y was observed from that cotintry on June 9, 118 a.d. One of the Chinese names for Cancer was "the Red Bird," and it was supposed to mark one of the residences of the Red or Southern Emperor.
In astrology, like all clusters, the Beehive threatened mischief and blindness.
In this constellation was located the 6th lunar station of the Hindus, known as "Pushy a," meaning "Flower." It was sometimes figured as a crescent, and again as the head of an arrow. If lines are drawn through the stars fjh, and 0 on the diagram it will be seen that these figures are well named. The Hindu figure of a "flower" in this region of the sky reveals a strange coincidence, to say the least. In Peruvian astronomy Cancer was known as "Cantut Pata," or "Terrace of the Cantut," the cantut
Cancer, the Crab 91
being tfie sacred flower of the Incas. Surely there is more than a coincidence in the fact that two nations, as widely separated as the Hindus and Peruvians, should see in this inconspicuous group of stars a resemblance to a flower. This fact would seem to indicate that at some time in the remote past there was intercommunication between these two great nations.
The cantut flower of the Incas was of a deep red colour, and in June and July the fields around Cuzco in Peru are ruddy with the blooms. The ritual of the Peruvian festival of the sun included the Great Copper Dance, named from the use by the dancers of objects of that dark red metal. At that festival sacred cakes were eaten called "Cancu," made of crushed maize reddened with the blood of animals. The keynote of the ceremonials seems to have been to place emphasis on the colour red, the dark red hidden fire, the colour of the distant but returning sun. The red colour attributed to Cancer accords with the astrological allusion associating Cancer with violent deaths or accidents by fire.
The Arabs knew Cancer as "the mouth and muzzle of the Lion," as to them Leo was a more extensive figure than that known to us, and included Cancer.
The Germans call the constellation "der Krebs," the French "le Cancri" or "I'Ecrevisse."
The astrological significance of Cancer has generally been malign. It was called "the House of the Moon," from the early belief that our satellite was located in Cancer at the Creation. It governs the breast and stomach, and reigns over Scotland, Holland, Africa, Tunis, Tripoli, Con- stantinople, and New York. Those bom under the sign, that is between June 21st and July 226., will have a great love of home and family, be quick to feel the mental condi- tion of those around them. Their natures will be quiet and placid, opposed to haste, yet fond of amusement and social pleasures. They dislike quarrels and are slow to change their ideas.
The star Alpha Cancri is a double. It was known to
92 Star Lore of All Ages
the Arabs as "Acubens," meaning "the Claws," and marks the Crab's southern claw. It culminates at 9 p.m., March i8th.
The two fourth magnitude stars north and south of the Manger, y and B Cancri, were called by the Greeks "the Aselli," the asses feeding at the manger. The Arabs knew them by the same name.
Bailey, in his Mystic of 1858, calls them "the Aselline Starlets." The Chaldaic name for the ass may be trans- lated "muddiness," and Burritt thinks that this alludes to the discolouring of the Nile, which river was rising when the sun entered Cancer, Pliny wrote: "Sunt in Signo Cancri duas stellae parvse, aselli appellati." In astrology these stars were portents of violent death to such as came under their influence. They are said to be of a burning nature, and to give great indications of violent and severe accidents by fire.
The star I, Cancri is a ternary or triple star. Two of the stars can be seen with a small telescope. I quote Allen's reference to this star: "This is a system of great interest to astronomers, from the singular change in colour, the probable existence of a fourth and invisible component, and for the short period of orbital revolution — sixty 3^ears — of the two closer stars."
The symbol of the sign © probably denotes the claws of the Crab. It is also referred to the Aselli.
Canis Major The Greater Dog
93
;. MM
Q dolph in Orion
Ilitrziiii,
Furud
2 Naos In QArgo Kavla
CANIS MAJOR
CANIS MAJOR THE GREATER DOG
Next shines the Dog with sixty-four distinct; Fam'd for pre-eminence in envied song,
Theme of Homeric and Virgilian lays.
EUDOSIA.
Canis Major has been considered from earliest times one of the dogs the giant Orion took with him when he went hunting. Some, however, claim the constellation received its name in honour of the dog given by Aurora to Cephalus, which was the swiftest of his species. The legend relates that Cephalus raced the hoimd against a fox, which was considered the fleetest of all animals. After they had raced for' some time without either obtaining the lead, Jupiter was so much gratified with the fleetness displayed by the dog that he immortalised him by giving him a place among the stars. Another story claims that this was the dog of Icarius.
Among the Scandinavians Canis Major was regarded as the dog of Sigurd, and in ancient India it was called " the Deerslayer." Although mythology connects this star group with the dog of Orion, Sirius, the brightest star in the constellation, seems to have been associated with the idea of a dog even among nations unacquainted with the myth of Orion. In the famous zodiac of Denderah, Canis Major appears in the form of a cow in a boat. It also figures on an ivory disk found on the site of Troy, and on an ancient Etruscan mirror.
According to Burritt, the name and form of the con- stellation was derived from the Egyptians, who careftilly
95
96 Star Lore of All Ages
watched its rising, and by it judged of the swelling of the Nile, which they called "Sins."
In the early classical days, says Allen, it was simply "Canis," and represented "Laelaps," the hound of Acteon, or that of Diana's nymph Procris. Homer called it xuwv but this doubtless was a reference to the star Sinus. Novidius called it "the Dog of Tobias," and Dr. Seiss regarded Canis Major as " the Appointed Prince."
On the maps, the Dog is generally pictured as standing on his hind feet watching or springing after the Hare, which cowers close under Orion's feet. Bayer and Flam- steed differ from all others in depicting Canis Major as a bulldog. Prof. Young describes "the Greater Dog" as one "who sits up watching his master Orion, but with an eye out for Lepus."
Aratos referring to Canis Major writes: "His body is dark but a star on his jaw sparkles with more life than any other star." This is of course a reference to Sirius, the brightest of all the fixed stars, and probably the star w^hich has attracted the most imiversal attention of all the heavenly hosts.
In the early histories and inscriptions we find many astronomical references to "the Dog," but it is uncertain whether the constellation or the star Sirius is intended. The Arabian astronomers called the constellation "Al- Kalb-al-Akbar," meaning "the Greater Dog." In the Euphratean star list Canis Major is styled "the Dog of the Sun." Early Christians thought the figvu^e represented Tobias's dog or St. David.
The importance of the constellation is overshadowed by the fame of its lucida, Sirius, the "King of Suns," concerning which star volumes have been written. Its matchless brilliancy has inspired the poets of all ages, and historically Sirius is beyond question the most interest- ing of all the stars in the firmament.
Aratos thus refers to Sirius :
Canis Major, the Greater Dog 97
In his fell jaw Flames a star above all others with searing beams Fiercely burning, called by mortals Sirius.
Eudosia writing of the Greater Dog says, "His fierce mouth flames with dreaded Sirius," and Victor Hugo in The Vanished City thus alludes to the might of this kingly star:
When like an Emir of tyrannic power
Sirius appears and on the horizon black
Bids countless stars pursue their mighty track.
Aside from the fact of its surpassing brilliance, the fact that Sirius is visible from every habitable portion of the globe has served to make it from time immemorial the nocturnal cynosure of all the nations of the earth.
The sight of this majestic star, clad as it were in all its wealth of history, rising over the snow-crowned hills on a crisp winter's night, flashing to us like a great beacon a message from infinite space, in letters of rainbow hue, is one of entrancing beauty. '
The name Sirius is supposed to be derived from the Greek word aefpto? which signifies brightness and heat. It is thought by some to represent the three-headed dog Cerberus, who guarded the entrance to Hades, according to Greek mythology.
Allen states that the risings and settings of Sirius were regularly tabulated in Chaldea about 300 B.C., and that it is the only star known to us with absolute certitude in the Egyptian records, its hieroglyph often appearing on the monuments and temple walls throughout the Nile country.
According to Blake, ^ the hieroglyphics representing
' Serviss thus mentions Sirius: "The renown of Sirius is as ancient as the human race. There has never been a time or a people in which or by whom it was not worshipped, reverenced, and admired. To the builders of the Egyptian temples and pyramids it was an object as familiar as the sun itself."
'Astronomical Myths, by J. F. Blake.
98 Star Lore of All Ages
Sinus varied in accordance with the different functions the Egyptians ascribed to the star, "When they wished to signify that it opened the year, it was represented as a porter bearing keys, or else they gave it two heads, one of an old man to represent the passing year, and the other of a younger to denote the succeeding year. When they would represent it as giving warning of the inundation of the Nile they painted it as a dog. To illustrate what they were to do when it appeared Anubis had in his arms a stew-pot, wings to his feet, a large feather under his arm, two reptiles, a tortoise and a duck behind him."
Mrs. Martin thus alludes to this glorious sun: "He comes richly dight in many coloiu-s, twinkling fast, and changing with each motion from tints of ruby to sapphire and emerald and amethyst. As he rises higher and higher in the sky he gains composure and his beams now sparkle like the most brilliant diamond, not pure white but slightly tinged with iridescence."
Blake gives us the following interesting description of Sirius in the role of herald of the inundation of the Nile :
"This star seems to have been intimately connected with Egypt and to have derived its name from that country, and in this way : The overflowing of the Nile was always preceded by an Etesian wind (that is an annual periodic wind answering to the monsoons) which, blowing from north to south about the time of the passage of the sun beneath the stars of the Crab, drove the mists to the south, and accumulated them over the country whence the Nile takes its source, causing abundant rains, and hence the flood. The greatest importance was attached to the fore- telling the time of this event, so that the people might be ready with their provisions, and their places of security. The moon was no use for this piu-pose, but the stars were, for the inundation commenced when the sun was in the stars of the Lion. At this time the stars of the Crab just appeared in the morning, but with them at some distance from the ecliptic, Sirius rose. The morning rising of this
Canis Major, the Greater Dog 99
star was a sure prectirsor of the inundation. It seemed to them to be a warning star by whose first appearance they were to be ready to move to safer spots, and thus acted for each family the part of a faithftd dog, whence they gave it the name of 'the Dog' or 'Monitor,' in Egyptian 'Anubis,' in Phoenician 'Hannobeach.' "
Sirius, on account of this great service which it rendered the Egyptians, was held in great reverence by them and called "the Nile Star." Under the name Anubis it was deified and this god was emblematically represented by the figure of a man with the head of a dog. It was also worshipped under the names "Sothis" and "Sihor."
Sirius was furthermore known to the Egyptians as "Isis" and "Osiris." If the first letter is omitted from this latter appellation we get "Siris," a name very similar to the modern title of the star.
Other Egyptian names for the star were "Thoth" or "Tayaut" meaning "the Dog," "Hathor," the barker, the monitor, and at Philae it was called "Sati."
Sirius was worshipped in the valley of the Nile long before Rome had been heard of. In its honour many tem- ples were erected so magnificent in their architectural proportions as to excite wonder and amazement even in this age of noble edifices.
Lockyer found seven Egyptian temples so arranged that the beams from this brilliant star in its rising or setting penetrated to the inner altar, the holy of holies. This feature of architecture is called orientation. Notable among these temples oriented to Sirius was the temple of Isis at Denderah, where Sirius was known as "Her Majesty of Denderah." Here the rising beams of Sirius flashed down the long vista of the massive pylons, and illumined the inner recesses of the temple. What a wonderful sight there must have been enacted within that darkened edifice when, in the presence of a vast multitude silent in medita- tion, there suddenly appeared a beam of silver light, that laved the marble altar in a refulgence born of the depths of
100 Star Lore of All Ages
the infinite, a beam, although the watchers knew it not that started on its earthward journey eight and a half years before it greeted their eyes !
The temple priests, versed to some extent in astronomi- cal lore, knew well the psychological moment of the ap- pearance of the light, and doubtless to fiirther increase their prestige, and convey the idea that they were endowed with supernatural powers, so ordered the ritual that the greatest possible superstitious effect would be brought about by the seeming apparition. The awe inspired by the silence of the multitude worked up to a fever pitch of expectancy, and the excitement bom of their desire to witness what they must have regarded as a manifestation of divine power, all conduced to make the moment one long to be remembered, and the event one of the greatest possible significance to the race.
It has been determined that the Babylonian star named "Sukudu" or "Kaksidi" was Sirius, for we are told that it was one of the seven most brilliant stars and a star of the south. The same star is also called "di- recting star" because connected with the beginning of the year.
According to Lockyer, Sirius rose cosmically, or with the sun, in the year 700 B.C. on the Egyptian New Year's Day. In mythological language "she mingled her light with that of her father Ra [the sun] on the great day of the year." This is the first instance of the personification of a star.
"It is possible" says Maunder, "that the two great stars which follow Orion — Sirius and Procyon, known to the ancients generally and to us to-day as ' the Dogs ' — were by the Babylonians known as 'the Bow Star' and 'the Lance Star' respectively, the weapons that is to say of Orion or Merodach." Jensen also identifies Sirius with the Bow Star.
Homer compared Sirius to Diomedes' shield, and called it "the Star of Autumn."
Photo by Bonfils
The Temple at Luxor
Canis Major, the Greater Dog loi
the autumnal star whose brilliant ray
Shines eminent amid the depth of night, Whom men the dog star of Orion call.
Homer regarded Sirius as a star of ill omen, as it was sup- posed to produce fevers. Pope's translation of Homer's lines indicates the baleful influence ascribed to Sirius:
A star whose burning breath
Taints the red air with fevers, plagues, and death.
The description of the rising of this star is the only indica- tion in the Homeric poems of the use of a stellar calendar. Manilius seems to have had two views respecting Sirius. In one place he writes:
All others he excels, no fairer light
Ascends the skies, none sits so clear and bright.
In another we find:
from his [Sinus's] nature flow The most aflflicting powers that rule below.
The Arab name for Sirius was "Al-Shira-al-jamdnija," meaning "the bright star of Yemen." Gore thinks that the word "Shira" might have been corrupted in the course of time into Sirius. Al-Shira was also interpreted "the Doorkeeper, " Sirius being regarded as the star which opens or shuts. The Arabs also called this star "the Dog Star." In modem Arabia it is "Suhail," the general designation for bright stars.
The so-called "Dog Days" got their name from the fact that in the hottest days of summer Sirius, the Dog Star, blends his piercing rays with those of the god of day. This is of course metaphorical, as the heat we receive from Sirius is inappreciable.
According to Max MuUer, the special Indian astronomical name of the Dog Star signified a hunter and deer-slayer.
102 Star Lore of All Ages
He is of the opinion that Sirius was called the Dog Star on account of the prevalence of canine madness in the summer season.
"^ Sirius has been appropriately called "the sparkling star" or "Scorcher," and the sun and Sirius have been called "wandering stars." It has been thought that Sirius is identical with the Mazzaroth mentioned in the Book of Job. It seemed to be the prevailing idea among the ancient Eastern nations that the rising of Sirius would be coincident with a period of heat and pestilence. Virgil well describes the state of affairs when Sirius mingled his beams with those of the day-star.
Parched was the grass and blighted was the com, Nor 'scape the beasts, for Sirius from on high With pestilential heat infests the sky.
Hesiod, who was the first to mention Sirius, wrote in like vein: "When Sirius parches head and knees and the body is dried up by reason of heat, sit in the shade and drink."
Such advice was doubtless as popular then as now dur- ing the dog days.
Euripides also refers to the fiery nature of Sirius, de- scribing the star as "sending flames of fire drawn from the heavens."
Apollonius Rhodius speaks of Sirius "burning the islands of Minos."
Horace says: "Here in a quiet valley you will escape the heat of the Dog Star," and in his celebrated ode to the Bandusian Fount he writes :
'Gainst flaming Sirius fiery thou art proof.
The question whether Sirius has changed in colour since early times has given rise to considerable controversy. Ptolemy called it fiery red, Seneca claimed it was redder than Mars. Cicero also mentions its ruddy light, and Tennyson wrote:
God Anubis
Canis Major, the Greater Dog 103
The fiery Sinus alters hue and bickers into red and emerald.
Dr. See, the eminent astronomer of the present day, asserts that eighteen hundred years ago Sirius was red. There is a reference in Festus to the effect that the Roman farmers sacrificed ruddy or fawn-coloured dogs to save the fruits on account of the Dog Star, and Dr. See says there is no reason why the Romans should sacrifice red dogs ex- cept that Sirius was red, and dogs of the same colour must be offered up to the Dog in the sky. There can be no doubt that many of the ancients looked upon red stars as angry deities. Now Sirius is a white star with a bluish tinge, and Allen says that the weight of authority respecting the change in colour of Sirius seems to negative the idea that there has been any change.
' Some writers identify the Masonic emblem of the Blaz- ing Star with Sirius, the most splendid and glorious of all the stars.
Topelius, the Finnish poet, fancifully imagines that the great brilliancy of Sirius is due to the combined light of two stars, represented as lovers meeting and embracing:
Straight rushed into each other's arms And melted into one, So they became the brightest star In heaven's high arch and dwelt Great Sirius, the mighty sun, Beneath Orion's belt.
Although thepoet's idea is bom of fancy there is neverthe- less truth in the statement that we receive from Sirius the combined light of two stars, for Sirius has a faint com- panion visible only in the most powerful telescopes, and the discovery of this star furnishes an interesting chapter in astronomical history.
The famous German astronomer Bessel expressed his belief about seventy years ago, after ten years of observa- tion, that the periodical variations in the motion of Sirius
104 Star Lore of All Ages
was produced by the attraction of an invisible companion, revolving around the gigantic star. On Jan. 31, 1862, Alvan G. Clark, at Cambridge, Mass., while testing the 183^" glass for the Dearborn Observatory at Chicago, pointed the glass at Sirius, when the disturbing companion came suddenly into \'iew at a distance of about 10 seconds from Sirius, and exactly in the direction predicted for that time.
The period of revolution of the companion around Sirius was found to be nearly fifty years, and within a few months of the time calculated by Bessel, long before the telescope had revealed its presence. The mass of Sirius is about twice the mass of its companion, yet its light is 40,000 times greater.
The following facts concerning Sirius may be of interest :
We know now that the brightness of a star is no indication of its distance from us, but Sirius which is 93^ times brighter than a standard first magnitude star is only 8}/^ light j^ears away, and only four other stars are known to be nearer.
If our sun occupied the place of Sirius in the sky, it would appear as a third magnitude star.
There is considerable discrepancy among the authorities as to the size and brilliance of Sirius as compared with the sun. Its diameter is given as fourteen or eighteen times that of the sun. As regards its brightness, Newcomb states that Sirius is thirty times brighter than the sun, a modest estimate, as other authorities claim for Sirius a brilliance of forty, sixty- three, two hundred, and even three hundred times that of the day-star.
The spectroscope reveals that Sirius is completely en- veloped in a dense atmosphere of hydrogen gas. It is the brightest of the so-called Sirian stars, the spectroscopic type I., which includes more than half of all the stars yet studied.
Sirius has a large proper motion — that is the angular change in the position of a star athwart the line of vision — as compared with the average proper motion of stars of the
Canis Major, the Greater Dog 105
first magnitude. It amounts to 1.31". In this connec- tion it is interesting to note Al-Sufi's statement concerning the Arab name for Sirius, "Al-ab{ir." According to this noted astronomer Sirius was so-called because it had passed across the Milky Way into the southern region of the sky. It is a remarkable fact that the proper motion of Sirius would have carried it across the Milky Way from the eastern to the western border in 60,000 years. Possibly the Arabian story may be based on a tradition of Sirius having been seen on the opposite side of the Milky Way by the men of the Stone Age.
It is generally conceded that this star is receding from us, its rate of speed given variously by different authorities as from eighteen to forty miles a second. It comes to the meridian at 9 p.m., Feb. nth,
The Arab names and meanings of the principal stars in Canis Major, Sirius excepted, are appended:
Name Meaning
^ Murzim the Announcer
B Wezen Weight
s Adara the Virgins
^ Furud the Bright Single One
T] Aludra the Virgin.
Canis Minor The Lesser Dog
107
\r-°v The Head / \ of
/ \ Hydra
Pol
,,,9 ^
j Cast
/ /
/
\
Goraeisa
CANIS MINOR
Monoceros
Betelgeuze
in
Orion
o
«.\"i
• i
CANIS MINOR
CANIS MINOR THE LESSER DOG
Canicula, fourteen thy stars; but far Above them all, illustrious through the skies, Beams Procyon; justly by Greece thus called, The bright forerunner of the greater Dog.
Canis Minor, according to mythology, was one of the hunting dogs that accompanied the giant hunter Orion, and hence it was sometimes called "Canis Orionis."
Burritt thinks that the Egyptians were the inventors of this constellation, and as it always rises a little before the Dog Star, which at a particular season they so much dreaded, it is properly represented as a little watchful creature, giving notice like a faithful sentinel of the other's approach.
In the valley of the Euphrates it seems to have been re- garded as a water dog, on account of its standing on the border of the Milky Way, which represented to the an- cients a river in the sky.
Canis Minor has been identified with the Egyptian god Anubis, but Sirius is generally associated with that dog- headed divinity.
Some think the Lesser Dog was the hound of Diana, noted for her love of the chase. Others think that it repre- sents the faithful dog Mcera, which belonged to Icarius, and discovered to his daughter Erigone the place of his burial. It has also been considered to represent Helen's favourite, lost in the Euripus, that she prayed Jove might live again in the sky, and Act£Eon's hound that devoured his master after Diana had transformed him into a stag.
109
I lo Star Lore of All Ages
Schiller thought the figure represented the Paschal Lamb.
The traditional figure of Canis Minor represents it as a well-trained house or watch dog, in contrast with the fierce aspect of the Greater Dog, which is generally depicted as rearing on his hind legs, with the star Sirius blazing in his wide-stretched jaws.
This constellation was included in the great figure of the Lion known to the Arabs, but they called the star Procyon, the lucida of the constellation, "the forerunner of the Greater Dog," and "the blear-eyed Sirius." According to Gore, the Arabs also called Procyon "the S3rrian Sirius," because it set in the direction of Syria.
The Romans sometimes called the constellation "Canis" or "Catellus," meaning "the puppy."
Ptolemy accords Canis Minor only two stars, Procyon, and Gomeisa or Gomelza, while Burritt's and Argelander's maps show fotirteen and fifteen stars here.
The constellation owes its fame to the first magnitude star Procyon, one of the most interesting stars in the heavens.
"See Procyon too glittering beneath the Twins," says Aratos.
The Greeks called this star xpoxuwv, meaning "before the Dog," the Latin "Antecanis" or " Antecanem," a reference to its rising prior to Sirius. As the rising of Sirius v/as a warning sign to the Egyptians of the inunda- tion of the Nile, so the appearance of Procyon, the brilliant in the Lesser Dog, warned them still farther in advance of this all-important event. The Babylonians knew Procyon as "the Sceptre of Bel."
In these two constellations of the Greater and Lesser Dogs, we have very good examples of the practical use the stars played in the everyday life of the ancients, and in a measure we see a reason for some of the names of the constellations, which in so many cases seem absurd and irrelevant, Here, as in many of the constellations, there is no resemblance in the configurations of the stars to the figures they are supposed to represent. In Canis Minor
Photo by Brogi
Actaeon Attacked by the Hounds of Diana
National Museum, Palermo
Canis Minor, the Lesser Dog iii
with its two stars of any prominence, it would take a fertile imagination to descry the figure of a canine; but when we realise its importance as a warning sign set in the sky for all to observe, then we perceive the significance and appropriateness of the title of the constellation.
Horace, in his celebrated ode to Maecenas, accredits to Procyon the fiery nature attributed by all to Sinus. He writes :
Now Procyon flames with fiercest fire;
a line which Mr. Gladstone translates:
The heavens are hot with Procyon's rays.
Both Sirius and Procyon seem to have conveyed to the ancients the idea of scorching fire and great heat which the dog days at present suggest to us.
Allen tells us that Procyon was "the star of the crossing of the water-dog," mentioned in the Euphratean cylinders and that the natives of the Hervey Islands regarded Pro- cyon as their goddess Vena.
Mrs. Martin referring to Procyon writes: "It is in fact a most beautiful star, and is only the sixth in order of brightness among the stars seen in oiir latitude. It is very distinctly individual, being the only one among the beauti- ful winter group that is lightly tinged with yellow. It is one of the Sirian class of stars, but is somewhat further developed than Sirius, and is beginning to have the golden tint which signifies that it is approaching the time of life into which Capella and the sun are well passed."
Al-Sufi, the noted Arabian astronomer, in his Descrip- tion of the Fixed Stars, written in the loth century a.d., relates the following legend concerning the two Dog Stars : "Al-ab<ir (Sirius) and Al-gumaisa (Procyon) were two sisters of Suhail (Canopus). Canopus married Rigel, and soon after, having kiUed his wife, fled toward the South Pole, fearing the ^nger of his sisters. Sirius followed him
112 Star Lore of All Ages
across the Milky Way, but Procyon remained behind and wept for Suhail till her eyes became weak,"
According to Dr. Elkins, Procyon is nine and one half light years from our system, and Vogel claims that it is approaching us at the rate of nearly six miles a second. It is estimated that it emits anywhere from three to eight times as much light as the sun, and it has a thirteenth magnitude companion, discovered in 1896, revolving about it with a period of revolution of about forty years.
Astrologically this star portended wealth, fame, and good fortune. It comes to the meridian at 9 p.m. on the 24th of February.
Beta Canis Minoris is a star of the third magnitude. It wa? known to the Arabs as "Gomeisa" or "Gomelza" from their name for the constellation, which was "Ghu- maisa." This star was noted by Ptolemy, and the Arabs used the distance between this star and Procyon to mark their short cubit, their long cubit being the distance sep- arating Castor and Pollux in the constellation Gemini.
In spite of the fact that Canis Minor is one of the smallest constellations as regards its bounds, it contains four noted variable stars of long period.
Capricornus The Sea Goat
113
8ipei
~ Prima Giedi a'
Datih.
{OoiUiUii
CAPRICORNUS
CAPRICORNUS THE SEA GOAT
Of Pan we sing, the best of leaders Pan,
That leads the Naiads and the Dryads forth.
Ben Jonson.
Very few constellations have come down to us unchanged in form through all the ages. An exception to this is found in the figure of Capricomus, which is generally depicted with the head and body of a goat and the tail of a fish.
Allen says that although we do not know when Capri- comus came into the zodiac, we may be confident that it was millenniums ago, perhaps in prehistoric days. After Cancer it is the most inconspicuous constellation in the zodiac, and it seems strange on this account that these signs should have held such a place of importance in the minds of the ancients, and that they should have survived without change of figure the assaults of the ages that these stars have gazed upon.
The Capricorn which appears on the Babylonian boimd- ary stones, the most ancient of all records extant, is to all intents and purposes identical in form with the Capricorn of a modem almanac.
According to Macrobius, the Chaldeans named the con- stellation "the Wild Goat," because that animal in feed- ing always ascends the hills, and is naturally a climbing animal. The sun in like manner when it arrives at Capri- comus begins to mount the sky, and hence the goat was adopted as a symbol of the apparent climbing motion of the sun, while the fish-tail was significant of the rains and floods of the winter season.
"5
ii6 Star Lore of All Ages
This is the explanation of this figure given by most authorities on constellational history to account for the amphibious character of Capricornus. It also explains the ancient oriental legend that Jupiter was suckled by the goat Amalthea, the meaning of which appears to be that the sun, emerging from the stars of Capricornus at the winter solstice, begins to grow in light and heat as he mounts toward the vernal equinox. He is thus figuratively said to be nourished by a goat.
Maunder takes exception to this explanation, and holds that as the constellations were mapped out many centuries before the winter solstice fell in Capricornus, this view of the matter, though ingenious, is illogical and erroneous.
Capricornus was called by the ancient Oriental nations "the Southern Gate of the Sun." In Grecian mythology it was considered "the Gate of the Gods," and through its stars the souls of men released at death were supposed to pass to the hereafter.
Allen tells us that Aratos called this constellation 'AiYoxspwq the "Horned Goat," to distinguish it from the "At^ of Auriga. The Latinised form, "iEgoceros," was in frequent use with all classical authors who wrote on astronomy.
"The Yoke" was another title borne by the constella- tion, a name suggested by the configuration of the three principal stars, a, ^, and S. According to Brown, the Akka- dai, the most ancient nation known to us, called the tenth month "the cave of the rising" (of the sun), and its noc- turnal sign Capricornus, the solar goat, a reduplication of the solar ram, represented the sun rising from the great deep of the under world, as Shakespeare puts it: "from the blind cave of eternal night," and hence a demi-fish.
The Romans considered that Capricornus was under the special protection of Vesta, and they regarded the con- stellation with great veneration as having shed its influence on the birth of Augustus. We find the figure of a goat on
G S
O 3
Capricornus, the Sea Goat 117
coins of his period, and Smyth tells us that it was "the very pet of all the constellations with astrologers."
The Arabians also considered Capricornus with great favour, and called it "Al-Jady," meaning "the goat."
Burritt states that Capricornus is identical with Pan or Bacchus, who with some other deities were one day feast- ing near the bank of the river Nile, when suddenly the dreadful giant Typhon came upon them, and compelled them all to assume a different shape in order to escape his fury. Pan took the lead and plunged into the river, and the part of his body which was under the water assumed the form of a fish, and that above water the form of a goat. To preserve the memory of the fable, Jupiter made Pan into a constellation, in his metamorphosed shape.
The Greeks sometimes called the constellation simply "Pan." From this word we get our word "panic," which is the sort of fear that is bom of the imagination, and Pan was said to terrorise people by the mere thought of his presence.
In spite of Pan's evil nature of inciting panics, he was regarded as the god of rural scenery, shepherds, and hunts- men, and also as the god of plenty. The emblem of plenty, the cornucopia or "horn of plenty," is connected with the mythological history of Capricornus.
The legend relates that the father of the gods gave one of the goat's horns to the nymphs who had nursed Jupiter in his infancy as a reward for their kind services, and that this horn was endowed with a wonderful virtue. It pro- vided whatever the holder desired, and hence was known as "the horn of plenty." The real sense of this fable, divested of poetical embellishment, appears to be this: "There was in Crete, some say Lybia, a small territory shaped very much like a bullock's horn, and exceedingly fertile, which the king presented to his daughter Amal- thea, whom the poets claim was the nurse of the infant Jupiter" (Burritt).
ii8 Star Lore of All Ages
The emblem of the cornucopia is a masonic emblem, and corroborates the fact that the major part of masonic symbolism has an astronomical significance.
Capricornus is connected in Egyptian astronomy with "the god of waters," and is associated, as the star Sirius is, with the inundation of the Nile. It was also known as the goat-god "Mendes," in the Egyptian zodiac.
Dr. Seiss claims that the Sea Goat represents a symbol of sacrifice and atonement. Cassius called it "Azazel," "the Scapegoat," and "Simon Zelotis," "the Apostle."
Capricornus marked the 226. Hindu lunar station, "Abhikit," meaning "conquering," and Flammarion as- serts that there is a Chinese record of 2449 B.C. which lo- cates among the stars of Capricornus a conjunction of the five planets. There was an early prediction made, that when all the planets met in this sign the world would be destroyed by a great conflagration.
Capricornus has also borne the strange title "the Double Ship," a name that bears out its maritime character appropriately enough, as we find the Sea Goat in that region of the heavens known to the ancients as "the Sea," and surrounded by other creatures of the deep.
Allen states that the symbol of this constellation, V3, is thought to be -up, the initial letters of the Greek xg<kfo<;, meaning "Goat," but Lalande claims that it represents the twisted tail of the creature. Capricornus figures on an ancient Egyptian mirror. The mirror was emblematic of life, and there may be a connection here between the em- blem of life, and the new life established by souls passing through these stars to the life eternal.
The Peruvian year, says Hagar, probably began at the December solstice with the celebration of the most important of their festivals, known as "the festival of the beard." During this month the sun is passing through our sign of Capricornus. The corresponding Peruvian constellation is called "Nuccu," meaning "the
Capricornus, the Sea Goat 119
Beard." The name refers directly to the widespread myth in which the sun, then at the height of his power in the southern hemisphere, is figured as Capra, "the bearded one." The beard seems to be the character- istic emphasised in connection with the constellation, and the participants in the ceremonial dances during the festi- val wore masks with long beards. The beard is one of the chief characteristics of the goat. Thus we find na- tions widely separated, and at a very remote time, with a common notion respecting an inconspicuous star group. Such a grotesque figure, recognised in common by different nations, is too great a coincidence to savour of individual creation.
It has been said that the tribe of Napthali adopted this sign as their banner emblem, although the sign Virgo has also been allotted to them. The Latin poets designated it as "Neptune's offspring," thus preserving its maritime significance. We also find it called by a Greek appellation signifying "Swordfish," while in the Aztec calendar it appeared with a figure like that of a narwhal. The Tamil name for it signified "Antelope."
Astrologically considered Capricornus was the House of Saturn, the mansion of kings; black russet or a swarthy brown was the colotu* assigned to it, and Proctor tells us that this sign gives to its natives a dry constitution, and slender build, with a long thin visage. It governs the knees and hams, and reigns over India, Macedonia, Thrace, Greece, Mexico, Saxony, Brandenburg, and Oxford. It is feminine and unfortunate, a conclusion totally at variance with the Romans ' exalted idea of the constella- tion. Those bom between the dates Dec. 21st and Jan. 20th are bom under this sign. Such persons are proud, self-reliant, and practical, fastidious, dignified, and sincere in affection. Their tendency to idealise brings suffering. March and November are the lucky months, and Saturday the auspicious day. The flower is the snowdrop, and the precious stone, chalcedony.
120 Star Lore of All Ages
Aratos thus describes Capricomus:
the Goat
Dim in the midst, but four fair stars surround him, One pair set close, the other wider parted.
This first pair, a^ and a' Capricomi, respectively called "Prima and Secunda Giedi," are situated in the head of the Sea Goat. Burritt calls them "Giedi" and "Dabih" respectively, the former being the most northern of the two, and a double star. The star name "Dabih" is an Arabic appellation meaning, curiously enough, "the Lucky One of the Slaughterers," referring to the sacrifice celebrated by the Arabs at the heliacal rising of Capricorn.
The other wider parted pair of stars referred to by Aratos are S and y Capricomi, named respectively "Deneb Algiedi," meaning "the Tail of the Goat," and "Nashira" —"the Fortunate One" or "Bringer of Good Tidings." 8 is an interesting star because it marks the approximate position of the discovery of the planet Neptune.
The discovery of Neptune is one of the most interesting episodes in the history of astronomical discovery, and a brief account of it is worth recording here.
Early in the 19th century it was found that the planet Uranus was straying widely from its predicted positions. Two astronomers, Adams in England, and Le Verrier in France, working independently and without each other's knowledge, endeavoured to ascertain the causes of the per- turbations, basing their calculations on the supposition that an undiscovered planet beyond Uranus was the dis- turbing factor.
Adams began his work in 1843, Le Verrier in 1845. Adams communicated the results of his labour to the As- tronomer Royal of England, but unfortunately the data were pigeon-holed. Le Verrier, who sent his calculations to Galle, the eminent German astronomer, was more for- tunate. Galle turned his telescope toward the position in the sky determined by Le Verrier, and discovered the
Capricornus, the Sea Goat 121
planet Neptune. This was on Sept. 23, 1846. Adams at once called attention to his data, which on being referred to were found to coincide with Le Verrier's result. Thus was England robbed of the triumph, but Adams's name has always been coupled with that of Le Verrier as the discoverer of the planet. It may be of interest that the veteran Galle died but a short time ago, July lo, 1910, at the age of ninety-nine.
The remaining stars in the constellation are faint, and of no special interest. When seen on a clear night the con- stellation resembles an inverted cocked hat.
Cassiopeia ^
The Lady in the Chair '<>-
«3
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8 |
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'X |
5" |
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Dlsoorered by Caroline Hershel |
3 |
Schedar |
0 |
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^^ |
4 |
^
Caph
Kuchbah
1678 D
CASSIOPEIA
Cepheus
X
M^
CASSIOPEIA
CASSIOPEIA THE LADY IN THE CHAIR
. . . look but aside a little, Just by the first coil of the crooked Dragon There rolls unhappy, not conspicuous When the full moon is shining, Cassiopeia.
Aratos.
Cassiopeia is one of the oldest and most popular of the constellations. Popular because many are able to see in the arrangement of its stars the resemblance to a chair, and hence the familiar name for the constellation is "Cassio- peia's Chair."
Such stress has been laid on the throne, that the pre- sence of the Queen seated upon it is lost sight of. Be- cause of the circumpolar motion of the stars, the Queen often suffers the humiliating position of standing on her head. She was placed, so the legend runs, in this cruel position in the heavens by her enemies the sea nymphs, as she had boasted that her beauty surpassed theirs. Desiring to teach her humility they imposed this punish- ment. ' Milton in // Penseroso thus refers to Cassiopeia:
that starred Ethiop's queen that strove To set her beauty's praise above The sea nymphs and their power offended.
Cassiopeia is sometimes called "heaven troubled queen" and "unhappy Cassiopeia" and in view of the giddy whirl she is subjected to, such appellations are appropriate to say
125
126 Star Lore of All Ages
the least, Aratos mentions her uncertain position in the heavens :
She head foremost like a tumbler sits.
The Arabs called Cassiopeia "the Lady in the Chair,'* but curiously enough the early Arabs had in this place a very different figure in no way connected with the figure known to us. They called this star group "the large hand stained with henna" or "the tinted hand," the bright stars marking the finger tips. They also made out of the constellations Cepheus and Cassiopeia, two dogs, and some times referred to Cassiopeia as "the kneeling camel."
In this constellation we have, therefore, an example of the fertile imagination of the early Oriental star-gazers, and a curious combination of objects assigned to a group of stars that is not especially conspicuous, — a lady in a chair, a tinted hand, a dog, and a kneeling camel.
As the stars of this constellation revolve about the Pole, they form when below it a slightly distorted capital "M." This is reversed when Cassiopeia is above the Pole, and we have a celestial letter "W" that enables many to identify the constellation.
In Greece at one time this constellation was known as "the Laconian Key," from its fancied resemblance to that article, and Aratos makes the following reference to this title:
Not many are the stars nor thickly set That, ranged in line, mark her whole figure oat» But like a key that forces back the bolts Which kept the double door secured within So shaped her stars you singly trace along.
Renouf identified Cassiopeia with the Egyptian star group known as "the Leg," and thus mentioned in the "Book of the Dead," the Bible of Egypt, that most ancient ritual four thousand years old or more: "Hail, leg of the northern sky in the large visible basin."
Cassiopeia belonged to the so-called "Royal Family"
Cassiopeia, the Lady in the Chair 127
of Starland, and in Greek mythology is connected with the well-known story of Perseus and Andromeda.
Burritt gives the following concise account of the part Cassiopeia played in this drama:
"Cassiopeia was the wife of Cepheus, king of ^Ethio- pia, and mother of Andromeda. She was a queen of match- less beauty, and seemed to be sensible of it, for she even boasted herself fairer than Juno, the sister of Jupiter, or the Nereides, a name given to the sea nymphs. This so provoked the ladies of the sea that they complained to Nep- tune of the insult, who sent a frightful monster to ravage her coast as a punishment for her insolence. In addi- tion, Neptune demanded a sacrifice of Cassiopeia's daughter Andromeda." The sequel to this sad tale is related in the mythological references to the constellations Perseus and Andromeda.
Brown thinks that this whole story of the sacrifice of Andromeda is Phoenician. He tells us that Cassiopeia was known as "Eur5mom§" or "Quassiu-peaer," meaning "beauty" or "rosy faced." In the cuneiform inscrip- tions we meet with the goddess "Kasseba," probably an ancient form of Cassiopeia. On the Assyrian tablets Cas- siopeia was "the Lady of Corn," and the Alphonsine tables described the figure as holding the consecrated palm.
There seems to be a decided resemblance between Cas- siopeia and the constellation Virgo, which may be nothing more than a coincidence. Virgo we find was called "the Maiden of the Harvest," and was represented as holding a sheaf of wheat or an ear of corn in her hand, and Cassio- peia as we have seen was called "The Lady of Corn."
Again Virgo was represented as a sunburned damsel, while Cassiopeia was called "^thiop's Queen," clearly in- dicating her dusky complexion. The Arabs associated dogs with both constellations.
Cassiopeia is represented on some old maps as holding a palm in her left hand, Virgo is invariably represented as carrying a branch in her left hand.
128 Star Lore of All Ages
As "the Lady of Com," Cassiopeia was also designated as "the Creatress of Seed." We also find that the Peruvians identified Virgo with the Earth Mother, and Maunder tells us that the ear of com in the Virgin's hand may well be in_ terpreted as referring to the "Seed of the Woman" who was bom of the Virgin.
Prof. Young has given us a mnemonic word, "Begdi," to assist in recalling the Greek-letter names of the stars in both constellations. In these ways, therefore, there seems to be a distinct similarity between these two female figures widely separated from each other in the starry skies.
Plunket suggests 3500 B.C. as the date, and 23 degrees north as the latitude of the invention of this constellation.
In the 17th century, when there was an effort made to attach a religious significance to the constellations, Cas- siopeia became Mary Magdalene, or Deborah sitting in judgment under her palm tree in Mount Ephraim, or Bathsheba, the mother of Solomon, worthy to sit on the royal throne.
The Eskimos imagine that a, p, and y Cassiopeias, three stars forming an isosceles triangle, represent the three stones supporting a celestial stone lamp. They call the constellation * ' Ibrosi . ' '
Cassiopeia in its continual circling of the Pole of the heav- ens makes an excellent illuminated timepiece. Imagine that ^ Cassiopeias is the hour hand. When it is above Po- laris it is noon, when it is in the west at right angles to its first position, it is 6 p.m. At midnight it is on the north- ern horizon, and at 6 a.m. it is due east. The time kept by this perpetual clock is of course Sidereal Time (star time), which differs from civil time in that the day be- gins at noon instead of at midnight. By recalling that the sidereal clock agrees with the mean solar clock on March 226. or thereabouts, and gains at the rate of two hours a month, one can easily pass to ordinary solar time. This is the simplest way to tell time by looking at the stars.
Cassiopeia, the Lady in the Chair 129
Alpha Cassiopeias was known to the Arabs as "Schedar" or "Schedir," meaning "the Breast." Burritt tells us that Schedir is from "El Seder," the "Seder tree," a name given to the constellation by Ulugh Beg. Schedir was discovered to be a variable star by Birt in 1831. It cvilminates at 9 P.M., Nov, i8th.
Beta Cassiopeiae, or "Caph" an Arab title meaning "the Hand," was also known to the Arabs as "the Camel's Hump." It is one of the so-called "Three Guides," three stars that mark the equinoctial colure, one of the great circles passing through the poles of the heavens.
Caph is one of the stars for which a parallax has been found. It is approximately twenty light years from our system, though some authorities say thirty-two light years.
Gamma Cassiopeiae, the second magnitude star in the girdle of the "lady in the chair," has a companion of the nth magnitude 2" distant. The Chinese called this star "a whip." It is a star of great interest to astronomers, as it was the first star discovered to contain bright lines in its spectrum. This discovery was made by Secchi in 1886. The spectrum is peculiarly variable.
Delta Cassiopeiae bears the Arab name "Ruchbah," meaning "the Knee." It was utilised, says Allen, by Picard in France in 1669 in determining latitudes during his measure of an arc of the meridian, the first use of the telescope for geodetic purposes.
Theta and Mu Cassiopeia were known to the Arabs as "Al-Marfik," meaning "the Elbow." The star Mu is interesting because of its great proper motion. This is given as 3.7 seconds per year, a velocity in space of one hundred miles a second. It has been estimated that in 3,000,000 years this star will circle the heavens. It is said to be thirty light years distant.
Eta Cassiopeias is a double star, and one of the finest objects in the sky for a moderate sized telescope. It is probably the nearest star to us of any in the constellation, although authorities differ as to its parallax. This is given
130 Star Lore of All Ages
as thirteen, twenty-one, and seventeen light years. The weight of authority seems to favour the latter estimate.*
No account of the stars in the constellation Cassiopeia would be complete without a reference to the wonderful temporary star that flashed out in this region of the sky in November, 1572, astonishing the world. It was visible in fxill daylight, and said to be brighter than the planet Venus. It has been long known as "Tycho's Star," and many conclude from this that it was discovered by the celebrated astronomer Tycho Brahe, but as a matter of fact it was discovered by Schuler, at Wittenberg in Prussia, who saw the star faintly Aug. 6, 1572. Tycho Brahe saw it at its brightest Nov. nth of the same year, and in 1602 published an account of the star. Other names for this star are "Stranger or Pilgrim Star," "Star in the Chayre," and "New Venus." The Chinese called it "the Guest Star," and Beza thought it was a comet, or the same luminous appearance that guided the Magi, the so-called "Star of Bethlehem."
In March, 1574, the star disappeared entirely. D'Arrest found a minute star of the lo-iith magnitude near this place in 1865 where Argelander could formerly see none. There is some idea that a bright star appeared in this place in the years 945 and 1264 a.d. If so says Webb, ^ we may possibly witness a repetition of this incomprehensible phenomenon.
La Place says: "As to those stars which suddenly shine forth with a very vivid light, and then immediately disap- pear, it is extremely probable that great conflagrations, produced by extraordinary causes, take place on their surface. This conjecture is confirmed by their change of colour, which is analogous to that presented to us on the
' Newcomb writes that /3, -n, and (*■ Cassiopeiag have so great a proper motion in so nearly the same direction that it is difficult to avoid at least a suspicion of some relation between them.
' Celestial Objects for Common Telescopes, by Rev. T. W. Webb.
Cassiopeia, the Lady in the Chair 131
earth by those bodies which are set on fire and then grad- ually extinguished."
Dr. Good thus refers to temporary stars: "Worlds and systems of worlds are not only perpetually creating, but also perpetually disappearing. It is an extraordinary fact, that within the period of the last century, not less than thirteen stars, in different constellations, seem to have totally perished and ten new ones to have been created.
"In many instances it is unquestionable that the stars themselves, the supposed habitation of other kinds or orders of intelligent beings, together with the different planets by which it is probable they were surrounded, have utterly vanished, and the spots which they occupied in the heavens have become blanks."
Bturitt thus describes the changes in colour observed in Tycho's star: "At first appearance it was of a dazzling white, then of a reddish yellow, and lastly of an ashy paleness in which its light expired." "It is impossible," says Mrs. Somerville, "to imagine anything more tre- mendous than a conflagration that could be visible at such a distance." The collision theory seems the best one to ac- count for such phenomena, but the imagination and senses alike fail in any attempt at a realisation of the heat gener- ated by the impact, or the magnitude of the ensuing conflagration.
Cepheus The King
133
2
ODeneb « in Cygnus
•(Var.) Doubte o
Alderaniln
ErRai
Draco \
1
CEPHEUS
CEPHEUS THE KING
Cepheus himself just behind Cynosura
Stands like one spreading both his arms abroad.
Aratos.
Although one of the most inconspicuous constellations, Cepheus has attracted attention from the beginning of re- corded history. It seems in a measure appropriate that Cepheus should be a dim constellation, for in the thrilling story of the rescue of Andromeda by the champion Per- seus, Cepheus, the King, played but a subordinate part.
Plunket gives 3500 B.C. and 23 degrees north latitude as the approximate date and location of the people who in- vented this constellation. Allen says that Achilles Tatios, probably of our 5th century, claimed that Cepheus was known in Chaldea twenty-three centuries before our era, while according to Brown all of the circumpolar constella- tions originated on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean.
Cepheus is generally conceded to have been King of i^^thiopia, the Euphratean "Cush," the husband of Cas- siopeia, and the father of Andromeda. There is a differ- ence of opinion as to what language the names Cepheus and Cassiopeia are derived from. Some writers have sug- gested for their origin the Sanscrit names "Capuja." which was the later Hindu name for Cepheus, and "Cas- syape." Cepheus has also been identified with Cheops or Khufu the builder of the Great Pyramid in Egypt, and, again, was supposed to be descended from lasion, the son of Zeus and Electra.
Cepheus and the constellations of the group with
135
136 Star Lore of All Ages
which he is generally associated are known as "the Royal Family." They also comprise the so-called circumpolar constellations, and in these latitudes never set. They are especially noteworthy as illustrating the ancient legend of Perseus and Andromeda, one of the best known of all the classic myths and one that has survived all ages. It shows clearly that there was an effort made on the part of the inventor of these constellations to depict here on the imperishable scroll of heaven a drama that shoiild survive all time. There is another such example, which we will come to later, of a like intent to connect a series of constel- lations, so that the stories that individually relate to each should in toto portray a complete history. It is as if each constellation was but an instalment of a serial story. This seems fairly good proof that some of the constella- tions, at least, were carefully thought out by one man, that design and not chance was responsible for their crea- tion, and that the legends they represented antedated the invention of the several star groups.
Cepheus also figures as one of the Argonauts, the valiant band of heroes that sailed in the ship Argo in quest of the golden fleece, and was changed into a constellation at his death. Newton claims that all the ancient constellations relate in some way to this famous expedition. He argues that "as Musasus, one of the Argonauts, was the first Greek who made a celestial sphere, he would naturally delineate on it those figures which had some reference to the expedition. Accordingly, we have on our globes to this day, 'the Golden Ram' (Aries), the ensign of the ship in wliich Phryxus fled to Colchis, the scene of the Argonautic achievements. We have also the Bull (Tau- rus) with brazen hoofs tamed by Jason ; the Twins (Gemini) Castor and Pollux ; two sailors with their mother Leda in the form of a Swan (Cygnus) ; and Argo, the ship itself. The watchful Dragon (Draco) Hydra, with the Cup (Crater) of Medea, and a raven (Corvus) upon its carcass, as an em- blem of death; also Chiron (Sagittarius), the master of
Cepheus, the King 137
Jason, with his 'Altar' and sacrifice. Herctiles, the Argo- naut, with his club, his dart (Sagitta), and vulture, with the Dragon, Crab (Cancer), and Lion (Leo) which he slew; and Orpheus, one of the company, with his harp (Lyra). Again we have Orion, the son of Neptune, or as some say the grandson of Minos, with his dogs (Canis Major and Minor), and the Hare (Lepus), River (Eridanus), and Scorpion. We have the story of Perseus, in the constel- lation of that name, as well as in Cassiopeia, Cepheus, An- dromeda, and Cetus ; that of Callisto and her son Areas in Ursa Major; that of Icarius and his daughter Erigone in Bootes and Virgo. Ursa Minor relates to one of the nurses of Jupiter, Auriga to Erichthonius, Ophiuchus to Phorbas, Sagittarius to Crolus, the son of one of the Muses, Capri- corn to Pan, and Aquarius to Ganymede. We have also Ariadne's crown (Corona Borealis), Bellerophon's horse (Pegasus), Neptune's dolphin (Delphinus), Ganymede's eagle (Aquila), Jupiter's goat with her kids, the asses of Bacchus (in Cancer), the fishes of Venus and Cupid (Pisces), with their parent the Southern Fish." These, according to Deltoton, comprise the Grecian constel- lations mentioned by the poet Aratos, and all relate, as Newton supposes, remotely or immediately to the Argonauts.
There is every reason to believe, however, that the con- stellations were invented long before the date of this famous expedition.
Allen tells us that in China, the Inner Throne of the Five Emperors was located somewhere in this constellation. One of the Chinese Emperors, it is said, ordered a group of stars in Cepheus to be called "Tsau-fu" after his fa- vourite charioteer.
Cepheus had for the Arabs a pastoral significance. In fact in the Euphratean star list Cepheus signified "nu- merous flock." The stars in the vicinity of the North Pole were supposed to represent a shepherd attended by his dog, watching a herd of sheep at pasture. Goats, calves,
138 Star Lore of All Ages
and camels also figure in the picture. These animals are all in the neighbourhood of Cepheus,
It is useless of course for us to try to see this picture as it appeared to those night watchers of the far East. Situ- ated in an ideal region for star-gazing as regards climatic conditions, in a land where the nights were glorious with stars and where the people spent most of the nocturnal hours on the house tops or out on the hills, gifted with a wonderfully fertile imagination, it was but natural that they should adore the stars, the mystery of which appealed to their superstitious natures, and exalt their heroes to the starry skies. As they were deeply interested in the care of herds and flocks we naturally find that certain star groups represented to them pastoral scenes. These stellar pictures of the ancients are interesting as showing the changes wrought by the advance of progress and civilisa- tion, and there must indeed have been a fascination in painting pictures on the widespread canvas of the night with a brush steeped in the bright-hued pigments of imagination.
Smyth alluded to the constellation Cepheus as "the Dog," and a ring of stars in this group was known to the Arabs as "a Pot."
Dr. Seiss claimed that Capheus represented the coming of the Redeemer as King, while Cassius and Julius Schil- ler wished to substitute King Solomon and Saint Stephen for the time-honoured personage.
The Cepheid meteor shower of the 28th of June radiates from a point near y Cephei, and the star {x Cephei is worth observing as being Sir William Herschel's celebrated "Garnet Star," one of the reddest stars in the sky, and a fine object in an opera-glass.
Surrounding the stars 8, e, 1^, and X Cephei, which mark the head of the King, is a vacant gap in the Milky Way, one of the so-called "Coal Sacks," where no stars have been observed even in our most powerful telescopes.
Cepheus furnishes a good example of the fact that it is
Cepheus, the King 139
not always among the brightest constellations that the most interesting objects are found.
Its three brightest stars, a, §, and y Cephei, gain a cer- tain interest when it is known that by reason of the pre- cession of the equinoxes these stars will one after the other take the place of the Pole Star of ages to come.
In 4500 A.D. Y Cephei will be Polaris. In 6000 a.d. ^ Cephei succeeds to the title, and 1500 years later a Cephei marks the Pole of the heavens. Only the last will be as near the true Pole as our present Pole star is now.
P Cephei is a beautiful double star, a fine object in a small telescope, and when observing it interest is added by the thought that the primary is also double, although too close to be seen visually, that wonderful instrument the spectroscope revealing its duplicity. This spectroscopic binary has an exceedingly rapid revolution, a complete circuit of the orbit taking less than five hours, which is the most rapid orbital revolution so far known.
The stars ^ and x Cephei are also fine doubles for a small telescope. For the naked eye observer there is situated in this constellation an object of great interest, the variable star S Cephei, a typical example of a certain class of vari- able stars of short period, which are now called the Cepheid variables. Its changes in brightness are perfectly regular and it is an accurate time-keeper, successive maxima fol- lowing one another at intervals of 5 days, 8 hours, 47 min- utes, and 39 seconds. Unlike the so-called Algol variables its light changes are continuous without any period when the brightness is constant. The remarkable behaviour of this star fiimishes one of the most puzzling problems of astro-physics. S Cephei is easily visible to the naked eye and any one can watch these interesting variations in its magnitude. The range is from 3.7 to 4.9.
a, ^, and y Cephei were known respectively by the Arab names "Alderamin," meaning the "right arm," "Alfirk," "a flock," and "Errai," the "shepherd."
Cetus The Whale
141
The
Great Squar<
of Pegasus
O Algenib 7
Menkar
Eridanus
CETUS THE WHALE
With gills pulmonic breathes the enormous whale, And spouts aquatic columns to the gale; *
Sports on the shining wave at noontide hours, And shifting rainbows crest the rising showers.
Darwin.
Though Aratos and others connect the Whale with the story of Perseus and Andromeda, there is little doubt that the constellation antedates the time of Perseus.
In earlier times it seems to have been regarded as some kind of leviathan, without connection with the story of the sacrifice of Andromeda. Allen suggests that it may have represented the ferocious Tiamat of the Chaldean myths. In all delineations it has been a strange and fierce marine creature, unlike any known to man, and totally unlike the figure of a whale.
According to Pliny and Solinus, after the monster's en- counter with Perseus, in which it suffered from the petri- fying gaze of the Medusa, its bones were brought to Rome by Scaurus. Saint Jerome corroborated this story, claim- ing to have seen the bones of the monster at Tyre.
Brown tells us that Cetus signified "the chaos of the deep" to the Babylonians. It represented primarily the state of chaos "when the earth was waste and wild and darkness was upon the face of the deep." Aratos called it "the dusky monster."
Cetus is sometimes represented as swimming in the river Eridanus, or river Po, the celestial stream into which the venturesome Phaeton was hurled by the bolts of Jove.
143
144 Star Lore of All Ages
Burritt depicts the creature with the two front paws im- mersed in the River, and the constellation lies between this great stream and the flood which pours forth from the jar of the Water Bearer into the gaping mouth of the Southern Fish. Cetus is thus situated appropriately in that region of the sky known to the ancients as " the Sea," alluded to in a previous chapter, a part of the sky where marine symbols abound.
It has been suggested that these constellations, which might well be designated "the marine group," arranged here together, might have reference to the rainy season, or a period of flood when the sun was in this region of the heavens.
Brown points out the interesting fact that the southern heavens are generally given over to creatures of ill sig- nificance. Here we find Hydra, Scorpius, Lupus, Corvus, Canis Major, and Cetus. Design rather than chance seems evident in this arrangement.
In the 17th century Cetus was considered to be a symbol of Jonah's whale, and also of Job's leviathan. Dr. Seiss regards it as the old Seipent, which is the Devil and Satan.
A popular name for this constellation is "the Easy Chair," as the arrangement of its stars suggests to the imaginative a reclining chair. A mutilated hand is also seen by some in the star group forming the head of the creature. The five stars in the head of the whale, a, y, ^, [JL, and X, form a fairly regular pentagon, which serves as a ready means of identifying the constellation.
The arrangement of the stars in Cetus permits of many geometrical figures being formed. The stars l^, 0, x, t), and t Ceti form an inverted dipper, a little larger but other- wise not unlike the so-called "Milk Dipper" in the con- stellation Sagittarius.
The body of the creature is kite-shaped, and the entire constellation somewhat resembles the figure of the pre- historic ichthyosaurus.
Although Cetus is the largest constellation, it contains
Cetus, the Whale 145
few telescopic objects of interest. The south pole of the Milky Way is located within its borders, and the constella- tion "is a condensation point of nebulae, directly across the sphere from Virgo, also noted in this respect."
Alpha Ceti is no longer the lucida of the constellation, as its Greek-letter name would indicate, for it is inferior in brightness to Beta. One or both of these stars have therefore changed in the course of time. Alpha is well worth observing as a fine combination of a beautiful 2.5 magnitude orange-coloured star with a 5.5 magnitude star of a decided bluish tint. The Arab name for Alpha is "Menkar," meaning "the nose." X Ceti also bears this name, and as it is situated exactly in the nose of the crea- ture it seems more appropriately named than Alpha. As- trologically Menkar denoted sickness, disgrace, and ill fortune, with danger from great beasts.
^ Ceti was known to the Arabs as " Diphda" or " Deneb Kaitos." Diphda signifies "the Frog," and this star was called "the Second Frog," the first one being represented by the star Fomalhaut situated in the mouth of the Southern Fish. The name "Deneb Kaitos" means "the Tail of the Whale toward the South." In China this star bore the strange title of "Superintendent of Earthworks."
No account of the constellation Cetus would be complete without a reference to the wonderful variable star Mira, or Omicron Ceti as it is generally called by astronomers. His- torically it is the most interesting of all the variable stars of long period, and it bears the distinction of being the first star whose variability was discovered.
D. Fabricius observed it early on the morning of the 1 2th of August, 1596, as somewhat brighter than a Arie- tis. In October it had disappeared. He observed it again in February and March, 1609. Holwarda observed it in 1638, and recognised its periodical variability.
According to Argelander's calculations its period is 33 1 H days, but it is very irregular, and the difference of period is sometimes as much as twenty-five days. Its
146 Star Lore of All Ages
magnitude at maximum also varies greatly. At times it vies with stars of the second magnitude, and often it only attains a brilliance of the fifth magnitude. At minimum it is generally of the ninth magnitude, only a thousandth part of its greatest brilliance, and one twentieth as bright as the faintest stars visible to the naked eye.
Mira is of a deep red colour and gives an interesting spectnmi. Espin points out a similarity between the spectrum of Mira and the celebrated Nova Aurigse. Herschel notes an observation of Omicron Ceti on the 6th of November, 1779, when this wonderful star equalled Aldebaran in brightness.
The amateur astronomer with a telescope of 3' aperture or better can observe very well all the changes in light that take place in this remarkable star. Change seems to bespeak life, and hence the observance of variable stars must ever prove a source of fascination and wonder to those who make a study of them, for they, of all the seeming life- less orbs that gaze so steadfastly on the centuries, exhibit inherent qualities that distinguish them in the firmament as man is distinguished on earth.
For three centuries this star has been under observa- tion and as yet shows no sign of relaxation.
No satisfactory theory has yet been found to account for all the variations in the light of these long-period vari- ables. It has been suggested that the irregularities are caused by the phases of some general law, like the law of the maxima and minima of sun spot activity.
T Ceti is one of our nearest neighbours in space, its dis- tance being estimated as nine light years.
Corona Borealis The Northern Crown
147
TDraeo
Benetnasch
in < Ursa Major
QjVegra ^^ in Lyra
Head
a <^
Vt4
CORONA BOREALIS
"o Seglnna
6 Eas AlgetlU f\ Has Alliacuc
f^ ..V^"" ,' O^
, • vNuaakan <s
y The Head ■ « of the --^ Serpent
P
p- — t}
(3 Arcturus
CORONA BOREALIS
2v Spi (J 11
Vlr
Theseus Slaying the Minotaur Statue at Villa Albani
CORONA BOREALIS THE NORTHERN CROWN
There too that Crown which Bacchus set on high, A brilliant sign of the lost Ariadne.
Aratos.
This conspicuous and beautiful constellation is said to commemorate the crown presented by Bacchus to Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, second King of Crete. The legend relates that Theseus, King of Athens (1235 B.C.), was shut up in the celebrated labyrinth of Crete to be devoured by the ferocious Minotaur, which was confined in that place- This creature was accustomed to feed upon the chosen young men and maidens exacted from the Athenians as a yearly tribute to the tyranny of Minos. Theseus attacked and slew the wicked monster, and being furnished with a clue of thread by Ariadne, who was passionately devoted to him, he extricated himself from the diflScult windings of the labyrinth. He afterwards married the beautiful Ariadne, and carried her away to the island of Naxos, where sad to relate he deserted her.
Ariadne was so disconsolate at this treatment, that some say she hanged herself, but Plutarch takes a more cheerful view, and claims that she lived many years after and was espoused to Bacchus, who loved her with much tender- ness and gave her a crown of seven stars, which after her death was placed among the stars. Thus the constella- tion is often called "Ariadne's Crown."
Spenser however thinks that Theseus was the donor of the crown. In his Faerie Queen he says:
149
150 Star Lore of All Ages
Look: how the crowne which Ariadne wore
Upon her yvory forehead . . .
Being now placed in the firmament,
Through the bright heavens doth her beams display.
And is unto the starres an ornament,
Which round about her move in order excellent.
ApoUonius Rhodius thus refers to the Crown in his Tale of the Argonauts as early as the third century B.C.
Still her sign is seen in heaven,
And midst the glittering symbols of the sky
The starry crown of Ariadne glides.
Brown claims that the crown was bestowed by the sun- god Dionysos on his consort Ariadne (the very chaste one) on the occasion of his nuptials in the island of Naxos.
We therefore have otir choice as to who bestowed the crown on Ariadne — Bacchus, Theseus, or Dionysos.
Allen tells us that Pherecydes, in the fifth centtu-y be- fore Christ, was the first to record this legend of Ariadne's Crown, and the constellation is without doubt one of great antiquity. It is one of the few that resemble in the arrangement of stars relative to each other the subject supposed to be represented. The stars are arranged in a semi-circle, and outline a perfect crown, so that this group is easily identified, and because of its beauty is better known than many of the constellations.
This constellation has also been regarded as "the Coiled Hair of Ariadne," a reduplication of the asterism Coma Berenices or Berenice's Hair.
One of the most peculiar features of the arrangement of the stars into constellations by the ancients is the fact that many of the figvu-es are repeated, and in almost every case the two constellations similar in figure are situated dose together in the sky. Thus we find two Dogs, two Lions, two Bears, two Birds, two Giants (Hercules and Ophiuchus), two Fishes, two Crowns (the northern and southern), two Centaurs, and now as we have seen above
The Minotaur
Painting by George Frederick Watts
The Northern Crown 151
there seem to have been two constellations that repre- sented maiden's tresses, only separated by the constella- tion Bootes.
This fact of reduplication seems to corrobrate the evi- dence that there was a deliberate plan exercised in the designing of the constellations, for there were many ani- mals known to the ancients that are not given a place in the stellar menagerie. There must have been some very good and sufficient reason for duplicating so many of the star groups.
The