PART II.

PLATES XV., XVI., XVII., AND XVIII.

In the foregoing pages arguments have been urged in support of the

view that the ecliptic circle, at the remote date (speaking in round

numbers) of 6000 B.C., had been portioned by some “ancient race of men”

into twelve divisions; and that the twelve constellational figures of

the Zodiac had then also been imagined under forms more or less closely

resembling those which we recognize in the heavens at the present day.

Most of the arguments in favour of this opinion are necessarily based

on considerations connected with the phenomena of the heavens, effected

in the long course of ages by a slow revolution of the earth’s axis.

Astronomers during the last two thousand years have carefully observed

the effects and studied the causes of this slow terrestrial movement,

and they can now tell us with confidence and exactness that the

space of 25,868 years is required for the accomplishment of one such

revolution of the earth’s axis.

In our enquiry into the astronomy of the ancients we need not at all

turn our minds to the difficult subject of the causes, or indeed even

to the fact, of this slow movement of the earth’s axis, further than

to realize fully that its effects have been to produce a slow but

continuous change in the apparent position of the fixed stars, a change

not in their position relatively to each other, but in their distances

from the heavenly equator and its poles.

The effort to fully realize these effects by means of careful

calculations and measurements must prove to any but an astronomer a

most arduous task; but, by aid of the mechanical contrivance called

a “precessional globe,” much of the difficulty of the task may be

overcome. The accompanying diagrams have been drawn from a precessional

globe, which can be adjusted so as to show the position of the poles

and equator amongst the fixed stars, at dates distant from each other

by intervals of 538 years.[109]

[109] 1800 A.D. is the date to which the globe in question originally

refers; the intervals of 538 years can be reckoned backwards or

forwards from this date.

I have shown in continuous outline those constellations for whose first

imagining it seemed to me as early a date might be claimed as that

referred to in each diagram; all others are given in dotted outline.

The strange figures of the “ancient constellations” are here drawn

as they are represented on the globe; but the fixed stars which mark

these figures for observers of the heavens, I have not ventured to

indicate, as to do so would have required great accuracy of drawing

and measurement. It is not for a moment to be contended that all the

ancient constellations were imagined _exactly_ under the forms by which

we have learnt to know them from classic representations, from the poem

of Aratos, and from the star list of Ptolemy. Variants of many of the

figures are to be met with in astronomical atlases and on the celestial

globes in use to-day; and to establish the relative claims concerning

the antiquity of these variant forms is a branch to itself of research.

That these constellations have indeed been well denominated “ancient”

is scarcely to be denied, and our only wonder, when studying the

subject, must be, not that some differences are to be met with as

to the exact form under which, at different dates and by different

nations, these figures were delineated in the heavens, but rather the

wonder must be that (as archæological research is always more and more

clearly establishing) through many thousands of years, and by nations

long and widely separated, the stars, which to an unaccustomed observer

seem to be scattered in wild and random profusion on the sky, should

have been divided into the same distinct groups, and thought of as

representing the same mysterious beings.

But though it may be impossible to maintain that the Grecians have

handed down to us in an absolutely unchanged form the figures of the

ancient constellations as they were first imagined in remote ages, yet

many proofs may be cited in favour of the opinion, that not lightly

or arbitrarily did astronomical artists venture to tamper with the

Zodiacal and extra-Zodiacal figures.

Some of these proofs have already been pointed out in the foregoing

Papers. Attention will be drawn to others in the consideration of the

diagrams here given.

In Plates XV., XVI., XVII., and XVIII., the positions of the solstitial

and equinoctial colures amongst the constellations are given at the

date 5744 B.C. Had it been possible, I should have liked to have drawn

these diagrams as at 6000 B.C.--not only because it is easier to deal

with and to remember a round number such as that, but also because at

that date the solstitial colure passed through the ecliptic only one

degree distant from the initial point of the Indian Zodiac--a point

which there seems good reason to believe was the initial point of many,

other than Indian, ancient Zodiacs.

Owing to the mechanical restrictions of the precessional globe, it was

not possible to adjust it to any more accurate date than that of 5744

B.C.

It will not be necessary here to reiterate the considerations in favour

of the opinion already advanced that the calendrical importance of the

constellation Aries in some nations, and its symbolical importance in

the mythology of others, may best be explained by the supposition that

the choice of this constellation as “Prince and Leader” of the signs

was made _not_ when its stars marked the spring equinox, but when they

marked the winter solstice.

Let us rather take this opinion as a working hypothesis, and turn

our attention to the importance, in ancient symbolism, of the _four_

constellations--Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricornus--which, according

to this hypothesis, marked the _four_ seasons, and the cardinal points

6000 B.C.

Next in this order to Aries comes Cancer, _The Crab_ (see Plate XVI.).

In Babylonia, it seems to be established that a _tortoise_, not a crab,

represented the fourth constellation of the Zodiac. In Egypt, as we

learn from the Zodiacs of Esneh and Denderah, it was the _scarabæus_

beetle that held the place given to the crab in the Grecian sphere.

There is a sort of outward resemblance between these three creatures,

wide apart as they are anatomically from each other. They are all

hard-shelled, creeping, and insignificant-looking animals. Why under

any of these three forms a constellation of the Zodiac should have been

depicted, it is difficult to conjecture; but if we have to admit that

in Egyptian astronomy the beetle played the important part of marking

as a constellation one of the quarters of the ecliptic circle, this

admission will furnish us with an adequate reason for the extraordinary

honour paid in Egyptian symbolic art to this lowly, and in itself

unattractive, insect.

The scarabæus, according to our hypothesis, marked in ancient

calendrical tradition the spring equinox when in _conjunction_ with

the sun, and the autumn equinox in _opposition_ to it. And it was as

presiding _visibly in opposition_ that we may reasonably suppose it

gained such honour in Egypt. For the autumn, not the spring, is in

that land the time when vegetation begins to burst into life, and when

all Egypt rejoices. I think, moreover, that facts connected with the

worship of the Apis Bull will further strengthen the opinion that the

Egyptians considered the constellations in _opposition_ to the sun to

be those which presided over particular seasons and months.[110]

[110] See below, pp. 234, 235.

To trace allusions in the symbolic art of Egypt to Libra--the

third in order of the constellations we are now discussing (see

Plate XVII.)--is, it must be confessed, not so simple a matter,

and it is with some diffidence that I put forward the following

suggestion--_i.e._, that we may perhaps find in the “two feathers,” so

prominent in Egyptian mythologic imagery, a reference to the two scales

of the Balance (Libra).

[Illustration: The Didû dressed.]

In allegorical language _we_ speak often of the even scales of Justice,

and in art the goddess is always represented with the Balance in

her hand. In Egyptian symbolism and art, I think the two feathers

represented the equal weights of the scales of Justice. In the great

judgment hall of Osiris, the souls of men were weighed in the balance.

The soul, or heart, of the dead Egyptian was placed in one scale, while

a feather--or the figure of the goddess Mait, wearing on her head a

single plume or feather--occupied the other. Mait was the goddess of

Justice, and we often read also of “the two Maits who preside over

Justice and Truth.”

There is a woodcut in Prof. Maspero’s _Dawn of Civilization_, p. 130,

in which the head-dress--the symbolic head-dress--so often to be met

with in Egyptian mythologic representations, is very clearly drawn. It

was in studying this woodcut that the idea first suggested itself to

my mind, that in this head-dress we may find a reference to the four

constellations which, when the Zodiac was first imagined, marked the

four colures--the four quarters of the heavens--that it was in fact an

astronomic monogram, combining four figures in one.

In this head-dress very plainly are to be seen the horns of a ram,

and those of a goat. Less convincingly, perhaps, the disc from which

spring the goat’s horns suggests “the disc enclosing a scarabæus,”[111]

under which form the sun as _Khophri_--“He who is”[112]--was sometimes

represented by the Egyptians.

[111] Maspero, p. 139.

[112] _Ibid._ p. 138.

The two feathers in outline clearly show themselves, but to connect

these two feathers with the scales of Libra is only adventured as a

possible means of giving an astronomic value to the so often repeated

combination of the forms in this head-dress.

As to Capricornus (the fourth of the constellations which marked

the colures 6000 B.C.), (see Plate XVIII.), we do not meet with

any representations, so far as I know, of a goat-fish on Egyptian

monuments, but on Babylonian boundary stones and engraved gems this

monster is often to be seen, exactly represented in form and attitude

as on the Grecian sphere. The goat’s _horns_ are all we find portrayed

in ancient Egyptian art, and when they are portrayed they appear

together with the _ram’s horns_, and often springing out of a ram’s

head. For this curt reference to the goat (Capricornus) a reason may

be found by remembering that this constellation, _in opposition_,

presided--traditionally--over the least honoured season of the Egyptian

year--the arid season preceding the inundations.

It should be borne in mind that all the Egyptian mythologic symbolism

we have been considering must necessarily have only embodied traditions

already even under the earliest dynasties extremely ancient; for it

was, as may be seen in the Plates, about 6000 B.C. that the colures

touched the extreme western degrees of the constellations Aries,

Cancer, and Libra--and a point some degrees to the west of Capricornus,

as it is now drawn. In each succeeding century the colures moved

still more to the west, through the stars, and from 6000 down to 4000

B.C. they were no longer to be observed in the four already named

constellations, but in Pisces, Gemini, Virgo, and Sagittarius.

It is curious to note that there seems to be no pronounced allusion in

Egyptian art or literature to these four constellations, though there

are indications (see pp. 230-238) which may lead us to believe that

the astronomical phenomena of the later date, 4000 B.C., were closely

observed, and seem to have formed the basis of much of the mythology of

Egypt.

These facts tend to confirm the conclusion--so often advocated in this

book--that the ancestors of the Egyptians, as also of all the great

civilized nations of antiquity, followed through many long ages the

same sidereal calendar--one based on the observation of the colures

amongst the fixed stars 6000 B.C. And it would seem that not till

about 4000 B.C., when the colures had traversed, from east to west,

the constellations Pisces, Gemini, Virgo, and Sagittarius, and had

arrived at the eastern degrees of Aquarius, Taurus, Leo, and Scorpio,

did astronomic authorities in Egypt direct their attention to a reform

of the calendar and introduce into it, and into religious observances,

references to these four last-named constellations.

Turning to Plate XVI. we may notice that the equinoctial colure,

marking out as it does the extreme western limits of the constellation

Cancer, passes also through a part of the constellation Gemini. This

fact may, I think, help to explain some of the legends connected with

the twins Castor and Pollux in ancient lore.

A very brilliant star glitters on the head of each twin. These stars

are of almost equal lustre and well deserve the name of twin stars; and

so we can easily suppose how it was that the imaginative astronomers

who, at the early date in question, mapped out the figures of the

Zodiac, noticing that the equinoctial colure passed between these two

bright stars, should have elected to represent them as marking the

heads of twin figures, which they determined should symbolize the

_equal day and night_ of the season over which they presided.

These two stars, thousands of years after they had ceased to mark

the equinox, were still associated by the Greeks with the twin

heroes--Castor and Pollux--brothers who, according to the legend, were

“possessed of an immortality of existence so divided among them, that

as one dies, the other revives.” The learned Dr Barrett has pointed out

that “this furnishes a complete description of Day and Night.” This

remark of Dr Barrett’s becomes especially interesting if we attribute

the first symbolizing of day and night by these stars to the work of

astronomers at a date when the day and night these stars symbolized

were of exactly equal length, and when, therefore, the equal stars and

equal alternation of light and darkness might both be fitly symbolized

as twins.

At Plate XVIII. it is to be observed that the equinoctial colure,

instead of adjoining Capricornus, occupies an almost central position

in the preceding constellation, Sagittarius. This fact, together with

other considerations, has led me to think that originally only the

bow and arrow of Sagittarius were imagined for that division of the

ecliptic; and that the huge composite figure of the archer--half man

and half horse--was added to the original design in later ages, by

astronomers who chose the spring equinox instead of the winter solstice

for the beginning of the year.

In discussing the Median calendar, the importance which seems to

have been given by the ancestors of the Medes to the constellation

Sagittarius, at a date when it marked the spring equinox, was dwelt

upon. It will, I think, appear likely, when we come to study Plates

XIX. and XX., that as early as 4600 B.C. constellations were imagined

to honour and mark the equinoctial as well as the solstitial seasons.

Perhaps then, at that date the constellation Sagittarius was extended

to its present dimensions; and it may be that some centuries later,

when the colure of the _winter solstice_ had passed into the

constellation Aquarius, some astronomers desired--like Gudea of Lagash

and Tchuen-Hio in China--to honour that season, and to make it the

beginning of the year. It may be that such astronomers dealt with the

eleventh constellation of the Zodiac, as earlier ones had dealt with

Sagittarius, and that they added to what was possibly originally only a

_water jar_, Amphora, the figure of the _water pourer_ Aquarius.

These ideas are put forward very speculatively. They were partly

suggested by noticing that in the Indian Zodiac the name of the

constellation Sagittarius is merely Dhanus (arrow), and the name of

Aquarius is Kumbha (water jar).

In the diagrams which we have been discussing, it will be observed that

only the twelve figures of the Zodiac, and _two_ of the extra-Zodiacal

constellations, are given in continuous outline, one of these two is

Draco--the dragon or serpent whose folds surround the _Pole of the

Ecliptic_--the central point of the circle of the Zodiac.

That the astronomers who traced out the circle of the Zodiac on

the heavens, and imagined its twelve strange figures, should also

have devoted attention to, and marked out, its central point, is

not improbable. The _Pole of the Ecliptic_, unlike the _Pole of the

Heavens_, is immoveable amongst the fixed stars. At 6000 B.C., as at

the present date, the stars of Draco surrounded this point--a point not

itself marked by any conspicuous star. We have not, however, I think,

at present sufficient grounds for deciding at what exact date the

constellation Draco was imagined under the form it now holds. But that

it is very ancient there is no doubt.

For the first depicting on the vault of heaven of the figure of Bootes,

I claim with much stronger conviction the date of 6000 B.C., and the

latitude of 45° north. For then and there Bootes might be seen at

midnight of the summer solstice, standing upright on the northern

horizon, his head reaching nearly to the Pole of the Heavens. Never

since that date has he held so commanding a position in the sky, nor at

any more southern latitude could his whole figure have been represented

as standing on the horizon.

One further suggestion as to this constellation I am tempted to make.

Not, it is true, on the same firm astronomical grounds as those put

forward for the date of the first imagining of the figure, but a

suggestion based on the Greek name of the constellation.

The name Bootes has been translated as ox-driver, and of him Aratos

says:--

“The _Bear-ward_, whom mankind the _Ploughman_ call,

Because he seems to touch the wain-like _Bear_.”[113]

[113] _The Phainomena or “Heavenly Display” of Aratos, done into

English verse_ by Robert Brown, Jun., F.S.A., line 92.

The seven bright stars which mark the tail and part of the body of

the Great Bear are often spoken of as “the Plough,” and in the large

remaining space allotted on the sphere to the constellation Ursa Major,

it would not be difficult to include oxen harnessed to the brightly

marked celestial plough.

I have said that at midnight of the summer solstice the constellation

Bootes--if we suppose it to have been imagined at 6000 B.C.--presided

visibly over the northern sky. But we have learnt from the month

names in the Accadian calendar that the astronomers who instituted

it always directed attention to the constellations which _invisibly_

accompanied the sun in his daily journeyings from east to west, rather

than to those which (in opposition) were visible through the hours

of the night. For example--all through the mid-winter month of the

sacrifice of righteousness, the stars of the Ram--the celestial symbol

of that sacrifice--were invisible, hidden in the overpowering light

of the sun. In like manner, I think, we may assume that at the close

of the Accadian year--in the “month of the sowing of seed” or in “the

dark month of sowing,” when mortal husbandmen were following on earth

their ox-drawn ploughs, Bootes, the ox-driver, though invisible to the

bodily eye, appeared to the mental vision of the astronomer, following

unweariedly the ox-drawn plough in the sky.

The various suppositions here put forward will lead those who accept

them as probably correct, to picture to themselves the existence, at

the early date of 6000 B.C., in latitude 45° N., of a race of men--not

savages, and not merely pastoral nomads--but a race of agriculturists

who tilled the ground and reaped its fruits--a race possessed of high

intellectual power--who respected law and justice, and whose religion

taught them to offer to their god “sacrifices of righteousness.”

PLATES XIX. AND XX.

In Plate XIX., fig. 1, it is the constellation known in the Grecian

sphere as Hercules that claims our attention. At the date and latitude

above named, this constellation, if then it had already been imagined,

culminated gloriously on the northern meridian at midnight of the

spring equinox. The head of the hero, or demi-god, touched the very

zenith, and with his club brandished aloft he must have seemed well

fitted to triumph over, not only the dragon coiled beneath his feet,

but over every opposing power.

As was said at p. 223 about Bootes, 6000 B.C., so it may here be

repeated of Hercules, 4667 B.C., “never since that date has he held so

commanding a position in the sky.”

At the present date of writing, and in our English latitudes, Hercules

“will ever rise reversed,”[114] and through the summer and autumn

months his kneeling figure is always to be seen hanging head downwards

in the southern quarter of the sky.

[114] _The Phainomena or “Heavenly Display” of Aratos, done into

English verse_ by Robert Brown, Jun., F.S.A., line 669.

Grecian writers, some centuries B.C., were already puzzled to account

for this “_reversed_” position of “the Kneeler.” Aratos, from whom I

have quoted above, thus further wonders as to this constellation. At

line 63 we read:--

“... like a toiling man, revolves

A form. Of it can no one clearly speak,

Nor to what toil he is attached; but, simply,

_Kneeler_ they call him. Labouring on his knees,

Like one who sinks he seems;”

and again at line 614--

“The _Kneeler_ ...

He who is ne’er far distant from the _Lyre_,

Whoe’er this stranger of the heavenly forms

May be.”[115]

[115] _The Phainomena or “Heavenly Display” of Aratos, done into

English verse_ by Robert Brown, Jun., F.S.A., line 669.

4600 B.C. no such difficult speculations could have presented

themselves to the minds of those who, in the joyous springtime of

the year, beheld in imagination, night after night, the grand and

conquering figure of this god or hero, typifying for them, as we may

easily suppose, the ever-increasing triumph at that season of the power

of light over darkness.

Plate XIX., fig. 2. It was perhaps at this same date that the cluster

of stars “led round in circle”[116] close to the bow of Sagittarius,

and exactly marking the equinoctial colure, was figured as a

_crown_, and that so depicted, as I have contended at page 76, this

constellation suggested the symbolic circle, crown, or wreath which

sometimes takes the place of the bow in Assur’s hand, and which almost

always is present in the hand of Ahura Mazda in Median representations

of that figure.

[116] _The Phainomena or “Heavenly Display” of Aratos, done into

English verse_ by Robert Brown, Jun., F.S.A., line 401.

At Plate XX., fig. 1, I have drawn the constellation Hydra as it would

have appeared at the date 4667 B.C. At pages 117, 118, the reasons

which led me to suppose that this constellation was then first imagined

have been given.

At Plate XX., fig. 2, it may be seen how 4667 B.C. the figure of

Orion very accurately marked the equinoctial colure, and this fact

may incline us to suppose that the giant hunter--so often, according

to Grecian legend, in conflict with the powers of high Heaven--was

depicted about this date by ancient astronomers to represent the

strength of the adverse powers which, at the _autumnal_ season in the

mythologies of northern nations, appear in combat with, and temporarily

triumphant over, the powers of light.

In favour of the high date here claimed for the imagining of Orion’s

figure under very much the same form as that still depicted on our

globes, there are some indications to be observed in the Sanscrit names

of the Nakshatra, which contains the stars, λ φ₁ φ₂ Orionis--_i.e._,

the stars marking the head of Orion.

This Nakshatra is known in Hindu astronomy under two quite different

names--viz., Mṛigashirsha and Agrahayani. The Sanscrit word,

Mṛigashirsha, means literally “Wild beast’s head,” and B. G. Tilak,

in his work, _The Orion; or, Researches into the Antiquity of the

Vedas_, basing his opinion upon many ingenious and recondite arguments,

supposes that ancient Indian astronomers gave the name of Mṛigashiras

to the stars of Orion, which they imagined portrayed in the sky an

“Antelope’s head” transfixed by an arrow--the arrow being marked by the

three bright stars so well known to us as Orion’s Belt.

Mṛiga, there can be no doubt, carries often with it in Sanscrit

literature the meaning of “antelope”: but Tilak expressly says at p.

97, “Though I have translated the word _Mṛigashiras_ by ‘Antelope’s

head,’ I do not mean to imply that _Mṛiga_ necessarily meant ‘an

antelope’ in the Vedic literature.” Again, at p. 151, he says: “The

word _Mṛiga_ in the Rigveda, means according to Sâyaṇa both a lion and

a deer.”

Again, as to the other name of the Nakshatra--Agrahayani--it has

the meaning of “first-going” (of the sun) understood. In a long

dissertation on this name, Tilak contends that it marked an important

point in the annual course of the sun, and then further seeks to derive

the Greek name Orion from the Sanscrit word, Agrahayani. Of the value

of the etymological arguments advanced, I am quite unable to judge, but

on astronomic grounds it would not seem an improbable derivation.

But the acceptance of Tilak’s contention as to the derivation of the

name Orion would make it reasonable to suppose that not only the name

but also the configuration of the constellation might, in the astronomy

of the Greek and Indian nations, resemble each other; and thus we

should be more ready to believe that Mṛigashirsha referred to the

lion’s head on Orion’s arm, and not to an “antelope’s head”--a head

which, as depicted by Tilak at p. 100, would alone have filled nearly

all the space in the heavens occupied in the Grecian sphere by the

huge figure of the giant hunter known to us as Orion.

The indications furnished by these two Sanscrit Nakshatra names, if

they are followed, must lead us to attribute the imagining and naming

of the constellation Orion to a time before that when the ancestors of

the Greeks and Indians went their separate ways to the west and to the

east, and so will strengthen the claim here made for the depicting of

the constellation on the sky as early as 4600 B.C.

It will be noted that in the suggestions here offered concerning

Hercules, Corona Australis, Hydra, and Orion, a change in the symbolic

methods followed by earlier astronomers, 6000 B.C., must be supposed.

It was to the constellations invisibly _accompanying_ the sun that the

originators of the Zodiac appear to have directed their attention. But

the symbolic figures we have now been studying--there can, it seems to

me, be little doubt--were designed to mark _visibly_, and, therefore,

in _opposition_ to the sun, the various seasons of the year.

A great astronomic activity, a sort of astronomic renaissance, in fact,

seems to manifest itself as we study the celestial globe at 4600 B.C.,

and to this date I would attribute the origin of the astronomic myths

of many nations.

PLATE XXI.[117]

[117] The figures in this Plate have been drawn from the globe

adjusted to the date, 4128 B.C., Lat. 40° N.

In _The Median Calendar and the Constellation Taurus_ I have put

forward considerations drawn from Median and Assyrian sources, which

seemed to me to lead to the conclusion that at about the date 4000 B.C.

very close attention was given to the position of the colures amongst

the fixed stars, and that at that date very special honour was given

by the ancestors of the Medes to the constellation Sagittarius--the

constellation which at the spring equinox was in opposition to the sun,

and therefore visible all through the night. I need not here reiterate

what was there advanced on this point concerning Median and Assyrian

symbolism, but rather I now desire to draw attention to the existence

in _Egyptian_ art and mythologic teaching of what I cannot but think is

very constant reference to the position of the colures, as they might

have been observed--speaking in round numbers--from 4000 down to 2000

B.C.

It will be seen at Fig. 4 that the equinoctial colure, at the earlier

of these dates, touched the confines of the constellation Sagittarius,

and might even then, with almost equal right, have been claimed as

adjoining those of Scorpio. We can well imagine that the astronomic

school which carried out the reformation in method discussed above

(pp. 222, 227), which resulted in the imagining of the constellations

Hercules and Corona Australis, and in the extension, as I suggested,

of the boundaries of Sagittarius--we can well imagine that this school

would with reluctance admit the baleful image of Scorpio to take the

post of leader of the year, so long held by Sagittarius. But from 4000

B.C. onwards to 2000 B.C. the constellations that did actually mark

the equinoctial and solstitial colures, were Taurus, Scorpio, Leo, and

Aquarius.

Volumes of controversy have been written concerning the astronomic

teachings of the ceilings of the temples of Denderah and Edfu, as to

the position of the colures amongst the fixed stars, suggested by the

arrangement of the figures of the Zodiac in both these temples. The

date astronomically referred to in these designs was claimed by some

to be about 4000 B.C., but when it was proved that these temples had

been restored in Ptolemaic times, and the ceilings probably redecorated

then, the high claims put forward for the first imagining of these

astronomic designs could no longer with certainty be upheld. A strong

reaction in opinion then took place, and it was again and again

asserted that the Egyptians were probably not even acquainted with the

so-called Grecian twelve-fold division of the ecliptic till after the

introduction of European culture into Egypt. To seek for allusions

in ancient Egyptian mythology or art to any of the twelve Zodiacal

constellations was, therefore, a much discouraged attempt.

But if the testimony of the ceilings of the Denderah and Edfu temples

is rendered suspect by their Ptolemaic restoration, the same objection

cannot be raised against the evidence borne by the ceiling of an

ancient Egyptian building, which has certainly not been restored in

Ptolemaic times. In the _Description de l’Égypte_,[118] we find a

careful drawing of a “Tableau astronomique au Plafond de l’un des

tombeaux des rois.” In the central portion on either side of this

ceiling a monstrous hippopotamus and crocodile are represented,

together with various beings depicted on a much smaller scale. In the

drawing here given, of one of these central groups, we find, as it

seems to me, very clear reference to the four figures--Taurus, Scorpio,

Leo, and Aquarius (= Amphora).

[118] _Description de l’Égypte_, 10 vols., Paris, MDCCCXII.-XXIII.,

Vol. I., Antiquités, planche 95.

[Illustration: Portion of Ceiling at Bybân-el-Molouk.

[_To face p. 233._]

[Illustration: BULL APIS]

The monstrous hippopotamus and crocodile here depicted are, I am

strongly inclined to believe, representations, not of any particular

constellation, but rather of the solstitial and equinoctial colures;

and the four not at all, except astronomically, related figures of the

Bull, Scorpion, Lion, and Water-jar, are here very clearly in evidence.

In Egyptian mythology the Apis Bull held a very important place. “It

was regarded as a symbol and incarnation of Osiris, the husband of

Isis, and next to Râ, the great divinity of Egypt.” Grecian authorities

tell us that the Apis Bull was black, with some distinctive white

markings; and on its back (or tongue, according to variant accounts)

the figure of a scarabæus was to be observed. From a drawing in Ebers’

_Egypt_, Vol. I., p. 121, we may, however, gather, as I think I have

seen it elsewhere stated, that the Apis Bull was marked by _equal_

areas of black and white. Such equal areas would fitly symbolize the

equal day and night of the equinoctial season, and the presence of the

scarabæus on the back or tongue of the Bull--if the suggestion made

at p. 218 should prove to be correct--would point to the traditional

connexion of that creature with the same equinoctial season.

It has often been assumed that the golden calf set up and worshipped in

the wilderness by the Israelites was a representation of the Apis god

of Egypt; and that so also were the calves set up by Jeroboam in Bethel

and in Dan on his return from Egypt. We read in 1 Kings xii. 32, “And

Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of

the month.” ... Ver. 33, “So he offered upon the altar which he had

made in Bethel the fifteenth day of the eighth month, even in the month

which he had devised of his own heart; and ordained a feast unto the

children of Israel: and he offered upon the altar, and burnt incense.”

Now, from our knowledge of the Babylonian calendar, and its

correspondence with that in use in Palestine, we may conclude that the

“eighth month” (Marchesvan), devised by Jeroboam, was that during which

the sun traversed the constellation Scorpio, and during which Taurus

was dominantly visible all night; and when in this constellation the

full moon of the fifteenth or festival day was to be observed. This

mention of the _eighth_ month in connexion with the worship of the

golden calves--a worship, as has been supposed, copied from Egyptian

practice--greatly strengthens the opinion that the Apis Bull was in

Egypt looked upon as a living representative of the Zodiacal Bull--the

constellation which in the time of the early dynasties marked, in

opposition to the sun, the autumnal equinox.

In Median mythology and art we have seen the great importance of Tauric

symbolism: but there is a wide difference between the Tauric symbolism

of the Medes and the Egyptians. Mithras, the Median sun-god, again and

again triumphs over and slays the Bull. In Egypt, on the contrary,

the Sacred Bull is honoured and worshipped during its lifetime, and

reverently embalmed, and with all pomp and glory buried after its death.

This difference in the mythologic conceptions of Media and Egypt may be

attributed, I think, to the difference of climatic conditions in the

two countries.

In Media, spring--in Egypt, autumn--is the joyous and fruitful season

of the year. In the early ages, when Median and Egyptian mythologies

took their rise, Taurus was at the spring equinox in conjunction with

the sun, and was, therefore, slain by its overwhelming brightness; but

at the autumn equinox that same constellation, _in opposition_, rose

when the sun set, and all night long was visible. In Median art, it is

the Bull immolated by the sun in springtime that is represented. In

Egyptian symbolism, it is to the Bull triumphantly traversing the sky

by night, in the autumn season, that attention is directed.

In the light of these astronomic considerations, it is interesting to

think of the fanatical act of Cambyses in slaying the Apis Bull, as

one prompted not only by fury at seeing the high honour paid to the

Egyptian god, but also by an insane pride, which made him desire to

imitate the triumph of Mithras--the Persian sun-god--over the Bull in

the heavens, by killing its earthly representative, the Apis Bull.

In the days of Cambyses, when Apis worship prevailed in Egypt, and

even still earlier when the children of Israel, in imitation of this

worship, set up the golden calf in the wilderness, the _raison d’être_

for the honour paid to Taurus as a star mark of the autumnal season

no longer existed; for we know that about 1800 B.C., the equinoctial

colure had left that constellation, and had entered the eastern degrees

of the constellation Aries. Egyptian history assures us, however,

that the institution of the Apis worship was effected by some king

of the first dynasty in the far back ages when Taurus, Scorpio, Leo,

and Aquarius did actually preside over the four seasons of the year.

Moreover, the recent discoveries of the tombs of kings and other

personages, in the first Egyptian dynasty, lead us back to the remote

date of 4000 B.C., when the very earliest observations of the colures

in the four above-named constellations could have been made.

In these ancient tombs, amongst other objects, have been found slate

slabs of various shapes--some of them, in their general outline, as it

appears to me, representing in the flat the form of a jar or vase. In

the accompanying cuts, a proposed restoration of the broken-off top

of one of the slates is given, and is distinguished from the existing

portion of the slate by being drawn in dotted lines. Both sides of

these slabs are covered by finely executed carvings, not incised but

in relief. The subjects of the reliefs are very varied, but prominent

amongst them, and exactly repeated more than once, is the figure of a

bull trampling under his feet, and preparing to gore with his horns,

a fallen human foe. Lions are also portrayed in many attitudes, and

on one slate, where in the upper register this triumphing bull is

represented, below it in a crenellated cartouche a lion and an urn

or jar are to be seen in close proximity to each other. On another

slate, a scorpion is delineated above a crenellated cartouche; and

representations of scorpions carved in relief on mace-heads and on

jars, and scorpions carved in the round, have been met with in great

numbers in the excavations at Hierakonpolis--the site also of the

discovery of one of the most important of the carved slates here

described.

It is difficult, I think, to resist the conclusion that we have in

the carvings on these ancient slate objects references not to merely

terrestrial bulls, lions, scorpions, and water jars, but rather to the

constellations, already imagined under those forms, whose stars, at the

date when these carvings were made, marked in conjunction with, and in

opposition to, the sun, the four seasons of the year.[119]

[119] In the centre of many, if not of all, of the slates under

our notice, there is carved on the obverse a ring surrounding a

depression. “Mr Quibell’s theory, which is still adhered to by

Professor Petrie, is that this ring was intended to receive the

green paint with which it is supposed the earliest Egyptians painted

their faces,” but Mr Legge in his Paper, from which I have here

quoted (contributed to the _Proceedings of the Society of Biblical

Archæology_, May 1900, pp. 137, 138), puts forward a different

view, which, if it is correct, would lend support to the astronomic

interpretation above proposed for some of the carved representations.

Mr Legge considers that the rings represented the sun, and that

“it is quite possible that this significance was heightened by

the introduction of some bright substance, such as gold foil.” He

points out that the composite monsters of the slates, all of which

are represented on certain ivories, which he names, are always

associated with the sun-disk. He believes these figures to have a

symbolic meaning, though he does not in his Paper claim the especial

astronomic interpretations I have above advocated.

[Illustration: Outlines of two carved slates drawn from Plates I. and

III. in _The Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archæology_ for May

1900.

[_To face p. 236._]

PLATE XXII.[120]

[120] This plate has been drawn from the globe adjusted to the dates

and latitudes of 5744 B.C. Lat. 18° N., and of 3588 B.C., Lat. 23° N.

In Grecian legend Cepheus, Cassiopeia, Andromeda, the sea-monster

(Cetus), and Perseus are associated together, and on the Grecian sphere

five neighbouring constellations represent the actors of the legend.

Studying these constellations as they must have appeared to observers

of the heavens at different dates, we shall, I think, see some reason

to attribute the imagining of the figure of the hero Perseus to a

later age than that of the other members of the group, and, on the

other hand, there are considerations which may make us hesitate

whether we should not place the origin of the constellation Andromeda

at an even earlier date than those of Cepheus, Cassiopeia, and the

sea-monster.[121] One point in the legend, however, finds strong

astronomic support from a study of the precessional globe--namely, the

fact that Cepheus and Cassiopeia were personages of Ethiopian--_i.e._,

of tropical provenance.

[121] See below at p. 246, and pp. 242, 243.

It will be seen in Plate XXII., fig. 1, that only in a latitude as far

South as 18° N. could the figure of Cassiopeia--even at the early date

of 6000 B.C.--have been imagined as that of a queen seated in royal

dignity, and visible in the northern quarter of the heavens.

By referring to Plate XV., we may learn that in Lat. 45° N. at that

date, Cassiopeia would have appeared in the southern quarter of the

sphere, head downwards, while the figure of Cepheus could only have

been observed by turning first to one and then to the other quarter

of the sky. As, however, the _head of Cepheus_ would have marked so

exactly the solstitial colure 6000 B.C., it seemed to me only right

to seek for a latitude in which his figure and that of his queen

should appear upright and in the same quarter of the heavens--a

latitude, therefore, in which it might be possible to suppose these

constellations had been originated as star-marks of the solstitial

season. To attain this object it was necessary to set the globe to the

very low latitude of 18° N.

To suppose at 6000 B.C. so wide a diffusion, not only of the human

race, but also of astronomical science and authority, seemed to involve

an historical unlikelihood. Moreover, even if for the sake of suitably

establishing the dignity of this regal pair one were tempted to suppose

the great improbability of schools of astronomy existing, and with

equal authority instituting constellations as star-marks for the year,

in regions as far north as Lat. 45° N. and as far south as 18° N.--even

so, I do not think the position of the constellations themselves in

relation to the solstitial colure as shown in the diagram is by any

means so convincingly symmetrical as to force us to accept the date

6000 B.C. for their origin. The head only of Cepheus appears on the

meridian, his figure and the whole constellation of Cassiopeia lie

considerably to the east of that line.

Under these circumstances it is satisfactory to find at a later,

and therefore at a more historically probable date, and still in an

Ethiopian (tropical) latitude, a meridian line on and about which

the constellations Cepheus, Cassiopeia, Andromeda, and Cetus form a

well-balanced group.

This meridian, it is true, is not that of a solstice or an equinox; but

it is one which marked a very important astronomical moment--namely,

the commencement of the calendrical year--the year counted from the

entry of the sun into the constellation Aries. (See Plate XXII., fig.

2.)

Of the high calendrical importance attached through thousands of years

to this point in the sun’s annual course by the Accadian and Babylonian

nations and by the Hindus down to the present day, astronomic records

testify. Egyptian mythology and Chinese traditions also, as I have

claimed, refer to it: it need not, therefore, surprise us to find

constellations imagined to mark the beginning of a year counted from

that point, even at a date when this beginning did not coincide either

with solstice or equinox.

3500 B.C. is the approximate date I would suggest in a latitude not far

from 23° N. for the origin of the constellations Cepheus, Cassiopeia,

and probably also for that of Cetus.

The legend tells us that Cassiopeia by boasting of her own or of her

daughter’s surpassing beauty incurred the enmity of the nereids. She is

“... that starr’d Ethiop queen that strove

To set her beauty’s praise above

The sea-nymphs, and their power offended.”[122]

[122] Milton, _Il Penseroso_.

It seems to me that for this legend, as for many others, an astronomic

basis may be assigned. 3500 B.C. the solstitial colure passed through

the constellation Aquarius. The stars of that constellation might then

not unfitly have been likened to sea divinities, and rival schools of

astronomers and calendar keepers may have exalted the praise, on the

one hand, of the stars that marked a calendrical, and, on the other

hand, of those that marked a solstitial year.

A curious fact as to the lines in which Aratos refers to the

constellation Cassiopeia must here be noted.

Aratos versified “the _Phainomena_ of the astronomer Eudoxos, who

lived cir. B.C. 403-350.” It has often been pointed out that the facts

concerning the constellations which Aratos and Eudoxos record “are to

a great extent traditional and archaic, and belong to another and far

earlier epoch.” What is said of Cassiopeia is a case in point; for thus

the poet deplores her pride and its punishment at line 654 _et seq._--

“And now she, too, her daughter’s form pursues,

Sad _Kassiepeia_; nor seemly still

Show from her seat her feet and knees above;

But she head foremost like a tumbler sits:

With knees divided: since a doom must fall

On boasts to equal Panopê and Doris.”[123]

[123] _The Phainomena or “Heavenly Display” of Aratos_, _ub. supr._

Now in Eudoxos’ time and in his latitude, though Cassiopeia’s head did

by a few degrees extend into the southern heavens, yet her position was

not so deplorably ignominious as the poem would suggest. Three thousand

years earlier the pity for her expressed by Aratos would have been

more appropriate, for then her whole figure for observers in lat. 35°

N. would have been visible in the southern quarter of the sky, and her

feet, not her head (as at Lat. 23° N.), would have been on the zenith.

These considerations may lead us to suppose that the idea of

Cassiopeia’s pride, and the fit punishment of it--_i.e._, her reversed

position in the heavens, must have assumed form in _northern_ latitudes

almost at as early a date as the constellation figures were first

imagined in _tropical_ latitudes.

If this be so, it is indeed curious to find a legend which embodied

the _animus_ of astronomic rivalry 3500 B.C. handed down for thousands

of years, and repeated in what professed to be a somewhat scientific

treatise at a date between 400 and 300 B.C., when the astronomic facts

no longer tallied with those narrated in the legend.

As to Andromeda, the classic story describes her as the daughter

of Cepheus and Cassiopeia; but the constellation itself--except on

legendary grounds--might equally well have marked the beginning of a

solstitial year 6000 B.C., or of a non-solstitial and calendrical year

3500 B.C.

The terrible prevalence of human sacrifices in ancient times, and

at the solstices especially, may make us almost fear that the

representation of a chained human victim had its place in the sphere at

the earlier (solstitial) date.

The chains which bind Andromeda’s arms are fastened by staples to the

sky. They appear (at fig. 1) at 6000 B.C. as though driven into two

important astronomic lines--_i.e._, one of them into the line of the

equator, the other into that of the solstitial colure. This may, of

course, be a mere coincidence, and should not be allowed to weigh at

all heavily in the almost evenly adjusted balance of probabilities

regarding the date of the origin of the constellation Andromeda. Her

story is so interwoven, not only with that of Cepheus and Cassiopeia,

but also with that of the sea-monster Cetus, that we should not hastily

attempt to dissociate the members of this group.

The very interesting question as to what southern people first depicted

the Ethiopic king and queen on the sphere cannot be answered on

astronomic grounds. We know that the latitude in which these figures

were imagined must have been tropical, if the date of their imagining

was as early as 3500 _B.C._ But we cannot learn from the celestial

globe what was the longitude of the land in which they were so

imagined. Ethiopia proper, and parts of Arabia and India, lie within

the tropics, and the term Ethiopia, in classic writings, embraces all

these countries.

Etymologists are, I believe, divided in opinion as to what language

the rather un-Grecian names, Cepheus and Cassiopeia, were derived

from. Some writers have suggested for their origin the Sanscrit names

Capuja and Cassyape: and if, as I have already urged, the Aries-year

was followed in ancient Vedic times in India, the Sanscrit derivation

suggested will seem not an unlikely one. Nor under these suppositions

would it be difficult to propose a possible Sanscrit origin for the

name Andromeda, though for this purpose we should have to deprive the

legend of all its classic and romantic charm. Cassyape, in Sanscrit

story, is not the name of a gloriously beautiful queen, but of a

“sage,” and it might be that the constellation Andromeda also, for

ancient Indian astronomers, represented merely a _human_ sacrifice, not

that of the beautiful daughter of a beautiful mother. Though in the

Rig Veda there is no legend of the sacrifice of a woman, yet in it we

meet with seven consecutive hymns referring to the sacrifice, real or

symbolical, of Sunahśepas, the son of a rishi or sage, who, according

to the commentators, had consented to yield his son up to this cruel

fate. The prayers of the victim, addressed to many gods, at last result

in his deliverance.

Two other hymns in the Rig Veda relate to the great ceremony of the

sacrifice, real or symbolical, of a horse. I give at p. 252 some of the

considerations which have convinced me that the praises of the winged

steed--_i.e._, of the constellation Pegasus, and not merely the praises

of an earthly horse, are the subject of these two hymns. The ceremony

in question bore the name of Aswamedha, literally Horse-Sacrifice.

In reading and comparing these two series of sacrificial hymns, some

points of contact present themselves, and, observing this, it occurred

to me that some Sanscrit word ending in _Medha_--_i.e._, sacrifice,

and conveying the meaning of _human sacrifice_, might by ancient

Indian astronomers have been attached to the constellation, which

for us represents the hapless Andromeda: for if we suppose that the

constellations Cassiopeia and Cepheus were imagined in India, but

adopted with an appropriate legend into the Grecian sphere--the names

of the personages in the legend at the same time suffering a Grecian

change--it would be easy further to suppose that the Indian name of

the constellation near to them, transformed and misunderstood, came to

represent in Grecian story not merely a _human_ sacrifice, but that of

the much-to-be-pitied daughter of the proud Cassiopeia.

Whether these fanciful speculations concerning the names of the actors

in the ancient legend be adopted or not need not affect our judgment

as to the reasonableness, or otherwise, of the date, 3500 B.C., and of

Lat. 23° N. for the origin of the constellational group here discussed.

PLATE XXIII.[124]

[124] The figures in this plate have been drawn from the globe

adjusted to the following dates and latitudes. Figs. 1 and 2, 3589

B.C., Lat. 35° N. Fig. 3, 3050 B.C., Lat. 35° N. Fig. 4, 1443 B.C.,

Lat. 40° N.

The probable dates for the first imagining of four constellations are

here given--namely, for the Centaur, Ophiuchus, Auriga, and Perseus.

For the Centaur the date in round numbers of 3500 B.C. (fig. 1) is

suggested: at that date his huge figure would have well marked, in

opposition, the beginning of the calendrical Aries-year; or, in

conjunction with the sun, the beginning of the seventh month of the

same year. It is not necessary, at that date, to attribute a low

latitude to the astronomers who designed this figure: in that of 35°

N., as shown in the diagram, the whole constellation would then have

been well above the horizon. The much earlier epoch of 6000 B.C. might

perhaps be claimed for the Centaur. At that date, as I have assumed,

the calendrical and the solstitial year coincided. (Compare Plate XVII.

and Plate IX.) As between 6000 and 3500 B.C. I have often hesitated,

but on the whole I have come to think the later date, as here given,

the more probable.

Fig. 2.--Again at the date 3500 B.C. and in the latitude 35° N. I

have drawn the constellation Ophiuchus as it would have appeared in

opposition to the sun at the season of the spring equinox; triumphing

over the powers of darkness--namely, the scorpion on which he treads

and the serpent which he crushes with his hands. Although at the date

in question Hercules’ position in the northern heavens was not quite

so commanding and symmetrical as it was a thousand years earlier (see

Plate XIX.), yet in the lower latitude given here (Plate XXIII., fig.

2) the heads of Hercules and of Ophiuchus would have been on the

zenith, and these brothers might have been seen, one of them in the

northern and the other in the southern quarter of the sky, strongly

combating and conquering the forces of winter and darkness at the

season of the spring equinox.

Fig. 3.--For Auriga, I have suggested the later date of 3000 B.C.,

for then the bright star Capella, the most important star in the

constellation and one of the brightest in that part of the sky, was

on the meridian in conjunction with the sun at noon of the spring

equinox--and in opposition at mid-night of the autumn equinox.

The star Capella has, by several writers, been identified with the

star “Icu of Babylon” mentioned in many of the Babylonian astrological

texts. If this identification of Capella and “Icu of Babylon” should

be established as correct, we ought, I suppose, to credit _Babylonian_

astronomers with the delineation of the figure Auriga.

Fig. 4.--Unless we adopt on the authority of the Cepheus, Cassiopeia,

and Andromeda legend the date 3500 for Perseus, it will seem, I think,

almost necessary to attribute the much later one of 1433 B.C. for the

designing of this constellation. At the earlier date the position of

Perseus--see Plate XXII., fig. 2--militates against the likelihood of

its having then been imagined; as part of the figure of Perseus would

have been visible in the northern and part in the southern hemisphere.

In favour of the later date we may note the way in which the figure

of Perseus has been fitted in, as it were, between already-named

constellations, so that though restricted to a small space it still

retains heroic proportions.

The star Algol, whose strange alternations of magnitude may well have

suggested to the ancients the _winking_ of the eye of some malignant

monster, was imagined by the astronomers who drew the figure of

Perseus, as on the brow of the Gorgon Medusa. It will be seen in the

Plate how, at the date there given, this mysterious star exactly marked

the equinoctial meridian.

The northern latitude 40° N., suitable for the imagining of this

constellation, and its name Perseus, seem to point to an Iranian school

of astronomers as the probable originators of this figure.

PLATE XXIV.

It will be seen that by consulting the precessional globe it has been

possible to suggest dates at which the various simple and composite

human figures, represented on the (Grecian) sphere could have been

originally imagined in an upright position, either on the northern or

southern meridian at some well-marked time of the year--that is of

either a cosmical or a calendrical year.

That many other of the remaining ancient constellations--Canis Major

and Canis Minor, Aquila, Cygnus, &c., were depicted and named at very

remote dates, there can, I think, be little doubt. The wide-spread

traditions connected with these figures demand an early origin for

them. It is probable that the _heliacal rising_ of certain bright stars

in these constellations at some special season of the year, rather than

their _culmination at noon or at midnight_, may have been the occasion

for the interest taken in them.

A further study of the precessional globe with this thought present

would probably suggest approximate dates for the imagining of some of

these constellations, small in extent but marked by bright stars.

I will now only allude to the two remaining ancient constellations of

_wide extent_--namely, to Argo and Pegasus.

Glancing at Plate X. (Astronomy in the Rig Veda) the almost upright and

symmetrical position of Argo 3000 B.C. may suggest the likelihood that

at that date or perhaps a few hundred years later, and in a latitude

about 12° higher than that given in the diagram, this constellation

was imagined. It will be observed that all the stars of Argo, even the

bright and southern Canopus at 35° N. would have been above the horizon

and visible at midnight of the winter solstice. At noon of the summer

solstice they would have been above the horizon, but invisible in

conjunction with the sun.

But now turning our thoughts to the constellation Pegasus, a difficulty

confronts us at every date from 6000 B.C. downwards even to this

present A.D. 1903: Pegasus as depicted on the globe has held and still

holds a reversed position in the heavens. The very fact that for all

the other ancient constellations which represent living beings, it has

been possible to find some season and some date at which they could

have been observed upright in the sky, makes it a more imperative need

to seek for some explanation of the anomalous treatment meted out by

astronomers of old to the winged steed.

In this stress of difficulty, I venture to make a suggestion which

will, I fear, at first sight, appear far-fetched and fanciful, and

quite out of line with other suppositions put forward in this book.

My suggestion is that an error concerning the right depicting of this

constellation was fallen into by some astronomers of old, and that this

error was handed down to us through the Grecian school.

If on some clear autumnal or winter night we search for the

constellation Pegasus, not on a globe or map but in the southern

quarter of the actual sky, we may quickly recognise it by four very

bright stars which mark the corners of an almost exact and very

extensive _square_ on the vault of heaven. Then stretching away from

the lower and western corner of this square still farther towards

the horizon and to the west, we may trace the faint stars which mark

the neck, and the somewhat brighter star which marks the head of the

Demi-Horse: while starting from the upper western corner of the square

and stretching still higher towards the zenith, and to the west we

detect the lines of fainter stars which mark the fore legs and the

hoofs of Pegasus. If we allow the four stars of the “square of Pegasus”

still to mark the body of the horse, and think of the upper lines

of faint stars as marking its neck and head and of the lower ones as

marking its fore legs and hoofs, the figure exactly reversed will

still fit within the limiting lines of the constellation, with the

satisfactory result that the winged steed, not miserably floundering on

its back but upright and alert, will be seen in our mental vision night

after night pursuing its course from east to west across the heavens.

[Illustration: AQUARIUS]

But even to arrive at so satisfactory a result, we might scarcely dare

to propose without some other plea than its mere desirability, so

arbitrary a method of dealing with the reversed position of Pegasus,

as that of thus correcting a supposed error on the part of early

astronomers.

There is, however, I think, in Grecian and in Vedic legend some support

to be found for the opinion that the original position of Pegasus was

upright and not reversed.

Though on the Grecian astronomic sphere Pegasus appears reversed, on no

artistic monument, vase, or coin is he thus represented, and in Grecian

legend he is ever a glorious and highly-prized friend and helper of

gods and heroes. Amongst other achievements, we read of him that he

produced with a blow of his hoof the inspiring fountain Hippocrene.

In the Rig Veda we read of a swift horse, belonging to the Aswins, who

from his hoof filled a hundred vases of sweet liquor.

Max Müller has pointed out that the Aswins possessed a horse called

Pagas. The stars α and β Arietis are in Hindu astronomy called the

“Aswins,” and at p. 137 I have contended that these stars in Vedic

times symbolised the twin heroes, the Aswins, the possessors, according

to Max Müller, of the horse Pagas. If we look at Pegasus in the sky,

and observe how closely following that constellation the bright stars

that mark the head of Aries appear, we shall easily understand how

these Aswins might have by Vedic bards been imagined as possessing and

driving in front of them the swift steed Pegasus.

In two hymns addressed to the Aswins we read as follows:[125]--

MAṆḌALA I.--Súkta cxvi. and verse 7.

“You filled from the hoof of your vigorous steed, as if from a cask,

a hundred jars of wine.”

And again in the next hymn, cxvii. verse 6--

“You filled for the (expectant) man a hundred vases of sweet

(liquors) from the hoof of your fleet horse.”

[125] Wilson’s translation of the Rig Veda.

As Pegasus is now represented his hoofs touch no well or fountain, cask

or vase. But if we depict him as suggested above (see Plate XXIV.), his

hoof would indeed appear as almost in the act of striking the vase in

the constellation Aquarius, from which the abundant waters gush forth.

I have already alluded to the Aswamedha hymns in the Rig Veda as

probably referring not merely to the sacrifice of an actual horse, but

rather to a symbolic sacrifice of the winged horse of the constellation

Pegasus. In support of this opinion I will quote from the hymns in

question:--

MAṆḌALA I.--Súkta clxii.

“1. Let neither MITRA nor VARUN̂A, ARYAMAN, ÁYU, INDRA, RIBHUKSHIN,

nor the _Maruts_ censure us: when we proclaim in the sacrifice the

virtues of the swift horse sprung from the gods.

“2. When they, (the priests), bring the prepared offering to the

presence (of the horse), who has been bathed and decorated with rich

(trappings), the various-coloured goat going before him, bleating,

becomes an acceptable offering to INDRA and PÚSHAN.

“3. This goat, the portion of PÚSHAN, fit for all the gods, is

brought first with the fleet courser, so that TWASHT́ṚI may prepare

him along with the horse, as an acceptable preliminary offering for

the (sacrificial) food.”

Looking at Plate XXIV., Figs. 1, 2, we may observe how the

constellation Capricornus “goes before” that of Pegasus, and we may

understand the aspiration that Twasht́ṛi may prepare him along with the

horse as an acceptable preliminary offering.

After many verses entering into minute and rather horrible details of

the “immolation” and even of the cooking of the sacrificial horse the

19th verse adds--

“There is one immolator of the radiant horse, which is Time”; and these

words seem to carry us back from thoughts of an actual to a, in some

way, symbolical sacrifice, especially when at verse 21 we read:

“Verily at this moment thou dost not die; nor art thou harmed; for thou

goest by auspicious paths to the gods. The horses of INDRA, the steeds

of the _Maruts_ shall be yoked (to their cars), and a courser shall be

placed in the shaft of the ass of the AŚWINS (to bear thee to heaven).”

The following hymn (lxiii.) I give _in extenso_:--

MAṆḌALA I.--Súkta clxiii.

1. Thy great birth, O Horse, is to be glorified; whether first

springing from the firmament or from the water, inasmuch as thou hast

neighed (auspiciously), for thou hast the wings of the falcon and the

limbs of the deer.

2. TRITA harnessed the horse which was given by YAMA: INDRA first

mounted him, and GANDHARBA seized his reins. _Vasus_, you fabricated

the horse from the sun.

3. Thou, horse, art YAMA: thou art A’DITYA: thou art TRITA by a

mysterious act: thou art associated with SOMA. The sages have said

there are three bindings of thee in heaven.

4. They have said that three are thy bindings in heaven; three upon

earth; and three in the firmament. Thou declarest to me, Horse,

who art (one with) VARUN̂A, that which they have called thy most

excellent birth.

5. I have beheld, Horse, these thy purifying (regions); these

impressions of the feet of thee, who sharest in the sacrifice; and

here thy auspicious reins, which are the protectors of the rite that

preserve it.

6. I recognise in my mind thy form afar off, going from (the earth)

below, by way of heaven, to the sun. I behold thy head soaring aloft,

and mounting quickly by unobstructed paths, unsullied by dust.

7. I behold thy most excellent form coming eagerly to (receive) thy

food in thy (holy) place of earth; when thy attendant brings thee

nigh to the enjoyment (of the provender), therefore greedy, thou

devourest the fodder.

8. The car follows thee, O Horse: men attend thee; cattle follow

thee; the loveliness of maidens (waits) upon thee; troops of

demi-gods following thee have sought thy friendship; the gods

themselves have been admirers of thy vigour.

9. His mane is of gold; his feet are of iron; and fleet as thought,

INDRA is his inferior (in speed). The gods have come to partake of

his (being offered as) oblation; the first who mounted the horse was

INDRA.

10. The full-haunched, slender-waisted, high-spirited, and celestial

coursers (of the sun), gallop along like swans in rows, when the

horses spread along the heavenly path.

11. Thy body, horse, is made for motion; thy mind is rapid (in

intention) as the wind; the hairs (of thy mane) are tossed in

manifold directions; and spread beautiful in the forests.

12. The swift horse approaches the place of immolation, meditating

with mind intent upon the gods; the goat bound to him is led before

him; after him follow the priests and the singers.

13. The horse proceeds to that assembly which is most excellent: to

the presence of his father and his mother (heaven and earth). Go,

(Horse), to-day rejoicing to the gods, that (the sacrifice) may yield

blessings to the donor.

Many passages in this hymn, such as those in verse 3 referring to Trita

and Soma, may suggest corroborative astronomic observations,[126] but I

would here especially refer to the description, verse 1, of the horse

possessing “the wings of the falcon,” and in verse 6 to the words, “I

behold _thy head soaring aloft_, and mounting quickly by unobstructed

paths, unsullied by dust.”

[126] V. pp. 176, 177.

As I read these hymns I cannot think merely of an actual horse led to

sacrifice, but of the winged celestial Pegasus; nor is it easy to think

of that celestial horse as it is at present depicted, _reversed_ in the

sky.

The Vedic poet beheld his head soaring aloft, but in the previous

verse he has said, “I have beheld Horse, ... those impressions of the

feet of thee”; and if these “impressions” were the stars which, on the

Grecian sphere, marked the horse’s head, but, as I have contended,

originally marked his hoof, then we shall understand how, associated

with Soma, and identical with Trita by a mysterious act--_i.e._, at the

season of the summer solstice, and when the moon was at its full in the

constellation Aquarius, ancient astronomers imagined to themselves the

horse Pegasus producing with his hoof the sweet exhilarating waters of

the fountain Hippocrene.

The date of this particular legend concerning the hoof of Pegasus I

should be inclined to place at about 3000 B.C., when the solstitial

colure was so closely marked by “those impressions of the feet” of the

“swift horse sprung from the gods.” For the first imagining of the

constellation I think that of 4000 B.C. is more probable (see Plate

XXIV., Figs. 1, 2).

[Illustration: PLATE XV.

5,744 B.C.

Lat. 45° N.

Constellations above Southern Horizon.

Invisible--Noon, Winter Solstice.

Visible--Midnight, Summer Solstice.

FIG. 2.

5,744 B.C.

Lat. 45° N.

Constellations above Northern Horizon.

Invisible--Noon, Winter Solstice.

Visible--Midnight, Summer Solstice.

FIG. 1.]

[Illustration: PLATE XVI.

5,744 B.C.

Lat. 45° N.

Constellations above Southern Horizon.

Invisible--Noon, Spring Equinox.

Visible--Midnight, Autumn Equinox.

FIG. 2.

5,744 B.C.

Lat. 45° N.

Constellations above Northern Horizon.

Invisible--Noon, Spring Equinox.

Visible--Midnight, Autumn Equinox.

FIG. 1.]

[Illustration: PLATE XVII.

5,744 B.C.

Lat. 45° N.

Constellations above Southern Horizon.

Invisible--Noon, Summer Solstice.

Visible--Midnight, Winter Solstice.

FIG. 2.

5,744 B.C.

Lat. 45° N.

Constellations above Northern Horizon.

Invisible--Noon, Summer Solstice.

Visible--Midnight, Winter Solstice.

FIG. 1.]

[Illustration: PLATE XVIII.

5,744 B.C.

Lat. 45° N.

Constellations above Southern Horizon.

Invisible--Noon, Autumn Equinox.

Visible--Midnight, Spring Equinox.

FIG. 2.

5,744 B.C.

Lat. 45° N.

Constellations above Northern Horizon.

Invisible--Noon, Autumn Equinox.

Visible--Midnight, Spring Equinox.

FIG. 1.]

[Illustration: PLATE XIX.

4,667 B.C.

Lat. 40° N.

Constellations above Southern Horizon.

Invisible--Noon, Autumn Equinox.

Visible--Midnight, Spring Equinox.

FIG. 2.

4,667 B.C.

Lat. 40° N.

Constellations above Northern Horizon.

Invisible--Noon, Autumn Equinox.

Visible--Midnight, Spring Equinox,

FIG. 1.]

[Illustration: PLATE XX.

4,667 B.C.

Lat. 40° N.

Constellations above Southern Horizon.

Invisible--Noon, Spring Equinox.

Visible--Midnight, Autumn Equinox.

FIG. 2.

4,667 B.C.

Lat. 40° N.

Constellations above Southern Horizon.

Invisible--Noon, Summer Solstice.

Visible--Midnight, Winter Solstice.

FIG. 1.]

[Illustration: PLATE XXI.

4,128 B.C.

Lat. 40° N.

Constellations above Southern Horizon.

Invisible--Noon, Autumn Equinox.

Visible--Midnight, Spring Equinox.

FIG. 4.

4,128 B.C.

Lat. 40° N.

Constellations above Southern Horizon.

Invisible--Noon, Summer Solstice.

Visible--Midnight, Winter Solstice.

FIG. 3.

4,128 B.C.

Lat 40° N.

Constellations above Southern Horizon.

Invisible--Noon, Winter Solstice.

Visible--Midnight, Summer Solstice.

FIG. 1.

4,128 B.C.

Lat 40° N.

Constellations above Southern Horizon.

Invisible--Noon, Spring Solstice.

Visible--Midnight, Autumn Solstice.

FIG. 2.]

[Illustration: PLATE XXII.

5,744 B.C.

Lat. 18° N.

Constellations above Southern Horizon.

Invisible--Noon, Winter Solstice.

Visible--Midnight, Summer Solstice.

FIG. 2.

3,589 B.C.

Lat. 23° N.

Constellations above Southern Horizon.

Invisible--Noon, beginning Calendrical Year.

Visible--Midnight, 7th Month, Calendrical Year.

FIG. 4.

5,744 B.C.

Lat. 18° N.

Constellations above Northern Horizon.

Invisible--Noon, Winter Solstice.

Visible--Midnight, Summer Solstice.

FIG. 1.

3,589 B.C.

Lat. 23° N.

Constellations above Northern Horizon.

Invisible--Noon beginning Calendrical Year.

Visible--Midnight, 7th Month, Calendrical Year.

FIG. 3.]

[Illustration: PLATE XXIII.

1,433 B.C.

Lat. 40° N.

Constellations above Southern Horizon.

Invisible--Noon, Spring Equinox.

Visible--Midnight, Autumn Equinox.

FIG. 4.

3,050 B.C.

Lat. 35° N.

Constellations above Southern Horizon.

Invisible--Noon, Spring Equinox.

Visible--Midnight, Autumn Equinox.

FIG. 3.

3,589 B.C.

Lat. 35° N.

Constellations above Southern Horizon.

Invisible--Noon, 7th Month, Calendrical Year.

Visible--Midnight, beginning Calendrical Year.

FIG. 1.

3,589 B.C.

Lat. 35° N.

Constellations above Southern Horizon.

Invisible--Noon, Autumn Equinox.

Visible--Midnight, Spring Equinox.

FIG. 2.]

[Illustration: PLATE XXIV.

3,050 B.C.

Lat. 23° N.

Constellations above Southern Horizon.

Invisible--Noon, Winter Solstice.

Visible--Midnight, Summer Solstice.

FIG. 2.

4,128 B.C.

Lat. 40° N.

Constellations above Southern Horizon.

Invisible--Noon, Winter Solstice.

Visible--Midnight, Summer Solstice.

FIG. 1.]

INDEX

Ab ab-gar, 4

Abba uddu, 4

Abel, 164

Abhra, 113

Abib, 165, 166, 168, 170

Aboo Simbel, 39, 40, 41

Abraham, 167

Abu, 2, 4

Accad, 6, 52-57, 80. _See_ Calendar

Achæmenid kings, 60, 73

Açvinî. _See_ Aswinī

Adar, Adaru, 2-6, 69

A’ditya, 253

Agane, 151

Agni, 125-131, 138, 140, 153, 172, 181, 183

Agrahayani, 228

Ahi, 111. _See_ Vritra

Ahura Mazda, 60, 64, 65, 73-76, 81-83, 149-155, 172, 227

Airu, 2, 4, 11

Aitareya Brahmana, 140

Akiba, Rabbi, 163

Albumassar, 17, 18

Alexander, 25, 91, 103

Algol, 246

Alphonsus, 23

Altair, 67

Amen, 32-41

Amen-Ra, 32-34, 39-41

Amon. _See_ Amen

Amphora, 44, 45, 67, 79, 204, 223, 233, 236

Andromeda, 239-244, 246

Anna, 48

Apām Napāt, 126

Apin-am-a, 4

Apis Bull, 218, 233-235

Apollo, 156

Apollonius of Tyana, 97

Aptya. _See_ Trita

Aquarii β, 196

Aquarius, 9, 40, 44-47, 51-57, 66-70, 79, 80, 83, 123, 124, 129-132,

144, 174-179, 197, 199, 202, 209, 221-223, 232-235, 241, 250, 251, 255

Aqrabu, 44

Aquila, 66-70, 80, 124, 248

Arakh-makru, 4

Arakh-samna, 2, 4

Aratos, 216, 224-227, 241, 242

Archer. _See_ Sagittarius

Arcitenens, 44

Argo, 248

Aries, 1-19, 24-44, 53-57, 92, 94, 104, 145-147, 170, 171, 186-190,

209, 210, 217, 218, 220, 224, 235, 245, 251

Arietis α and β, 94, 137, 142, 143, 251

Arsacidæ, 4

Artemis, 156, 157, 160

Arū, 44

Aryaman, 252

As a-an, 4

Assara Mazas, 149, 150

Assur, 74-79, 83, 84, 86, 150-155, 227

Assurbanipal, 6, 69

Assyrian Standard, 77-80, 83, 86

Asteria, 179

Asura, 81, 82, 85, 86, 112, 150-153, 182, 183

Asura maha, 153

Aswamedha, 244, 251

Aswinī, 92-94, 104, 132, 134, 136-148, 172, 181, 183, 187, 188, 210,

251, 253

Aswins, the. _See_ Aswinī

Atharva Veda, 94, 133, 136

Atri, 141, 181-184

Attic year, 180

Auriga, 245, 246

Ava, 85

Avesta. _See_ Zend Avesta

Áyu, 252

Babylonia. _See_ Calendar

Bahu. _See_ Bau

Bailly, Jean Silvain, 17, 20, 26, 27, 29

Barrett, Dr, 222

Bar zig-gar, 4, 7, 10, 13-15, 53, 104, 165, 166, 171, 172

Bau, 47-55, 57, 69, 210-212

Bel, 16, 81

Bel-Merodach, 69

Bélier. _See_ Aries

Beltis, 16

Bentley, Mr, 100

Bergaigne, 140, 143

Berosus, 18, 83

Bethel, 233

Bible, the, 21, 84, 164-170

Bodhanundánath Swami, 157

Boötes, 223-226

British Museum, 3, 8

Brown, Robert, 224, 226, 247

Browne, Bishop, 21

Brugsch, 33

Bull. _See_ Taurus

Bulls, Assyrian, 87

Burgess, 90, 93, 98

Cain, 164

Calendar, Accadian, 1-23, 57-58, 103, 145-147, 187, 208-210, 224

---- Babylonian, 1-3, 103, 165, 234

---- Chinese, 185-211

---- Egyptian, 31, 34, 38, 39

---- Grecian, 180

---- Gregorian, 193-196

---- Hebrew, 162-170, 234

---- Indian, 88, 92, 96, 104, 132-148, 167, 171, 176, 181-184, 188,

217

---- Lagash, 54, 57

---- Median, 56-87, 222, 229

---- Persian, 58-61

---- Roman, 11, 159, 180, 193

Cambyses, 235

Cancer, 8, 36, 44, 218-221

Canis Major, 248

Canis Minor, 248

Canopus, 248

Capella, 246

Caper, 44

Capricornus, 52, 218, 220, 222, 252

Capuja, 243

Cassiopeia, 239-244, 246

Cassyape, 243

Castor, 221, 222

Centaur, 155-158, 245

Cepheus, 239-244, 246

Cetus, 239-243

Chaitra, 134-138, 171, 172, 181, 188

Che, 202

Chevreau, 23

Ch’in, 207

China, History of, 197-209

Chipiez. _See_ Perrot

Chiron, 155, 156

Chons, 32, 33

Cisilivu, 4

Claudius Ptolemy, 17, 216

Clemens Alexandrinus, 23

Confucius, 206, 207

Cook, 21

Corona Australis, 77, 229, 230

Crab. _See_ Cancer

Cumont, 61

Cuthah, 85

Cuzallu, 4

Cygnus, 248

Cyrannid books, 17

Dan, 233

Darmesteter, 60

Denderah, 218, 232

Deuteronomy, 169, 170

Devas, 82

Dhanus, 223

Dharbitu, 4

D’Herbelot, 18

Diana, 158

Dianus, 158

Doris, 242

Draco, 223

Dupuis, 27-29

Dûzu, 2, 4

Dvita, 177-180

Eagle, 64. _See_ Aquila

Ebers, 35, 233

Eden, 21, 22

Edfu, 232

Ekâṣhṭakā, 134

Ekata, 177-180

Ekhud, 48

Elam, 81

Ellilla, 48

Elul, 2, 5

Eninnu, 48

Enzu, 44

Epping and Strassmaier, 1-16, 44, 45, 102

Equulei, α, 196

Esneh, 218

Eudoxos, 241, 242

Eul-ya, 185, 204

Eusebius, 17

Evetts, 48

Exodus, 165, 170

Fasti Siculi, 23

Fomalhaut, 67

Freya, 96

Gamaliel, Rabbi, 163

Gandharba, 253

Gan-ganna, 4

Ganymede, 70

Garga, 97

Gàthàs, 153

Gaubil, 204

Gemini, 10, 44, 77, 146, 220, 221

Genesis, 21, 210

Genica, 17

Gir-tab, 8

Go, 113

Goat-fish, 8, 220

Golden calf, 233, 235

Gregory XIII., 11, 193

Griffin, 68

Griffiths, 31

Gu, 9, 44-47

Gudea, 48-57, 208, 209, 222

Gula, 9, 46-57, 69, 209

Gutium, 81

Hamath, 85

Ḫammurabi, 3, 4, 6, 12, 83-85

Heb en-ant, 35

Hecate, 179

Hermes, 17

Hercules, 226, 229, 230, 245, 246

Herodotus, 81

Hierakonpolis, 236

Hillebrandt, 122

Hippocrene, 251, 255

Hiu, 196-209

Hommel, 149-151

Horus, 33, 40

Hsiâ, 207

Hvarya, 150

Hydra, 117-123, 132, 227, 229

Icu, 246

Indra, 111-124, 130, 131, 138, 148, 172-183, 252-254

Innanna, 6

Innannanki, 5

Isaac, 167

Isis, 33

Istar, 4, 10, 84

Jacob, 167

Jana, 158

Janus, 158-160

Jemsheed, 58

Jensen, 45, 49, 50, 68, 102

Jeroboam, 233, 234

Jerusalem, 163

Jesuits, 194-196, 207

Johnston, 40

Jones, Sir William, 89, 90, 95, 96

Josephus, 20, 169

Jupiter, 47, 103

Kailáçe, 158

Kaiomurs, 58

Kang, 186, 188

Kao-yang, 201

Karnak, 35, 36, 39

Kas, 4, 10

Ker Porter, 58, 65

Khar-sidi, 4, 10

Khophri, 220

Ki Gingir-na, 4, 10

Kîmta-rapaštu, 6

Kio, 185, 186, 188, 191, 210

Kis, 69

Kislimu, 2, 4

Kneeler, The, 226

Kou, 205

Kriṣánu, 125

Krishna, 182

Krittikā, 94, 134, 136

Ku (sarikku), 44

Kumbha, 223

Lactantius, 23

Lagash, 48-57, 68, 69, 208, 209, 222

Lajard, 63, 66

Lâṭadeva, 98

Layard, 74, 77

Legge, Mr, 234

Legge, Professor, 197, 200, 207

Lehmann, 102

Leo, 44, 64-70, 79, 80, 83, 221, 232, 233, 235, 236

Libra, 44, 218-220

Lion. _See_ Leo.

Lugal-ki-ušuna, 6

Lydda, 163

Lyra, 226

Macdonell, 111-128, 153, 175

Magan, 49

Mâgha, 134, 135

Mahesa, 157

Mahler, 102

Mailla, Père de, 197-200

Mait, 219

Manda. _See_ Umman Manda

Mangala, 96

Marchesvan, 234

Marduk, 5

Mars, 103

Maruts, 173-175, 184, 252, 253

Maspero, 33, 49, 68, 69, 219

Mašu, 44

Maut, 32, 33

Mayer, 102

Medusa, 246

Memnonium, 35

Memphian Triad, The, 33

Mercury, 9, 103

Merodach, 68

Mesopotamia, 8, 49, 80, 83-86, 209

Mills, 153

Milton, 181, 241

Mishna, 163

Mithræum, 62

Mithras, 60-65, 74, 81, 234, 235

Mitra, 81, 252

Mlechchas, 95, 97

Moguls, 95

Montucla, 89

Moses, 165, 167

Mṛiga, 228

Mṛigashirsha, 228

Müller, Max, 251

Muna-xa, 8

Munga, 4

Muradi, 17

Nakshatra, 92, 94, 104, 132, 133, 136, 142, 188, 227-229

Nanâ, 6

Nekropolis, 35-37

Nicephorus, 23

Nile, 32, 35, 36, 37

Nineveh, 73, 74, 84, 86

Ningirsu, 48-51, 208

Ningiszida, 48

Ninib, 49-53, 208

Nisan, 2-19, 53, 69, 163-166

Nisannu. _See_ Nisan

Noah, 58

Noel, 205

Nowroose, 58-60

Oldenburg, 151, 152

Olivet, 163

Onuphrius Panvinius, 23

Ophiuchus, 245, 246

Oppert, 102

Orion, 157, 227-229

Ormuzd, 65

Osiride pillars, 40

Osiris, 33, 219

Ostia, 62

Pa, 44

Pagas, 251

Paitámaha, 98

Pañchasiddhântikâ, 98

Pan̂i, 112

Panopê, 242

Panvinius, Onuphrius, 23

Passover, The, 169, 170

Pauliśa, 98

Pavamāna. _See_ Soma

Pegasus, 244, 248-255

Peking, 194, 195

Perrot and Chipiez, 64, 71, 73

Persepolis, 64, 70, 72-74, 86, 87

Perseus, 179, 239, 245-247

Petrie, 236

Phalgunī, 134, 135

Pharisees, 169

Philastrius, 23

Philostratus, 97

Phœnicians, 81

Pisces, 44, 80, 174, 177-179, 202, 220, 221

Piscium ζ, 93

Pleiades, 94

Plumptre, 163

Poissons, Les. _See_ Pisces

Pollux. _See_ Castor

Ptah, 40

Ptolemy, 17, 216

Pulukku, 44

Punjaub, 128

Púshan, 252

Quibell, 236

Ram. _See_ Aries

Rameses II., 35-40

Ramessides, 33

Rashis, 92

Ravi, 96

Revatī, 92, 93, 104, 132, 138, 143, 187, 188

Ribhukshin, 252

Ricci, Matteo, 194

Rig Veda, 92, 105-148, 153, 171-184, 228, 244, 251-255

Rim-sin, 3, 4

Rishis, 97, 106, 108, 123, 130, 133

Romaka, 98

Roman year, 180

Rome, 61, 172, 193

Rudra, 152-160, 172-174, 184

Ṛṣis, 141. _See_ Rishis

Šabahu, 4

Šabâtu, 2

Sabbath, 163, 169, 170

Sadducees, 169

Sagitta, 125

Sagittarius, 8, 76-83, 147, 150-160, 172-174, 220-223, 227, 230

Sam, 36

Samaria, 84, 85

Samaritan Pentateuch, 22

Samson Agonistes, 181

Samsu-iluna, 3, 4

Sani, 96

Sara zig-gar, 4. _See_ Bar zig-gar

Sargon I., 6, 7, 10, 12, 13, 16, 80, 81, 83, 151

Sargon II., 78

Sassinide dynasty, 60

Satapatha Brahmana, 141

Sater, 96

Saturn, 103

Saura, 98

Savitṛ, 140

Sávitra, 98

Sâyaṇa, 228

Sayce, 7, 9, 46, 69, 81, 102

Scarabæus, 218, 220

Schall, J. A. von, 194, 195

Schlegel, Gustav, 185, 186, 190, 191, 204, 205

Scorpio, 8, 44, 63-67, 80, 221, 231-236

Se-dir, 4, 13, 14, 146, 147

Se-ki-sil, 4, 13, 14, 146, 147

Seleucidæ, 4

Semites, 83-85

Sepharvaim, 85

Septuagint, 22

Seth, 20

Seti, 36, 39

Shou, 33

Shuddh Paksha, 182

Shukla, 182

Siddhāntas, The, 98. _See_ Sūrya Siddhānta

Simannu, 2, 4

Sing-king, 186

Siou, 185, 188, 196, 197, 202, 207

Sirius, 31, 38

Siva, 157, 173

Slates, 235-238

Sóma, 96

Soma, 107, 108, 111, 121-125, 131, 138, 172-177, 253-255

Souciet, 204

Southern Crown, 77

Sphinxes, 32, 34

Spica, 28, 167, 170, 171, 188-190, 210

Standard, Assyrian, 77-80, 83, 86

Strassmaier. _See_ Epping

Strauchius, 23

Sucra, 96

Suidas, 23

Su-kul-na, 4

Sunahśepas, 244

Suria, 150

Surias, 150

Súrya, 182, 183

Sūrya Siddhānta, 90, 93, 98, 187

Susa, 70-73, 87

Swarbhánu, 182, 183

Syncellus, 17

Taittirîya Brāhmana, 136

Taittirîya Sanhitâ, 134-136, 139

Talmud, 162, 163, 169

Tasritu, 4

Taurus, 8, 11, 44, 56-87, 146, 154, 156, 159, 160, 221, 232-236

Tchuen-Hio, 197-210, 222

Tebitu, 2, 4

Telloh, 48, 49

Te (mennu), 44

Theban Triad, The, 32, 33

Thebes, 34

Thibaut, 98

Thor, 96

Thoth, 38, 39

Thraetona, 178

Thrita, 178

Tilak, B. G., 134, 135, 228

Tischritu, 2, 4

Tisri, 163

Tithis, 176, 180, 182

Tortoise, 8, 218

Trita Aptya, 175-181, 184, 253-255

Triton, 178, 179

Tsivan, 4

Tuisco, 96

Tul-cu, 4

Twasht́ṛi, 252

Twins. _See_ Gemini

Tyana, 97

Ūdhar, 113

Ulûlu, 2, 4

Umman Manda, 81-86, 151

Unger, 27

Universal History, 21

Ursa Major, 224

Uṣas, 139, 140

Usher, Archbishop, 21, 22

Utu, 5

Vadya Paksha, 182

Vala, 112

Valley, Feast of the, 36, 38

Varāha, 97-99

Varāhamihira. _See_ Varāha

Varuna, 152-154, 252, 253

Vâsisṭha, 98

Vasus, 253

Vedas, 95, 106, 128. _See_ Atharva Veda, Rig Veda, Yajur Veda

Venus, 103

Verethraghna, 114

Verseau. _See_ Aquarius

Vierge. _See_ Virgo

Virgil, 159

Virginis α, 188

Virgo, 10, 28, 44, 80, 185, 186, 220, 221

Vossius, Isaac, 23

Vrihaspati, 96

Vritra, 111-123, 148, 177

Vrtrahan, 114

Wan-nian-shu, 194

Water-jar. _See_ Amphora

Water-man. _See_ Aquarius

Week, Days of, 96

Whitney, 93, 187

Wilson, 112, 124-127, 153, 182, 251

Woden, 96

Wogue, 169

Yajur Veda, 94, 133-135

Yama, 253

Yāska, 141

Yavan, 95, 97

Yoga stars, 142

Zamama, 69

Zend Avesta, 60, 113, 114, 178

Zeus, 70

Zib, 44

Zibanîtu, 44

Zodiac, 2 _et passim_

Zu, 69

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Transcriber’s Notes

Depending on the hard- and software used to read this text and their

settings, not all elements may display as intended.

Inconsistent spelling and use of diacriticals (also in names),

punctuation and hyphenation have been retained, except as mentioned

under Changes below.

Page 5, Iraba^{m}-šin: possibly an error for Iriba^{m}-šin.

Page 188, paragraph starting Spica (α Virginis) is the chief star

...: the use of quote marks around ... “siou Kang), président aux

métamorphoses de la création,” ... is as in the source document.

Changes made

Footnotes and illustrations have been moved out of text paragraphs.

Footnotes have been moved to directly under the paragraph where they

are referenced.

Obvious minor typographical and punctuation errors have been

corrected silently.

Some occurrences of _Ibid._ have been replaced with the full title

for the sake of clarity.

Page 5, footnote [3]: Ululu changed to Ulûlu; Sabahu changed to

Šabahu.

Page 39: ... the temple to Amen-Ra ... changed to ... the temple of

Amen-Ra ....

Page 98, ... over the Paulisa and Romaka Siddhāntas ... changed to

... over the Pauliśa and Romaka Siddhāntas ....

Index: the spelling of some entries has been changed to conform to

that used in the text.