How the Constellations Got Their Names, Part I

[Guest guest]

Good morning, everyone.

 

The following is a section from Fagan's _Astrological Origins_. Anyone who

wants to know how the constellations (which used to be the same as the

" signs " until someone mistranslated Claudius Ptolemy) got their names, should

take a good look at this. Due to its length, I've broken it up into four

sections.

 

Later,

Kevin

 

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.. . .In pre-Greek or lunar astrology, the anatomical dominions of the signs

of the zodiac were diametrically opposite to the modern notation. For

instance, during the Aries Age, that is, the period between B.C. 1955 and

A.D. 221, when the Neomenia or 1st New Moon of the lunar year occurred in the

constellation Aries, the anatomical dominion of the zodiacal constellation

ran more or less as follows:

 

Libra -- head, face, eyes and ears

Scorpio -- neck, throat and voice

Sagittarius -- shoulders and arms

Capricorn -- breasts, chest and lungs

Aquarius -- heart and diaphragm

Pisces -- stomach, abdomen and navel

Aries -- buttocks, loins and kidneys

Taurus -- generative organs (phallas)

Gemini -- hips and thighs

Cancer -- knees and joints

Leo -- shins

Virgo -- feet

 

In considering the origin of the popular glyphs and names of the zodiacal

constellations, one must always bear in mind the above zodiacal melothesia,

or distribution of parts of the body to the zodiacal constellations. During

the Taurus Age, B.C. 4152 to B.C. 1955, Scorpio held dominion over the head

and the other constellations followed in sequence; while during the present

or Pisces Age, A.D. 221 to A.D. 2376, Virgo holds dominion over the head,

Libra the throat, and so on in sequence. (Until someone decided to assign the

head to Aries, etc. -- KB)

 

CAPRICORN: Scanning the graph of the rise and fall of the Nile we find that

the river is at it lowest level when Sagittarius, the mounted archer, rose at

sunset and at some places was actually fordable by cavalry. The river began

to swell with water when Capricorn rose at eventide, that is about May-June.

On the ancient monuments, Capricorn is depicted as half-goat and half-fish.

Its acronychal rising coincided with midsummer when the Sun attained it

greatest altitude at southing, symbolized by the giddy goat climbing to the

peak of the mountain. Naturally, it was the hottest time of the year, and

around the effigy of the goat the Greeks of later times weaved their

inevitable myths. According to them, the infant Zeus (Jupiter) was suckled

by the goat-nymph Amalthaea on the island of Crete. When Zeus became

Father-of-the Gods, in gratitude he set Amalthaea's image among the stars as

the constellation Capricorn. To this day, the she-goat is frequently alluded

to as the nanny-goat and babies' nurses are known as nannies.

 

In the above melothesia, it will be noticed that Capricorn held dominion

over the breasts and adjoining parts of the body, probably extending to the

armpits. In this respect, the odor which emanated from under the armpits was

known to the Romans as Capra, a she-goat. According to the Greeks, the horned

and cloven Pan the god of flocks and shepherds, and the pastoral divinity of

summer, was the foster brother of Amalthaea (Capricorn). The Greek Sileni

and Satyros with their horns and cloven heels were associated with Capricorn.

When the Full Moon was in Capricorn (midsummer) they were given to excessive

revelry. Indulging in an extravagance of wine drinking, they were addicted

to all forms of sensual pleasure, no matter how gross, and no mortal was safe

in their company, whence the medical term satyriasis.

 

At this time of the year, with the rising waters of the Nile, fish once again

became abundant. As a nemonic, the Egyptian scribes affixed the ideogram of

a fish to the tail of the goat, the omen reading " when this constellation

rises at eve, or when the Moon becomes full in it,there will be Sun above and

fish below in Eqypt. " This simple calendar of acronychal phenomena,

graphically illustrated by ideograms

(hieroglyphics) is what we today recognize as the ancient zodiac. It was

intended for the use of the fluvial and agricultural communities of Egypt and

it is devoid of any mysterious implications. But those who had a hankering

for mystery invested the simple names and symbols of the constellation with a

mysterius occult meaning that they simply did not possess.

 

Adjacent to Capricorn are the constellations Knm.t the Vulture (Altair) or

Eagle (Aquila), and Stwy (Shetyu) the Tortoise (Lyra). Perched high in his

eyrie, the eagle also symbolized the maximum elevation attained by the Sun at

the summer solstice. In the circular zodiac of Denderah, as already stated,

the summer solstice is represented by a crown hawk, Horus, the " Sun, " perched

n the top of a papyrus pole. When a tortoise was seized, the eagle would

drop it from a great height so as to break its shell; and in Egypt, the

" Tortoise " (Lyra) was near the zenith at its culmination.

 

In modern astrology, it is a common error to associate the eagle with

Scorpio. Scorpio represnts Serpens, the serpent, but in ancient symbolism

both the eagle and the vulture were antiscions of Capricorn.

 

AQUARIUS: This particular constellation of fixed stars was identified by the

Greeks as Ganymede, the most beautiful boy born of mortal parents (Homil,

Clement 5, 17: Erathosh, 26, 30). According to one legend, Zeus, taking the

form of an eagle (Aquila), carried the boy off from Mount Ida and made him

his favorite. As cup-bearer to the gods, he personified the " fountain " of

the Nile and caused that river to

overflow its banks annually (Pindar frag. 282): Ganymede thus becomes

identified with Hapi, the god of the Nile.

 

Incidentally, Antinous, another youth famous for his beauty, was

associated with the constellation Aquila and with the Nile. He was the

minion of the Roman Emperor Hadrian. When Antinous was drowned in the Nile

in A.D. 130, the grief of the Emperor knew no bounds. He enrolled him among

the gods, caused numerous statues of him to be made, founded the Eqyptian

city fo Antinopolis in his honor, and erected a temple to him at Mamtinea.

Finally, in A.D. 132, he placed him in the starry skies right below the

constellation of the Eagle. Antinous thus gives his name to Eta Aquilae in

the sidereal longitude Capricorn 5 degrees 36 minutes and latitude 21 N 32.

The Romans, of course, styled Ganymede Aquarius, the water-bearer, and gave

it dominion over all large rivers and the like. Most appropriately, tm3.t

(Themat) the " river, " is one of several pentades that tally with the

constellation Aquarius.

 

Yet the Eqyptians of the Pyramidic period made another far reaching

discovery. They noticed that the beginning of the inundation seemed to tally

with the heliacal rising of the brightest star in the heavens, namely Sirius.

This occurred annually about July 16th, Julian. So, the beginning of the

Sothic (Sirius) year began with the heliacal rising of this star and with the

acronychal sunset rising of the constellation Aquarius, at which time the

inundation was well under way.

 

PISCES: The oldest known so-called decan lists were found on coffin lids as

Asyut, which Eygptoligists assign to the 1Xth and Xth Heracleopolite

dynasties, circa 2300 B.C. One of these decans shows a device of two fishes

with the legend hnwy (khonuy). Treated as a pentade it synchronizes snugly

and nicely with the constellation Pisces. Khonuy (Pisces) rose a sunset

during August, when the Sun was in the opposite constellation, Virgo. At

this time the inundation was so excessive as to turn almost the whole of

Egypt into a sea, abounding in fish and river life with shipping as the only

means of transport. Obviously, therefore, the Egyptians could estimate the

date many months in advance when the Moon would become full in Pisces, and

when fish plus other marine life would be swimming freely over their pastures

and tilled lands. Naturally, therefore, by means of the grammatical device

of dual fish, they indicated that this group of fixed stars " belonged to "

(the month of) the fish. Precisely the same group of stars is known today as

Pisces.

 

Preceding Khonuy are a group of pentades falling in the constellation

Aquarius and having the ideogram of three jars in a stand. This is a

syllabic for knt.t (khentet) which means " he who is in front. " This refers

to the Full Moon in Aquarius which occurred at the inauguration of the Sothic

Cycle and which led the planetary

procession reading from west to east. In some celestial diagrams this is

illustrated by the pictogram of the disc of a Full Moon in the middle of a

boat, which bears the legend hr ib wi3 (her yeb weya) which means " (He who

is) in the middle of the boat. " It should be noted, however, that the

scribes were not always scrupulous in putting these pentades in their proper

sequences, especially as they thought they would never be seen by living eye

again. When compared, decan lists often show considerable variations in this

respect.