How the Constellations Got Their Names, Part II

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ARIES: As we have seen, the pictograph of a ram seems to have been used by

the Eqyptians as a sort of a zodical road sign to indicate something

significant. In the later period such were used as the places " from whence

the winds blew " or to mark where the zodiacal constellations commenced. In

the Pyramidic period, the culmination of the sr Ram and sr.t Ewe pentades,

which in the aggregate constituted

the constellation Aries, heralded the rising of Sirius, the Star of Eqypt.

So these sheep stars constituted a very useful zodiacal traffic signal for

them. To the religious minded Eqyptian priests it was of the utmost

importance to know well in advance the moment Sirius would rise.

 

Sr.t (Aries) rose acronychally during the month of September (Sun in

Libra). This was the month of the autumnal equinox when the inundation was

at its highest. Associated with Aries is Cetus, the Sea Monster. The waters

of the Nile were now so high that crocodiles and hippopotami swam over the

erstwhile pastures. But in those pastures that remained dry, the ewes were

separated from the rams at this period. In the decan lists and in the

circular zodiac of Denderah, the ram is shown in

a position of repose, indicative of sunset. It is depicted facing back to

front in order of the constellations with its tail foremost and its head

rearmost. It has been suggested that its position of repose was possibly due

to the fact that it was kept in its pen as the inundation was then at its

greatest.

 

The lunar regent of this month (Athyr) was Hathor, the cow-headed goddess.

Hathor literally means " House of Horus " (The Sun) or " the visible heavens. "

In the great temple of Hathor at Denderah, the massive head of the goddess

marks the eastern horizon or place of the Ascendant.

 

The Sumerians called this constellation hun.ga and the Babylonians agaru,

both words meaning a " hired laborer " (Langdon: Babylonian Menologies, p. 3)

a fact that strongly militates against the view that the zodiac originated in

Babylon. Pliny (11, 31) suggests that it was Cleostratus of Tenedos who

introduced both Aries and Sagittarius into the Greek zodiac towards the close

of the 6th century B.C. In the

demotic texts Aries is represented by the determinative for a hide, dhr

(deher), which exhibits a long tail. The Greeks identified Aries with the

Golden Fleece which was suspended in the grove of Ares (Mars) in Colchis and

was guarded day and night by a dragon (Cetus) until it was captured by Jason.

It was the last of the zodiacal constellations.

 

TAURUS: Taurus, the Bull, rose at eve during the lunar month of Khoiak

(October). Not only was this the month in which the cattle were coupled, but

the waters of the Nile had so far receded as to permit the oxen to be yoked

and the land to be plowed. Thus, this constellation gets its name. The

constellation melothesia table informs us that Taurus holds dominion over the

generative organs of both sexes. Now the Eqyptian phonetics for a bull is k3

(ka), byt k3 also is the Eqyptian for a phallus. The table shows us that

Taurus holds dominion over the phallus, thus clearly proving that the

Eqyptian astrologers read such acronychally and not as in Greek astrology

which puts the phallus under Scropio. But in Eqyptian, k3 also meant the

soul, and in several murals in the temples of Denderah, the soul (k3), in the

form of the b3 (Ba-bird) is seen leaving the body at death via the phallus!

Nowadays one rarely refers to an ox, but much more commonly to a bull or a

cow, which are connotations of gender but not of genus. Taurus was held to

be the most fertile of all the zodiacal constellations for which reason it

was regarded in high esteem and much revered. When the Full Moon occurred in

Taurus, the Sun was, of course, in the opposite constellation, Scorpio.

 

In the decan lists from Asyut, three pentades which ended Aries and

commenced Taurus were known to the Eqyptians as 3hwy (Akhuy), the " shining

ones, " because about the Pyramidic period, the Sun rose in one or other of

them on New Year's Day of the lunar calendar. In other words, they marked

the place of the vernal equinox, Taurus 11 degrees, 12 minutes, B.C. 2767.

The feminine form of Akhu, namely Akhot, means the " place of sunrise, " or the

Ascendant.

 

GEMINI: Gemini, the Twins, rose at eve during the lunar month Tybi when the

Sun was in the opposite constellation, Sagittarius. The constellation was

probably named because of its brilliant twin stars which the Romans knew as

Castor and Pollux. The Egyptians knew them as the air-god Shu and his wife

and sister Tefnut, the lion-hearted goddess of the Sun's heat. In the

Babylonian mul-APIN tablet, this constellation is known as Mash. tab. ba.

gal. gal. and Mash. tab. tur. tur., the Great Twins and Little Twins,

respectively. The Chief agricultural pursuit was the sowing of seeds and the

sending of sheep and horses to pasture. With the acronychal rising of

Gemini, birds of passage took their departure.

 

The regent of Tybi was Min, the ithypallic god of Panopolis and Koptos.

On the monuments he is depicted naked and standing erect. Crowned with the

lofty plumes of Amun, he holds on high a flagellum in the act of striking.

He was the Egyptian god of procreation. Below Taurus and Gemini shines the

glory of the southern skies S3h (sah), the " Toe, " but known to us as the

mighty constellation Orion. In the celestial diagrams Sah is shown as a

human figure, wearing the hdt (hedjet) or white crown of the south and

standing in his boat welcoming the rising of Isis-Sirius, who issues at his

toe! The Babylonians knew this constellation as sib.zi.an.na, the True

Shepherd of the Sky.