BOOK IV.

The CONSTELLATIONS, PLANETS,
TIMES, and SEASONS.

С НА Р. I.

The CONSTELLATIONS".

ΤΗ

HOUGH the Roman poets do not, like Manilius, profeffedly treat of the conftellations, yet they allude to them so often and fo particularly,

a The idea of the moft confiderable men among the old Romans was (like that of Plato and Socrates) that after their decease, they were tranflated to fome ftar or conftellation. Inter Sidera relatus was a common expreffion. They believed that Perfeus, Chiron, and others, were actually placed among the stars, and it was the usual compliment of the poets to the emperors, to fay, they would have a place there when they departed this life. The ancients had fome notion of the ftars being a fort of worlds spread about the great expanse and that each conftellation had it's prefiding intelligence. It did not fignify whether this intelligence (and much less his diftrict) was of this or that particular fhape. It might be as well of the form of an inanimate being as of a human body. It's being bounded by lines that make a lyre, or a ship, or an altar, is no objection to it's being governed by one. Hence all those strange figures that are said to be in the hea yens, and are placed on the globes. There are many passages

1

particularly, that there is no understanding their poems, without fome knowledge of the figures of them on the ancient globes c.

in the poets which are not to be rightly understood, without this idea of the stars being animals or animated beings, as Cicero calls them. Vir. Geo. ii. v. 342. Met. i. v. 75. Stat. b. iii. Sylv. 2. v. 15. Theb. viii. v. 274. Plautus introduces Arcturus to speak the prologue to his Rudens.

V. 2.

b Virgil in his Georgics, and Ovid in his Fasti, even make it part of their propofition, Geo. i. v. 2. 207. Faft. i. Manilius treats not only of the figures of the conftellations, and their bearing to each other, but the effects they have on the temper and fortunes of those who are born under fuch or such constellation, which is so far of use, as he fits his predictions to the figure or air of the conftellation he fpeaks of. Thus, because Cepheus looks fevere, those (fays he) who are born under him will be cenforious. And fo of the reft.

c This is become ftill more neceffary at prefent; for we have not only been unaflifted by these ancient figures, but have been misled by the modern ones: for though the conftellations on both globes are pretty much the fame, yet either their characters or drefs, or air or attributes, have been changed in almost every one of them; as will eafily appear, by comparing the figures on the Farnefe-globe (the only ancient one perhaps in the world) with the representations on the best of our modern ones. This has been fo little regarded, that even fome celebrated Mathematicians told our author, they always imagined there was not any difference at all. Quint. Inft. 1. iv. c. 4.

Our

Our author, therefore, has confidered each figure apart on the Farnese globe, together with what the poets have faid in relation to any of them. To this end he made ufe of a drawing of the two hemifpheres; a copy of which is prefixed to this chapter.

Though the ftars were thought by the ancients to be innumerable, yet the conftellations on their globes were under fifty. Of these the Farnefe globe (though much injured by time or it's keepers) has preferved to us above forty. The principal lines, as the arctic and antarctic circles, the tropics, the æquator, and zodiac, and confequently the five zones, are marked out on this. globe, but without any ftars. To avoid the confufion that fo many figures may be apt to give, the conftellations to the north of the zodiac are firft confidered; then thofe on the zodiac itself, and laftly thofe to the south of the zodiac.

DRACO, or the GREAT SERPENT, by the northern pole, spreads itself into both hemispheres, and rolls, according to the poets, between, as well as round, the two Bears ".

The ARCTI, or BEARS, are loft on the Farnefe globe. Helice, or the greater Bear, had

d Stat. Theb. v. v. 550. Virg. Geo. i. v. 245. Ovid. Met. iii. v. 45. Man, i. v. 307.

it's

it's tail towards the head of Cynofura, or the leffer Bear. Before the discovery of the compafs, these were the great directors in navigation .

BOOTES was behind the greater Bear, or Charles's wain (fo called from the Roman Plauffra) and appears in the act of driving it on. He is dreffed like a countryman, in a fhort tunic, with his legs and arms bare, and the pedum paftorale in his right hand. Arcturus was on his breaft f.

CORONA, or ARIADNE'S CROWN, at Boötes's right hand, is a wreath of flowers and leaves fastened with a ribband, and makes fuch a circular appearance in the heavens, though it is turned to a Gothic crown on our globes 8.

ENGONASIS, or INGENICULUS, is fo called from his kneeling, the reason of which was unknown in the times of Manilius, and even of Aratus. Avienus will have it to be Hercules almoft tired with his long fight with the ferpent that kept the garden of the Hefperides; in memory of which Jupiter placed his figure in the

• Aratus, v. 49-54. Man. i. v. 302. Ovid. Fast. iii. V. 108.

f Avien. v. 104. 262. 271. Man. i. v. 317. Id. v. v. 20.

Man. i. v. 323. Met. viii. v. 182. Gemmæ, when used of this conftellation, fhould be taken in the natural fenfe, as fignifying buds or leaves. Man. v. v. 269.

heavens,

heavens, with his heel bruifing the great ferpent's head. He is quite naked h.

OPHIUCHUS or SERPENTARIUS, is also naked, and holds another ferpent in his hands. Manilius fpeaks of him and the ferpent as fighting together, and that fo equally, that the combat must last for The old globe is not fo picturefque ; for the serpent in his hands feems rather to threaten Boötes than the perfon who holds it 1.

ever.

The figure of LYRA fhows that the lyra and teftudo of old were the fame, for the bottom part of it confifts of the entire fhell of a tortoise. It has only fix ftrings, but there is a space for a feventh, which feems to be defaced, or perhaps was omitted in memory of the Pleiad that has difappeared; for it had seven at first, in allusion to the number of the Pleiades *.

AQUILA, just under Lyra, is described as flying with the fulmen in his talons; whereas here he is without it, and ftanding in a quiet pofture 1. His head is in the other hemifphere, near the Dolphin.

Man. i. v. 315. Arat. v. 65. Avien. v. 193.

i Man. i. v. 336.

* Faft. v. v. 196. Manilius fpeaks of it's cornua or horns, which have been accounted for, Man. i. v. 325.

1 There was doubtlefs fome difference in the ancient as well as in the modern globes, and this is a very great inftance of it. Faft. vi. v. 196. Man. i. v. 345. Id. v. 'v. 484.