NEW THEORY OF ACHILLES 1 SHIELD. 307 



robbed of their just proportions to form the smaller 

 asterisms. Corona Borealis was the right arm of Bootes, 

 Ursa Minor was a wing of Draco (now wingless, and no 

 longer a dragon), and so on. 



Secondly, it is necessary that the actual appearance 

 of the heavens, with reference to the position of the 

 pole in Homer's time should be indicated. For my 

 present purpose, it is not necessary that we should know 

 the exact date at which the most ancient of the zodiac- 

 temples were constructed (or to which they were made 

 to correspond). There are good reasons, though this 

 is not the proper place for dwelling upon them, for 

 supposing that the great epoch of reference amongst 

 ancient astronomers preceded the Christian era by 

 about 2200 years. Be this as it may, any epoch 

 between the date named and the probable date at 

 which Homer nourished say nine or ten centuries 

 before the Christian era will serve equally well for 

 my present purpose. Now if the effects of equi- 

 noctial precession be traced back to such a date, we 

 are led to notice two singular and not uninteresting 

 circumstances. First, the pole of the heavens fell in 

 the central part of the great constellation Draco ; and, 

 secondly, the equator fell along the length of the great 

 sea-serpent Hydra, in one part of its course, and else- 

 where to the north of all the ancient aquatic constella- 

 tions, l save that one-half of the northernmost fish 

 (of the zodiac pair) lay north of the equator. Thus, 



1 We may exclude Delpbinus as probably later than Homer's 

 time, though mentioned by Aratus. 



