THE NEW THEORY OF ACHILLES'S SHIELD. 335 



Any one wlio studies the heavens will recognize the 

 fact that the larger constellations have been 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 our 

 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 

 among ancient astronomers preceded the Christian era 

 by about 2,200 years. Be this as it may, any epoch 

 between the date named and the probable date at 

 which Homer flourished say nine or ten centuries 

 before the Christian era will serve equally well for 

 our 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- 



