340 LIGHT SCIENCE FOR LEISURE HOURS. 



zodiacs clear evidence that these operations, as well as 

 astronomical symbols or constellations, found a record 

 in sculptured domes. 



The judicial, military, and other proceedings de- 

 scribed in the " Shield of Achilles " were also sup- 

 posed by the ancients to have been influenced by the 

 courses of the stars. 



If we had no evidence that ancient celestial spheres 

 presented the constellations above referred to, we 

 might be disposed to attach less weight to the coinci- 

 dences here presented; but the "Phenomena" of 

 Aratus affords sufficient testimony on this point. In 

 the first place, that work is of great antiquity, since 

 Aratus flourished two centuries and a half before the 

 Christian era ; but it is well known that Aratus did 

 not describe the results of his own observations. The 

 positions of the constellations, as recorded by him, 

 accord neither with the date at which he wrote nor 

 with the latitude in which he lived. It is generally 

 assumed chiefly on the authority of Hipparchus 

 that Aratus borrowed his knowledge of astronomy 

 from the sphere of Eudoxus ; but we must go much 

 farther back even than the date of Eudoxus, before we 

 can find any correspondence between the appearance 

 of the heavens and the description given by Aratus. 

 Thus we may very fairly assume that the origin of the 

 constellations (as distinguished from their association 

 with certain circles of tho celestial sphere) may be 



