58 



KNOWLEDGE. 



rM.\BCH 1, 1901. 



" From the Pole Star through ilizar glide \ 



TVith long and rapirl flight, 

 Descend, and see the Tirgin's ?pike 



Diffuse its rernal bjjht, 

 And mark what glorious forms arc made 



By the sold harvest's oars, 

 With I'eneb west Areturus north, 



A trioDgh- appears; " 



Denebola of the Lions tail forming an equilateral 

 triangle with Arcturus and Spica. the principal stSr of 

 the Virgin. 



The chief stars of the \'irgin, six in number, make an 

 iiregular capital Y, lying on its side, the stem and lower 

 branch of the Y very nearly marking the ecliptic. That 

 great circle is particularly clearly marked out in this 

 portion of the heavens. Delta in the Twins,^the bright 

 star below Pollux, and marking that hero's right hand ; 

 Delta in Cancer, the southern of the two ass:s; Regulus 



spirit of Justice, once in the Golden Age a dweller 

 amongst men. But when an inferior race in the Silver 

 Age succeeded to their fathers, she withdrew to the 

 mountains, and fled thence to the sky when the Brazen 

 Race fashioned murderous weapons and devoured the 

 flesh of plough oxen for their food. The account of her 

 which is still most generally received, is that she repre- 

 sents the wheat harvest ; the ear of corn in her hand, 

 which one would have thought a fitter symbol of sowing, 

 being taken as representing the garnered sheaves. But 

 this cannot be the case, for Aratus tells us — 



'■ As rushins on his prey, 

 The lordly Lion greets the God of day, 

 ^Vhen out of Cancer, in his ton-id car 

 Borne hiah. he shoots his arrows from afar, 

 Scorching the empty fields and thirsty plain. 

 Secures the barn the harvest's gnl-lpn grain ; " 



proving, as Brown points out, that Spica was not asso- 



VIRGO 



'-pcn 



/ ^' VELA 





NORMA 





=$0 



■*.? * 



■« 



XVI 



XV 



m 



XII XI 



IX 



Star Map Xo. 3 ; The Region of Virgo. 



ill Leo are all almost exactly on the ecliptic, and Rho 

 and Tau. two fainter stars in Leo, cany on the line to 

 the boundaries of Virgo. Within that constellation the 

 line runs a little south of Beta. Eta. and Gamma, which 

 form the right branch of the Y, and a little north of 

 Spica (Alpha Virginis). Whilst a fourth magnitude 

 star. Lambda, as far beyond Spica as Spica is from 

 Gamma, marks almost the precise point where the 

 ecliptic runs into Libra. The upper branch of the Y is 

 marked by Delta and Epsilou. Gamma the star which 

 marks v.-here the Y forks, is one of the most celebrated 

 of double stars. 



Aratus gives more space to the history of this constel- 

 lation than to anv other. With him. she is Astraea, the 



ciated originally with the harvest, since this had been 

 already reaped when the sun entered the Lion. A 

 further proof is afforded by the old name of Epsilon 

 Virginis, " Herald of the Vintage," the vintage neces- 

 sarilv falling considerably later in the year than the 

 harvest. 

 I The constellations of the Zodiac, if intended to mark 

 ! the several months of the year, should, being twelve in 

 number, stretch each of them over 30° of longitude 

 neither more nor less. As a matter of fact they are of 

 most irregular length. Cancer extending only over 18° 

 or 19°, whilst Virgo covers about 50°. At an early period, 

 therefore, the ecliptic was divided into twelve cqtial 

 portions, not constellations, and having no direct con- 



