146 THE GREEK ASTRONOMY. 



countries, are so far similar, as to imply some com- 

 munication. The arbitrary nature of these figures 

 shows that they were rather the work of the ima- 

 ginative and mythological tendencies of man, than 

 of mere convenience and love of arrangement. 

 " The constellations," says an astronomer of our 

 own time 27 , "seem to have been almost purposely 

 named and delineated to cause as much confusion 

 and inconvenience as possible. Innumerable snakes 

 twine through long and contorted areas of the 

 heavens, where no memory can follow them : bears, 

 lions, and fishes, large and small, northern and 

 southern, confuse all nomenclature. A better system 

 of constellations might have been a material help 

 as an artificial memory." When men indicate the 

 stars by figures, borrowed from obvious resem- 

 blances, they are led to combinations quite dif- 

 ferent from the received constellations. Thus the 

 common people in our own country find a wain 

 or waggon, or a plough, in a portion of the great 

 bear 28 . 



The similarity of the constellations recognized 

 in different countries is very remarkable. The Chal- 

 dean, the Egyptian, and the Grecian skies have a 

 resemblance which cannot be overlooked. Some 



27 Sir J. Herschel. 



28 So also the Greeks, Homer. 77. xvm. 487. 



The northern bear which oft the wain they call. 



was the traditional name, a'^afa, that suggested by the 

 form. 



