i9i4" I 9 r 5-] The Story of the Constellations. 195 



be always shifting more and more to the west, and gradually 

 travel through all the signs of the Zodiac. This is what is 

 meant by the precession of the equinoxes. The effect of 

 precession in altering the latitude and longitude of the stars 

 is, of course, a slow process, but, as mentioned before, in the 

 course of the 4700 years the position of the South pole has 

 been shifted through 6 6°, and many of those stars which 

 were invisible to the designers of the constellatious can now 

 be seen. The longitude of the place of origin is not directly 

 indicated, but it is surmised that the presence of the lion 

 and the bear among the constellations, and the absence of 

 such forms as the elephant, the camel, or the tiger, would 

 exclude India towards the east and Europe towards the west. 

 These considerations, taken with the latitude already found, 

 confine the search to Asia Minor and Armenia, probably near 

 the head of the Euphrates valley. 



"This date of 4700 years ago, or 2800 B.C., brings out 

 some interesting relations. The constellation figures were all 

 arranged so as to be either upright or recumbent when on the 

 meridian ; they were not inclined to it. Then the twelve 

 signs of the Zodiac were symmetrically divided by the colures, 

 and the four main points of the sun's progress during the year 

 were marked by the close proximity of a bright star, in each 

 case indicating the commencement of the different seasons : 

 For Spring, ' Aldebaran ' in the Bull; for Summer, 'Eegulus' 

 in the Lion ; for Autumn, ' Antares ' in the Scorpion ; and for 

 Winter, ' Eomalhaut ' in the Southern Eish, in the neighbour- 

 hood of the Water Pourer. These four stars have come down 

 to us with the name of the ' Eoyal Stars,' probably on this 

 account." 



Ptolemy, the great Alexandrian astronomer, makes Aries 

 the Earn the first constellation in the Zodiac; it was so in his 

 days, but the Bull was the original leader as is known from 

 a variety of traditions. There is an interesting passage in 

 the Georgics of Virgil where he says of a time that was 

 already ancient : " The bright Bull opens the year with his 

 golden horns." Even apart from tradition which happens 

 to be clear on this point, the constellations were designed 

 long before the spring equinox entered Aries. Moreover, 

 as far as the figures allow of the indication, that is in nine 



VOL. VII. N 2 



