604 H'ARCY WENTWOIITH THOMPSON ON THE 



artists fashioned or story-tellers told of was indeed the stellar one, if we can show it 

 to be, for instance, associated on coins and in story with the Moon that was domiciled, 

 with Jupiter * that was " exalted," and with Mercury, that in the scheme of dis- 

 tribution of the twelve greater gods was located, in the same sign ; with the Hydra, 

 the Crow and the Cup, that lie under or near it in the heavens, the Lion and the 

 Virgin that stand beside it, and next again, the Dog that rises with it, the Eagle, 

 the Fish, and the Sea-monster that set as it rises, or the Horse and the Altar that 

 rise as it sets. I propose, in this paper, to set forth what we know of the Crah 

 in relation to the sign Cancer, as it is presented to us in classical myth and 

 emblem, and to deal with the references made by classical authors to the sign, both 

 such as are descriptive merely, and such as are symbolical or mythological in their 

 interpretation. 



The sign Cancer was in classical times, as it no longer is, though we still speak 

 of it as if it were, the sign of the summer solstice: aestus erat, mediusque dies: 

 solisque vapore Concava littorei fervebant brachia Cancri (Ovid, Met. x. 126). It 

 was the goal of the Sun's yearly journey, — Cancer ad ardentem fulgens in cardine 

 metam, Quum Phoebus summis revocatus curribus ambit, Articulum mundi retinet, 

 lucesque reflectit (Manil., iv. 162), and a bye- word for the heats of summer, ausus in 

 ardentem ripas attollere Cancrum (Lucan, x. 287), nam quis ad exustam Cancro torrente 

 Syenen, Ibit (Lucan, viii. 851). According to the Calendar of the Fasti, the Sun entered 

 Cancer on June 17th or 19th (xv.-xiii. Kal. Jul.) and a week later is marked as the 

 date of the sohtitium, Sol abit e geminis et Cancri signa rubescunt (F.,ui. 727). The 

 former of the two dates is that used by Pliny, solstitium peragi in octava parte 

 Cancri, et octavo Kalendas Julii diximus. Magnus hie anni cardo, magna res mundi 

 (NIL, xviii. 68 f). Avienus tells us that Meton reckoned Cancer the first of months, 

 Sed primaeva Meton exordia sumsit ab anno Torreret rutilo cum Phoebus sidero 

 Cancrum (Aratea, v. 46). 



The sign Cancer was the " domicile" of the Moon, and though we need not pro- 

 fess to explain thereby this location of her domicile, yet we may remember thai 

 the full Moon stood in Cancer, opposite to the Sun, at the time of the winter 

 solstice, of the longest nights. I think that she stood here, at the northern boundary 

 of her course, and overpowering the winter darkness and the lesser lights of the 

 brightest stars (all of them stars surrounding her in her position there) in the opening 

 passage of Claudian's Ode to the new Consuls of the year : — 



* I am favoured by Dr BUBGESS with the following note : — Pushya, the Hindu Asterism corresponding 

 portion of Cancer (or long. 93° 20' to 106° 40' in a.d. 500), from the root push, "nourish, thrive," is also called 7 

 "auspicious" and ndhya "prosperous." Its divinity is Bfihaspati (Jupiter), the priest and teacher of the gods, 

 three principal stars an; 8 Cancri (108 <: 42') and 7, 5, Cancri, with the nebulous cluster Priusepe between. It is re] 

 as an arrow and also as a crescent. 



t In the Calendar of Constantino (Uranol. Petav., p. 112) the Sun enters Cancer on June 15 (xvii. Kal. Jul.), 

 and the sol tice is placed on the 25th. Ptolemy fixes the Sun's entry into the sign on June 18th, and the solsto 

 the 26th. 



