EMBLEM OF THE CRAB IN RELATION TO THE SIGN CANCER. 609 



^KeiTTO kcl\ ^arvriv. rj mev t oXlyij etKvla 



axXvt fiofipair) virb JLap/clvw rjyrjXd^ei- 



a/x0i Se fxiv Svo Xe7rra </)aeiv6/ui.ei>oi (popeovTai 



aaTepes, ovre ti ttoXXov aTrr/opoi ovTe /mdX' eyyi;9, 



aXX' barcrov re /xaXia-ra Trvyovcriov otr/cracrOai, 



ef? p.ev Trap popeao- votw S' e7n/ce/cAtTat aAXo?. 



k<xi toi fiev KaXeovrai "Ovoi, ixe<T<rr\ Se t£ ^drvrj, 



rjTe Kai e^cnrlvris TravTn Ato? evSiowvrog 



yiver a<f)avTO<s oXr)- toi S' a/jL<j>OTepwdev lovres 



a<rTepe$ aXXijXwv avTOcrxeSov ivSdXXovTat- 



ovk oAtyw x.^ 1 ^ 1 "- Tore kXv^ovto.1 dpovpai '■ 



cf. Plin., xviii. 55, " Sunt in signo Cancri duse stellse parvse, Aselli appellatse, exiguum 

 inter illas spatium obtinente nubecula, quam Prsesepia appellant." As Aratus speaks of 

 Prsesepe as a^Aw, so Eratosthenes calls it vecpeXiov, and Ptolemy vecpeXoeiS^ arva-Tpoc^n 

 (cf. Ideler, Sternnamen, p. 161). There is a difficult passage in Manilius (v. 174), "Nunc 

 Cancro vicina canam, cui parte sinistra Consurgunt Iugulse," where, according to 

 Scaliger and others, Iugulse stand for Aselli. But, according to Ideler, there is no 

 basis for this assumption, and we must interpret Iugulse or Iugula, here as elsewhere, to 

 mean Orion, which constellation, as we have already seen, rises with Cancer : cf. Varro 

 (L. L., vii. 3), "Iugula signum est quod Accius appellat Oriona." The same name 

 occurs in Plautus (Amphit., I. i. 119), "nee Iugulse, neque Vesperugo,^ neque Vergilise 

 occidunt." 



Hyginus (II. 23), Theon, Lactantius (I. 21), and others, relate various fables in 

 connection with these Aselli. They were set in the Heavens by Bacchus, whom they 

 had transported to the temple of Zeus at Dodona, across the Thesprotian marsh, f when, 

 rendered mad by Juno, he was fleeing for sanctuary and cure ; while, according to 

 Eratosthenes (ap. Hygin., I.e.), these were two of the asses that carried Bacchus, 

 Vulcan, Silenus (cf. Ovid, F., iii. 748, etc.) and the Satyrs, and that by their braying 

 put to flight the giants with whom Jupiter was at war. We observe that Jupiter, 

 whom we have seen to be intimately associated with the sign Cancer, figures in both 

 versions of the legend, and that the defeat of the giants and the triumph of Bacchus 

 alike correspond to the midsummer turning-point of the Sun : the Aselli marked the 

 precise point of the tropic about the time of the Building of the City. Priapus (cf. 

 Ovid, F., vi. 320, etc.) figures in another version of the story (Hygin., l.c.).\ 



The Ass is represented on coins sometimes in association with emblems that we 

 have seen depicted with the Crab, and sometimes with others that we have not hitherto 

 met with, but that stand, like the rest, in close relation to the sign Cancer. 



* Vesperugo is the planet Venus, Hesperus, or Vespertinus : cf. Vitbuv., ix. 4, " Veneris stella, post occasum 

 solis apparens in Caelo, Vesperugo vocitatur, aliis autem temporibus eum antecurrens, et oriens ante lucem, Lucifer 

 appellator. 



t Cf. Avien., Arat., 383, " qua duro concava dorso Tegmina curvantur, geminos micat ardor in aures ; Hos dixere 

 asinos ortos Thesprotide terra, Et sidus, Lernsee, tuum." 



| For other references to the mythology of the Ass in relation to the sign Cancer, see Dupuis, Orig. de tous les cultes, 

 i. p. 377, v. p. 104, ed. 1835, and other authorities there quoted. 



