Beneath which is
The Virgin of illustrious form, whose hand
Holds a bright spike.
XLIII. And truly these signs are so regularly disposed that a divine wisdom evidently appears in them:
The Charioteer
On the left side of Gemini we see,[3]
And at his head behold fierce Helice;
On his left shoulder the bright Goat appears.
But to proceed
This is indeed a great and glorious star,
On th' other side the Kids, inferior far,
Yield but a slender light to mortal eyes.
Under his feet
The horned bull,[4] with sturdy limbs, is placed:
his head is spangled with a number of stars;
These by the Greeks are called the Hyades,
from raining; for ὕειν is to rain: therefore they are injudiciously called Suculæ by our people, as if they had their name from ὗς, a sow, and not from ὕω.
Behind the Lesser Bear, Cepheus[5] follows with extended hands,
For close behind the Lesser Bear he comes.
- ↑ Sub caput Arcti, under the head of the Greater Bear.
- ↑ The Crab is, by the ancients and moderns, placed in the zodiac, as here, between the Twins and the Lion; and they are all three northern signs.
- ↑ The Twins are placed in the zodiac with the side of one to the northern hemisphere, and the side of the other to the southern hemisphere. Auriga, the Charioteer, is placed in the northern hemisphere near the zodiac, by the Twins; and at the head of the Charioteer is Helice, the Greater Bear, placed; and the Goat is a bright star of the first magnitude placed on the left shoulder of this northern constellation, and called Capra, the Goat. Hædi, the Kids, are two more stars of the same constellation.
- ↑ A constellation; one of the northern signs in the zodiac, in which the Hyades are placed.
- ↑ One of the feet of Cepheus, a northern constellation, is under the tail of the Lesser Bear.
