Page:1888 Cicero's Tusculan Disputations.djvu/304

Near the head of the Horse^[1] lies the right hand of Aquarius, then all Aquarius himself.^[2]

Then Capricorn, with half the form of beast,
Breathes chill and piercing colds from his strong breast,
And in a spacious circle takes his round;
When him, while in the winter solstice bound,
The sun has visited with constant light,
lie turns his course, and shorter makes the night.^[3]

Not far from hence is seen

 
The Scorpion^[4] rising lofty from below;
By him the Archer,^[5] with his bended bow;
Near him the Bird, with gaudy feathers spread;
And the fierce Eagle^[6] hovers o'er his head.

Next comes the Dolphin;^[7]

 
Then bright Orion,^[8] who obliquely moves;

he is followed by

 
The fervent Dog,^[9] bright with refulgent stars:

next the Hare follows^[10]

Unwearied in his course. At the Dog's tail
Argo^[11] moves on, and moving seems to sail;
O'er her the Ram and Fishes have their place;^[12]
The illustrious vessel touches, in her pace,
The river's banks;^[13]

which you may see winding and extending itself to a great length.

1. Pegasus
2. The Water-bearer, one of the six southern signs in the zodiac: he is described in our maps pouring water out of an urn, and leaning with one hand on the tail of Capricorn, another southern sign.
3. When the sun is in Capricorn, the days are at the shortest; and when in Cancer, at the longest.
4. One of the six southern signs.
5. Sagittarius, another southern sign.
6. A northern constellation.
7. A northern constellation.
8. A southern constellation.
9. This is Canis Major, a southern constellation. Orion and the Dog are named together by Hesiod, who flourished many hundred years before Cicero or Aratus.
10. A southern constellation, placed as here in the Atlas Cœlestis.
11. A southern constellation, so called from the ship Argo, in which Jason and the rest of the Argonauts sailed on their expedition to Colchos.
12. The Ram is the first of the northern signs in the zodiac; and the last southern sign is the Fishes; which two signs, meeting in the zodiac, cover the constellation called Argo.
13. The river Eridanus, a southern constellation.