to and from the celestial river, the Milky Way. The star λ represented their keeper.
It is indeed strange, as Ideler points out, that these non-drinking animals should be found here so close to a river, but the suggestion has been made that these stars represented pasturing cattle, that being the translation of Na'aim, the title of the 20th lunar station of the Arabs located here.
Some authorities, who claim to explain the origin of the constellations, assert that Sagittarius was so called because, at the time the sun entered it, the hunting season opened, and that this is the Archer or Huntsman. Sagittarius has always been considered the patron of the hunter and the chase.
There is in the figure further evidence of design on the part of the inventors of the constellations, for we find the Horse of Pegasus endowed with wings, which are denied Centaurus and the Archer.
The Jews regarded the Archer as the tribal symbol of Ephraim and Manasseh, while Dr. Seiss calls Sagittarius "a pictorial prophecy of our Blessed Lord." The Archer appears on a coin of Gallienus of about a.d. 260, and Schiller thought the figure represented St. Matthew.
Astrologically speaking, Sagittarius is the House and Joy of Jupiter. Its natives, those born between the dates Nov. 22d and Dec. 21st, are said to be well formed, with fine clear eyes, chestnut hair, and oval fleshy face. They are generally of a jovial disposition, active, intrepid, generous, and obliging. It governs the legs and thighs, and reigns over Arabia, Spain, Hungary, Moravia, Cologne, etc. It is a masculine sign and fortunate. The goldenrod is the flower, and the carbuncle is the significant gem.
Ampelius associated it with the south wind, and the colour yellow was attributed to it.
α Sagittarii bears the name "Rukbat," meaning the "Archer's Knee."
β, a double star, was designated "Arkab," the "Tendon,"
