Page:The Music of the Spheres.djvu/203

to do when certain stars rose and set, it would have been unpardonable not to have known the Pleiades. They thought that the gods had set the stars in the sky to keep the people from living in confusion. Thus Jupiter tells

"when the land Must be upturned by ploughshare or by spade— What time to plant the olive or the vine— What time to fling on earth the golden grain. For He it was who scattered o'er the sky The shining stars, and fixed them where they are— Provided constellations through the year, To mark the seasons in their changeless course."—Aratus.

The farmer and the sailor, especially, watched the rising and the setting of the stars and abided by the advice in Hesiod's "Works and Days":

"when the snail, in fear of the Pleiades, climbs up the young plants, sharpen your sickle for the harvest—"

"At the rising of the Atlas-born Pleiades begin harvesting but plowing when they set."

"When Atlas-born, the Pleiad stars arise Before the sun above the dawning skies, 'Tis time to reap; and when they sink below The mom-illumined west, 'tis time to sow."

The rising of Orion an hour and a half later was also a sign from heaven that the season for threshing had arrived.

"Forget not when Orion first appears o make your servants thresh the sacred ears."

But when the giant is in midheaven it is time for vintage. At this time Orion has backed the Bull pretty far over in the west and

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