0% found this document useful (0 votes)
18 views18 pages

LibraAndVirgo

The document discusses the constellation Libra, originally associated with the claws of the Scorpion, and its connection to justice and balance, as represented by the scales. It explores the etymology of the word 'Libra' and its historical significance in various cultures, including references to the Egyptian goddess Maat. Additionally, it highlights the astrological implications of Libra and its fixed stars.

Uploaded by

Jerri Thompson
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as TXT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
0% found this document useful (0 votes)
18 views18 pages

LibraAndVirgo

The document discusses the constellation Libra, originally associated with the claws of the Scorpion, and its connection to justice and balance, as represented by the scales. It explores the etymology of the word 'Libra' and its historical significance in various cultures, including references to the Egyptian goddess Maat. Additionally, it highlights the astrological implications of Libra and its fixed stars.

Uploaded by

Jerri Thompson
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as TXT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 18

LIBRA~THE SCALES, THE CLAWS

uranias

Astraea was the last of the gods to stay on Earth, as mankind became wicked, she
ascended to heaven to become the constellation Virgo; the Scales of Justice she
carried became the nearby constellation Libra. Originally the Greeks saw the Scales
of Balance as being the claws of the Scorpion.

Read what writers on mythology have said about Astraea on this Theoi Project
webpage

"They named Libra from the equal balance of this month because on September 24 the
sun makes the equinox while running through this sign. Whence Lucan also says
(Civil War 4.58): To the scales of just Libra� [The Etymologies of Isidore of
Seville, 7th century AD, p.106.]

The word Libra, from Latin libra, plural librae, Greek lithra, a weighing scale, is
related to the words: level, lira, deliberate, equilibrium (from �quus, equal +
libra), litra (name of a Greek weight and coin), litre (liter, a metric unit of
volume)", librate (land worth a pound a year, the word used to mean; to vibrate as
a balance; to be in equipoise; to waver between one thing and another). The process
of librating or swinging from side to side is spoken of as libration.

"From time immemorial the scales have been the principle attribute of justice, it
being impossible to even a little right with any quantity of wrong" [Brewers Book
of Myth and Legend, p.253].

The scales are balanced when they are just even, level. The words just and justice
come from the Indo-European root *yewes- 'Law'. Derivatives: jural (law), jurist,
jury�, abjure (to renounce under oath; forswear), adjure (to command or enjoin
solemnly, as under oath), conjure (to summon up energy for a specific purpose),
injury, juridical, jurisconsult, jurisdiction, jurisprudence, objurgate, perjure,
(these words from Latin jus, ius, stem iur-, law, and its derivative iurare, 'to
pronounce a ritual formula,' swear), just� (from Latin justus, iustus, just),
justice. [Pokorny ieuos- 512. Watkins] Names: Justin, Justina, Justus.

The word balance comes from Latin bi-, 'two, twice', + Latin lanx, genitive lancis,
'plate, dish; scale of weighing machine'.

�A pound is made of twelve ounces [Troy weights?], and thus it is considered as a


type of perfect weight because it consists of as many ounces as there are months in
the year. It is called a 'pound' (libra) because it is independent (liber) and
contains all the aforementioned weights within it.� [The Etymologies of Isidore of
Seville, 7th century AD, p.333.]

The symbol for the British currency called the pound '�' (L with a horizontal
line), and the pound, weight, is also known as the 'lira sign'. The pound currency
unit was so named because it was originally the value of 1 pound Tower Weight of
fine silver. Both symbols derive from librum, the basic Roman unit of weight, in
turn derived from the Latin word pendere, for scales or balance.

�A weight (pondus) is so called because it hangs (pendere) balanced in the scales,


hence also the term pensum ('something weighed'). The term pondus is loosely used
for one pound (libra). Hence also the dipondius (i.e. dupondius) is named, as if it
were duo pondera ('two pounds'); this term has been retained in usage up to today.�
[p.332.] �Steward (dispensator) is the name for a person entrusted with the
administration of money, and such a one is a dispensator because in former times
the person who dispensed money would not count it but 'weigh it out' (appendere).�
[p.217.] �A 'measure of wool' (pensum) for women is named from weighing (pendere,
past participle pensus), whence also the words 'rations' (pensa) and 'expense'
(impensa) [p.389.]� [The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville, 7th century AD]

"From the same pendere �to weigh or pay, comes dispensator �distributing cashier,'
and in our accounts we write expensum �expense� and therefrom the first pensio
�payment� and likewise the second and any others, and dispendium �loss by
distribution,' for this reason, that money is wont to become less in the
dispendendo �distributing of the payments�; compendium �saving,' which is made when
it compenditur �is weighed all together�" [Varro: On The Latin Language, 1st
century AD, p.171.]

Latin pendere comes from the Indo-European root *(s)pen- 'To draw, stretch, spin'.
Derivatives: spend, spider (related to the verb pendere, to hang, let hang; scales
'hang in the balance', Arachne, the spinster spider hanged herself), spin, spindle
(a slender, tapered rod for twisting and holding thread in spinning), spinster,
painter� (a rope attached to the bow of a boat, used for tying up, as when docking
or towing), pansy (French pens�e 'thought.' The flower resembles a little face
crinkled up in thought, from Latin pensare to weigh and ponder about), penchant,
pend, pending, pendant�, pendentive, pendulous, pendulum, pensile (hanging loosely;
suspended), pension�, pensive, peso, poise� (to carry or hold in equilibrium;
balance), antependium (a decorative hanging for the front of an altar, lectern, or
pulpit), append, appendectomy, appendix (a human appendix hangs at the end of the
large intestine), avoirdupois (weight or heaviness, especially of a person),
compendium (a short, complete summary; an abstract), compensation, counterpoise,
depend, independence, independent, dispense, expend, expensive, impend, penthouse,
perpend (to consider carefully; ponder), perpendicular, prepense (contemplated or
arranged in advance; premeditated: malice prepense), propend (to have a propensity;
incline or tend), recompense, stipend, suspend, vilipend (treat with contempt;
despise), -penia (lack; deficiency as in leukopenia), geoponic (agriculture or
farming), lithopone (a white pigment), span� (to bind or fetter), spancel (a rope
used to hobble an animal, as a sheep), spanner, span� (the extent or measure of
space, the span of life determined by the fates, lifespan), spangle (sparkling
object), pound�, ponder, ponderous; equiponderate, preponderate, spontaneous.
[Pokorny (s)pen-(d-) 988. Watkins] In the names: Spencer, Aspen, Pentagon,
Pennsylvania.

Johann Bode, Uranographia, 1801.


The head of an obsolete modern constellation, Turdus Solitarius, encroaches onto
one of the scales of Libra, the one with the alpha star, Zuben Algenubi. Turdus
Solitarius, the solitary thrush was a constellation that was never widely
recognized and was replaced by other birds, including Noctua, the owl, and the
Hermit Bird. The constellation was located on the end of the tail of Hydra, the
water-snake, just below Libra, the scales. Its stars have been incorporated back
into Hydra. Manilius says the scales represent 'balancing night with the length of
day'. This particular scale, alpha, might represent the night scale; Noctua means
night owl. The words ostrich and thrush comes from the same root, ostrich (avis +
Late Latin struthio, Greek strousthos), turdus and thrush (from Greek strousthos).
It is said that the Egyptian goddess Maat used an ostrich feather to measure the
weight of the heart, or soul, in which a person�s heart or soul lies in one pan and
the ostrich feather of the goddess Maat in the other [3].

In earlier times, Libra was represented not by a balance, but as the claws of a
scorpion, Scorpius. At first Scorpio held the scales in his claw, or his claws were
the scales. The Zuben- prefix in the names of the stars of Libra is from the Arabic
word for 'claw'. The Romans created the constellation, Chelae, 'claws', was a
common Roman title for Libra, but as Ian Ridpath (Star Tales) explains the idea of
a balance in this area did not originate with the Romans. The Sumerians knew this
area as ZIB-BA AN-NA, the balance of heaven, 2000 years BC, and where no doubt the
Arabs got the name Zuben. Hence it seems that the Romans revived a constellation
that existed before Greek times.

Allen [Star Names] says that the sacred books of India mentions this constellation
as Tula, the Tamil Tulam or Tolam, a Balance. Greek has the plural word talanton,
'pair of scales', 'balance', related to Sanskrit tula, 'balance', tulayati, 'lifts
up, weighs', from the Indo-European root *tele- 'To lift, support, weigh; with
derivatives referring to measured weights and thence to money and payment'.
Derivatives: telamon (a figure of a man used as a supporting pillar from Greek
talanton, 'pair of scales, balance, a weight'.), toll� (a fixed charge or tax for a
privilege, especially for passage across a bridge or along a road), philately
(stamp collecting), tolerate (from Latin tolerare, to bear, endure), talion (a
punishment identical to the offense, as the death penalty for murder), retaliate
(from Latin talio, reciprocal punishment in kind, possibly 'something paid out'),
talent (from Greek talanton, any of several specific weights of gold or silver,
hence the sum of money represented by such a weight), ablation (from ab, away +
latus, carried), collate (to examine and compare carefully in order to note points
of disagreement), dilatory (dis + latus, intended to delay), elate, elated (used as
the past participle stem of effere �to carry up�, from ferre �to carry�. Exultantly
proud and joyful), elative, illation (the act of inferring or drawing conclusions),
illative (drawing conclusions), legislator (lex, law, + lator, bearer, from latus),
oblate�, prelate, prolate, relate, sublate, superlative, translate, (these words
from Latin latus, 'carried, borne,' used as the suppletive past participle of
ferre, to bear), dilate (Latin dilatare, literally �to spread widely apart�, from
latus �wide�), lateral, latitude (Latin latitudo, �breadth, width�, from latus
�broad�), tola (a unit of weight used in India, from Sanskrit tul, tula, scales,
balance, weight), extol (to praise highly; exalt). [Pokorny 1. tel- 1060. Watkins]
Atalanta means 'equal in weight', derived from Greek atalantos. Atalanta was a
fierce huntress, she said she would marry anybody who could beat her in a foot race
- a competition.

[I speculate that Latin tela, 'a web', from the stem of texere, 'to weave', might
fit here. The word bears a phonetic similarity to *tele- word above, and could
explain the cognates of pendere �to weigh'; i.e. 'spider' and 'spin'? Derivatives
of tela 'web': text, textile, tissue, context, texture, subtle (sub 'beneath' +
tela 'web'), technical; from *teks- 'To weave'.]

The lex talionis (law of retaliation) is a theory of retributive justice which says
that proper punishment should be equal to the wrong suffered [6]. The most common
expression of lex talionis is 'an eye for an eye'.

In the Bible Daniel 5:27 Tekel can mean weighed or shekel.

"Tekel: You have been weighed on the balances and found wanting."

�Spiders (aranea) are vermin of the air (aer), named from the air that is their
nourishment. They spin out a long thread from their little body and, constantly
attentive to their webs, never leave off working on them, maintaining a perpetual
suspension in their own piece of craftsmanship.� [The Etymologies of Isidore of
Seville, 7th century AD, p.258.]

The astrological influences of the constellation given by Manilius:

"Balancing night with the length of day when after a year's space we enjoy the new
vintage of the ripened grape, the Scales will bestow the employment of weights and
measures and a son to emulate the talents of Palamedes, who first assigned numbers
to things, and to these numbers names, fixed magnitudes, and individual symbols. He
will also be acquainted with the tables of law, abstruse legal points, and words
denoted by compendious signs; he will know what is permissible and the penalties
incurred by doing what is forbidden; in his own house he is a people's magistrate
holding lifelong office. Under no other sign would Servius [translator's note:
Servius Sulpicius Rufus, ca. 106-43 BC, extolled as the greatest of jurists by
Cicero] more fittingly have been born, who in interpreting the law framed
legislation of his own. Indeed, whatever stands in dispute and needs a ruling the
pointer of the Balance will determine" [Manilius, Astronomica, 1st century AD,
book 4, p.239].

Libra is associated with the scales of Maat, an ancient Egyptian goddess. Matthew
(the tax collector) is the seventh apostle corresponding to the sign Libra. Tax
collectors used scales to measure merchandise. Mathematical precision is needed for
weighing and measuring.

Some scholars have connected the name of Palamedes with palame, "palm of the hand"
[7]. Libra is stamped on the coins of Palmyra. The palms of the hands are used like
scale-pans of balance to judge weights.

� Anne Wright 2008.

Fixed stars in Libra


Star 1900 2000 R A Decl 1950 Lat Mag Sp
Zuben Elgenubi alpha 13SCO41 15SCO05 222 01 38 -15 50 07 +00 20 22
2.90 A3
Zuben Elakribi delta 13SCO53 15SCO17 224 34 27 -08 19 18 +08 15 07
4.90 var A1
Zuben Hakrabi nu 17SCO22 18SCO46 225 57 29 -16 03 51 +01 12 07 5.28
K5
Zubenelschemali beta 17SCO59 19SCO22 228 34 41 -09 11 59 +08 30 06
2.74 B8
sigma 19SCO18 20SCO41 225 17 04 -25 05 13 -07 38 18 3.41 M4
iota 19SCO37 21SCO00 227 20 30 -19 36 14 -01 50 37 4.66 B9
Zuben Elakrab gamma 23SCO44 25SCO08 233 10 53 -14 37 28 +04 23 28
4.02 G6
upsilon 27SCO31 28SCO54 233 49 58 -27 58 16 -08 25 51 3.78 K5
tau 27SCO58 29SCO21 233 53 40 -29 36 54 -10 00 53 3.80 B3

Hevelius, Firmamentum, 1690


History of the constellation
from Star Names, 1889, Richard H. Allen

the scale of night

Silently with the stars ascended.

� Longfellow's Occultation of Orion.

Libra, the Balance or Scales, is the Italian Libra and Bilancia, the French
Balance, the German Wage, � Bayer's Wag and Bode's Waage, � but the Anglo-Saxons
said W�ge and Pund, and the Anglo-Normans, Peise, all meaning the Scales, or a
Weight.

The early Greeks did not associate its stars with a Balance, so that many have
thought it substituted in comparatively recent times for the Chelae, the Claws of
the Scorpion (Scorpius), that previously had been known as a distinct portion of
the double sign; Hyginus characterizing it as dimidia pars Scorpionis, and Ptolemy
counting eight components in the two divisions of his Khelai (claws), � Boreios
and notios with nine amorphotoi. Aratos also knew it under that title, writing of
it as a dim sign, � phaeon epiduees, � though a great one, � megalas khelas.
Eratosthenes included the stars of the Claws with those of our Scorpius, and called
the whole Skorpios, but alluded to the Khelai; as did Hipparchos, although with him
the latter also were Zugon, or zugos, these words becoming common for our Libra,
and turned by {Page 270} codices of the 9th century into Zichos. They were the
equivalents of the Latin Jugum, the Yoke, or Beam, of the Balance, first used as a
stellar title by Geminos, who, with Varro, mentioned it as the sign of the autumnal
equinox. Ptolemy wrote these two Greek titles indiscriminately, and so did the
Latin poets the three, � Chelae, Jugum, Libra, � although the scientific writers of
Rome all adhered to Libra, and such has been its usual title from their day. The
ancient name was persistent, however, for the Latin Almagest of 1551 gave a star as
in jugo sive chelis, and Flamsteed used it in his description of Libra's stars.

The statement, often seen, that the constellation was invented when on the equinox,
and so represented the equality of day and night, was current even with Manilius, �

Then Day and Night are weighed in Libra's Scales

Equal a while, �

repeated by James Thomson in the Autumn of his Seasons, �

Libra weighs in equal scales the year, �

by Edward Young in his Imperium Pelagi, apostrophizing his king, �

The Balance George ! from thine

Which weighs the nations, learns to weigh

More accurate the night and day, �

and by Longfellow in his Poet's Calendar for September, �

I bear the Scales, when hang in equipoise

The night and day.

This idea gave rise to the occasional title Noctipares; yet Libra is rarely figured
on an even balance, but as described by Milton where

The fiend looked up, and knew

His mounted scale aloft.

The Romans claimed that it was added by them to the original eleven signs, which is
doubtless correct in so far as they were concerned in its modern revival as a
distinct constellation, for it first appears as Libra in classical times in the
Julian calendar which Caesar as pontifex maximus {Page 271} took upon himself to
form, 46 B.C., aided by Flavius, the Roman scribe, and Sosigenes, the astronomer
from Alexandria. Some have associated Andrew Marvell's line,

Outshining Virgo or the Julian star,

with Libra, but this unquestionably referred to the comet of 43 B.C. that appeared
soon after, and, as Augustus asserted, in consequence of, Caesar's assassination in
September of that year, being utilized by the emperor and Caesar's friends to carry
his soul to heaven. This comet, perhaps, was the same that has since appeared in
531, 1106, and 1680, and that may return in 2255.
Medals still in existence show Libra held by a figure that Spence thought
represented Augustus as the dispenser of justice; thus recalling Vergil's beautiful
allusion, in his 1st Georgic, to the constellation's place in the sky. Addressing
the emperor, whose birthday coincided with the sun's entrance among the stars of
the Claws, he suggested them as a proper resting-place for his soul when, after
death, he should be inscribed on the roll of the gods:

Anne novum tardis sidus te mensibus addas,

Qua locus Erigonen inter Chelasque sequentes

Panditur; ipse tibi jam brachia contrahit ardens

Scorpius, et coeli justa plus parte relinquit;

so intimating that the place was then vacant, the Scorpion having contracted his
claws to make room for his neighbor. But subsequently he wrote:

Libra die somnique pares ubi fecerit horas;

and a few lines further on tells of twelve constellations, � duodena astra.

Milton has a reference in Paradise Lost to Libra's origin, where

Th' Eternal, to prevent such horrid fray,

Hung forth in heaven his golden scales, yet seen

Betwixt Astraea and the Scorpion sign;

and Homer's

Th' Eternal Father hung

His golden scales aloft,

is similar; but, although doubtless the original of Milton's verse, probably is not
a reference to our Libra; for the Greek poet very likely antedated the knowledge of
it in his country, and is supposed to have known but few of {Page 272} our stellar
figures, � at all events, has alluded to but few in either the Iliad or the
Odyssey.

Bayer said that the Greeks called it Stathmos [representing the distance between
two stations on the Persian royal road, or a day's march. Equal to about five
Persian parasangs, or about 28 kilometers], a Weigh-beam, and Stater, a Weight;
while Theon used for it the old Sicilian Litra and Litrai, which, originally
signifying a Weight, became the Roman Libra. Ampelius called it Mochos, after the
inventor of the instrument; and Virgo's title, Astraea, the Starry Goddess, the
Greek Dike has sometimes been applied to these stars as the impersonation of
Justice, whose symbol was the Scales. Addison devoted the 100th number of the
Tatler � that of the 29th of November, 1709 � to "that sign in the heavens which is
called by the name of the Balance," and to his dream thereof in which he saw the
Goddess of Justice descending from the constellation to regulate the affairs of
men; the whole a very beautiful rendering of the ancient thought connecting the
Virgin Astraea with Libra. He may have been thus inspired by recollections of his
student days at Oxford, where he must often have seen this sign, as a Judge in full
robes, sculptured on the front of Merton College.

Manilius, using the combined title, wrote of it in much the same way as of
influence over the legal profession:

This Ruled at Servius' Birth, who first gave

Our Laws a Being; �

a reference to Servius Sulpicius Rufus Lemonia, the great Roman lawyer, pupil, and
friend of Cicero.

Cicero himself used Jugum as though it were well known; and, with evident intention
of upsetting Caesar's claim to its invention, wrote:

Romam in Jugo Cum esset Luna, natam esse dicebat .

The sacred books of India mention it as Tula, the Tamil Tulam or Tolam, a Balance;
and on the zodiac of that country it is a man bending on one knee and holding a
pair of scales; but Varaha Mihira gave it as Juga or Juka, from Zugon, and so a
reflex of Greek astronomy, which we know came into India early in our era; but he
also called it Fire, perhaps a recollection of its early Altar form, mentioned
further on.

In China it was Show Sing, the Star of Longevity, but later, copying our figure, it
was Tien Ching, the Celestial Balance; and that country had a law for the annual
regulation of weights supposed to have been enacted with some reference to this
sign. In the early solar zodiac it was the Crocodile, or Dragon, the national
emblem.

{Page 273} Manetho and Achilles Tatios said that Libra originated in Egypt; it
plainly appears on the Denderah planisphere and elsewhere simply as a Scale-beam, a
symbol of the Nilometer. Kircher gave its Coptic-Egyptian title as Lambadia, Statio
Propitiationis.

The Hebrews are said to have known it as Moznayim, a Scale-beam, Riccioli's


Miznaim, inscribing it, some thought, on the banners of Asher, although others
claimed Sagittarius for this tribe, asserting that Libra was unknown to the Jews
and that its place was indicated by their letter Tau, while still others claimed
Virgo for Asher, and Sagittarius for Joseph.

The Syrians called it Masa�tha, which Riccioli gave as Masathre; and the Persians,
Terazu or Tarazuk, all signifying Libra; the Persian sphere showing a human figure
lifting the Scales in one hand and grasping a lamb in the other, this being the
usual form of a weight for a balance in the early East.

Arabian astronomers, following Ptolemy, knew these stars as Al Zubana, the Claws,
or, in the dual, Al Zubanatain, degenerating in Western use to the Azubene of the
1515 Almagest; but later on, when influenced by Rome, they became Al Kiffatan, the
Trays of the Balance, and Al Mizan, the Scale-beam, Bayer attributing the latter to
the Hebrews. This appeared in the Alfonsine Tables and elsewhere as Almisan,
Almizen, Mizin; Schickard writing it Midsanon. Kircher, however, said that Wazn,
Weight, is the word that should be used instead of Zubana; Riccioli adopting this
in his Vazneschemali and Vazneganubi, or Vaznegenubi, respectively applied to the
Northern and Southern Scale as well as to their lucidae.

Libra is stamped on the coins of Palmyra, as also on those of Pythodoris, queen of


Pontus.

While it seems impossible to trace with any certainty the date of formation of our
present figure and its place of origin, yet there was probably some figure here
earlier than the Claws, and formed in Chaldaea in more shapes than one; indeed,
Ptolemy asserted that it was from that country, while Ideler and modern critics say
the same.

Brown thinks that its present symbol, , generally considered a representation of


the beam of the Balance, shows the top of the archaic Euphratean Altar, located in
the zodiac next preceding Scorpio [Ara, the altar is below Scorpio], and figured on
gems, tablets, and boundary stones, alone or in a pair. Miss Clerke recalls the
association of the 7th month, Tashritu, with this 7th sign and with the Holy Mound,
Tul Ku, designating the biblical Tower of Babel, surmounted by an altar, � the
stars in this constellation, alpha, mu, xi, delta, beta, chi, zeta, and nu, well
showing a circular altar. Sometimes this Euphratean figure was varied to that of a
Censer, and frequently to a Lamp; Strassmaier confirming this by {Page 274} his
translation of an inscription as die Lampe als Nuru, the Solar Lamp, synonymous
with Bir, the Light, also found for the sky figure. In this connection it will be
remembered that another of the names for our Ara, a reduplication of the zodiacal
Altar, was Pharus, or Pharos, the Great Lamp, or Lighthouse, of Alexandria, one of
the seven wonders of the world. This Lamp also has been found shown on boundary
stones as held in the Scorpion's claws, and we see the same idea even as late as
the Farnese globe and the Hyginus of 1488, where the Scales have taken the place of
the Lamp. When the Altar, Censer, and Lamp were in the course of time forgotten, or
removed to the South, the Claws were left behind, and perhaps extended, till they
in turn were replaced by Libra. Miss Clerke additionally writes:

The 8th sign is frequently doubled, and it is difficult to avoid seeing in the pair
of zodiacal scorpions, carved on Assyrian cylinders, the prototype of the Greek
Scorpion and Claws. Both Libra and the sign it eventually superseded thus owned a
Chaldaean birthplace.

Brown also says that the Euphratean Sugi, the Chariot Yoke, which he identifies
with alpha and beta of this constellation, remind us by sound and signification of
the Zugon and Jugum of Greece and Rome respectively, and that astrology adds
evidence in favor of a Chaldaean origin, for it has always claimed Libra � the
Northern Scale at least � as a fruitful sign, taking this from the very foundations
of astrology in the Chaldaean belief that "when the Sugi stars were clear the crops
were good." In modern astrology, however, the reverse of this held in the case of
the Southern Scale.

It seems not unreasonable to conclude that in Chaldaea the 7th sign had origin in
all its forms.

In classical astrology the whole constituted the ancient House of Venus, for,
according to Macrobius, this planet appeared here at the Creation; and, moreover,
the goddess bound together human couples under the yoke of matrimony. From this
came the title Veneris Sidus, although others asserted that Mars was its guardian;
astrologers of the 14th century insisting that

Whoso es born in yat syne sal be an ille doar and a traytor.

It was of influence, too, over commerce, as witness Ben Jonson in The Alchemist:

His house of Life being Libra: which foreshowed

He should be a merchant, and should trade with balance;

{Page 275} and governed the lumbar region of the human body. Its modem reign has
been over Alsace, Antwerp, Austria, Aethiopia, Frankfurt, India, Lisbon, Livonia,
Portugal, Savoy, Vienna, and our Charleston; but in classical times over Italy and,
naturally enough from its history, especially over Rome, with Vulcan as its
guardian. It thus became Vulcani Sidus.
To it was assigned control of the gentle west wind, Zephyrus, [This was the same as
Roman Favonius, � at first regarded as strongly blowing, but later as the genial
Zephyros, the Life-bearing] personified as the son of Astraeus and Aurora.

Pious heathen called it Pluto�s Chariot, in which that god carried off Proserpina,
the adjacent Virgo; but early Christians said that it represented the Apostle
Philip; and Caesius identified it with the Balances of the Book of Daniel, v, 27,
in which Belshazzar had been weighed and "found wanting."

VIRGO~THE VIRGIN
uranias

Virgo was often drawn with a staff or rod in her right hand and an ear of wheat in
her left hand. Virgo is thought to represent Erigone who on finding her father
Icarius (Bootes) dead, hanged herself in grief and was raised to heaven for her
piety. An alternative story (cf. Aratus, Phaen. 98 ff.) identified her as Astraea,
daughter of Jupiter (or Astraeus), who at the advent of the Bronze Age fled to
heaven. [Manilius, Astronomica, 1st century A.D, Introduction, p.xxiv]. Astraea
has been identified with the Greek goddess Dike, and Roman Justitia.

The word virgo is Latin for virgin. Klein explains the word virgo; "is probably
related to virga, 'a young shoot, twig', virgate", virgate (shaped like a wand or
rod, also an early English measure of land area), from Latin virgatus, 'made of
twigs', from virgo, 'twig, switch, rod', which is of uncertain origin. It stands
perhaps for *wiz-ga, from Indo-European base *weis-, 'to turn, twist', whence also
Old English weoxian, 'to wipe'". Indo-European base *weis-, gives as derivatives:
whisk, from Old English weoxian, 'to wipe', 'quick stroke, sweeping movement' (with
a whisk or brush), 'implement for beating eggs, etc' [1], whisker, 'hair of a man's
face', originally a playful formation, from Middle English wisker, anything that
whisks or sweeps' [2], whiskey (an obsolete word meaning a light vehicle. � Formed
from whisk) [Klein, Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary]. [Arista was a Roman
title for this constellation from Latin arista, 'beard of grain'. Beard is the hair
growing on a man's face as is whiskers?].

Latin virgo or virga, 'twig, rod, wand', has more cognates: verge (edge or margin,
also the rod held by a feudal tenant while swearing fealty to a lord), verger (an
officer of the church, literally 'one bearing a verge', or rod), virgule (a
diagonal mark (/) used especially to separate alternatives, as in and/or). The word
verge, 'a rod, wand, or staff carried as an emblem of authority or office', Klein
explains; "the sense 'limit, margin, edge', developed from the meaning 'staff of
office', through the medium of the term within the verge used in the sense 'within
the sphere of authority of the Royal Steward'". The word virgate, from Latin virgo,
was an old English land measure, "used also in the sense of measuring rod, a
measure of length" [Klein].

"For sense development [of Virgo] compare Greek talis, 'a marriageable girl', is
cognate with Latin talea, 'rod, stick, bar'" [Klein].

This word might also be in Virgo's domain because it is related to the word
'detail' and Virgos are well known for paying extreme attention to detail.
Derivatives of Latin talea are: tally, detail, entail, retail, tailor, curtail.
The Greek word for virgin is parthenos, and Virgo had the title Parthenos Dios, the
Virgin Goddess; parthenic, 'of the nature of a virgin', Parthenon, the name of the
temple of the virgin goddess Athena on the Acropolis at Athens. Parthenogenesis
means reproduction without fertilization, from Modern Latin, literally 'birth from
a virgin', the word is sometimes also used to describe reproduction modes in
hermaphroditic species which can self-fertilize.

"In folk etymology the word virgin comes from vir- (Latin for 'man') and -gyne
(Greek for 'woman'), a man-woman or androgyne" [3].

�She who is nowadays called a woman (femina) in ancient times was called vira; ...
so also woman (vira) from man (vir). Some people believe that the word for 'virgin'
(virgo) is from vira. A 'heroic maiden' (virago) is so called because she 'acts
like a man' (vir + agere), that is, she engages in the activities of men and is
full of male vigor. The ancients would call strong women by that name. However, a
virgin cannot be correctly called a heroic maiden unless she performs a man's task.
But if a woman does manly deeds, then she is correctly called a heroic maiden, like
an Amazon� [p.242.]. �The term 'virgin' (virgo) comes from 'a greener (viridior)
age,' just like the words 'sprout' (virga) and 'calf (vitula). Otherwise it is
derived from lack of corruption, as if the word were formed from 'heroic maiden,'
because she has no knowledge of female desire� [p.242]. �Calves (vitulus) and
heifers (vitula) are named from their greenness (viriditas), that is, their green
(i.e. 'vigorous') age, just as a maiden (virgo) is. A heifer, therefore, is small
and has not yet produced young, for after she has been put to breed, she is called
a iuvenca or a cow� [p.249.]. [The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville, 7th century
AD.]

"'Vitulus' and 'Vitula', the calf and the heifer, are named from their greenness (a
viriditate) i.e. from their greenhorn age, like a virgin's, for a Vitula is a very
little maid and not vigorous, though her mother the 'Juventa', i.e. the 'Vacca', is
vigorous." [The Book of Beasts: Being a Translation from a Latin Bestiary of the
Twelfth Century, p.78]

Viriditas comes from from Latin viridis, 'green', from virere, 'to be green, to
flourish', "which is of uncertain origin. Compare verdant, verdantique (a variety
of serpentine marble), verderer, verdigris, verdure, verditer, verjuice, vert, 'the
color green', virescent, farthingale" [Klein, Comprehensive Etymological
Dictionary].

Klein says that the Middle-Latin word vitula is possibly a back formation from
Latin vitulari, 'to exult, be joyful', which probably stands for vi-tulari and
originally meant 'to lift up one's voice in joy', from *vi, exclamation of joy
(compare Greek euoi) + tulo, a secondary form of tollo, 'I raise'. Vitula comes
from the Indo-European root *wet-� 'Year'. The originally meaning of these words
was 'yearling'. Derivatives: wether (a castrated ram), bellwether, veteran,
inveterate (from Latin vetus, old < 'having many years'), veterinary (from Latin
veternus, of beasts of burden, of cattle, - perhaps chiefly old cattle), etesian
(occurring annually, used of the prevailing northerly summer winds of the
Mediterranean, from Greek etos, year), veal (the meat of a calf, from Latin
vitellus, a diminutive of vitulus, �calf�), vellum (parchment made from calfskin),
vitellus (the yolk of an egg), from Latin vitulus, calf, yearling. [Pokorny wet-
1175. Watkins].

The Middle-Latin word vitula also referred to a fiddle, as well as a calf or heifer
(might be from where they obtained the gut strings); the word vitula became 'fides'
(meaning string or lute) and evolved into 'fidula' and 'fithela' (Old English),
finally becoming the modern English 'fiddle.'[4]. The word violin also originates
from the Latin vitula, as does viol, and viola. The name Italy is said to derive
from this source; from Latin Italia, from Vitelia (compare Oscan Viteliu, 'Italy'),
which probably meant originally 'Land of cattle', and is related to Latin Vitulus,
'calf [Klein]. A heifer is virgin, older than a calf and younger than a cow.

�They located the sign Virgo among the constellations because on the days when the
sun runs through it the earth is parched by the heat of the sun and bears nothing,
for this is the season of the dog days.� [The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville 7th
century AD, p.106.]

Vellum is parchment made from calfskin.

"I tentatively suggest that Late Middle English parchen derived through back
formation from parchment The noun, parchment was divided into parch-ment and
through this division the verb parch in the sense 'to dry' was 'reconstructed'.
(The originally meaning of parchment was supposed to have been 'anything dried',
and the meaning 'dried skin of animals used for writing' to be secondary). This
etymology is supported by the rather striking fact that while the originally form
parchemin appears for the first time in English about 1300, the form parchment and
the verb parch appear for the first time only about a hundred years later (see
OED.)" [Klein, Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary]

In meteorology, virga is precipitation that falls from a cloud but evaporates


before reaching the ground.

A Latin title for Virgo was Erigone, � "perhaps from the Homeric Erigeneia, the
Early Born, for the constellation is very old" [Allen, Star Names]. Erigone from
Greek eri, early, + -gone, from Greek gonos, 'child, procreation, seed'. Greek eri
is cognate with our word early from the Indo-European root *ayer- 'Day, morning'.
Derivatives: early, ere, erst (as in erstwhile, from Old English aerest, earliest,
from Germanic superlative *airista-). [Pokorny aier- 12. Watkins] Klein supplies
more cognates: "Compare also the first element in Erigenia, Erigeron (the fleabane,
from 'early' + geron, 'an old man'), aristology (Greek ariston 'breakfast')".

Greek eri, early, Old English aerest, Germanic *airista-; bears a resemblance to
Greek aristos, best, and Latin arista 'beard of grain'? Arista was a Roman title
for this constellation.

Virgo is the sign of work and service. If the i, and the last e, is dropped in the
word Erigone, it gives the Greek word for 'work,' ergon:

"Virgo, virginis, a virgin or damsel. Sometimes, though very rarely, it is said of


one married, as in Virg. Eel. 6, 47. As we say Spinster, that is, Spinning woman,
for damsel�so the Greeks might say a working woman under the same idea. From Greek
ergo might be erganis, (same as ergane), which could produce verginis, virginis. Or
Greek ergon, might be used as both masculine and feminine, and from Greek ergon
could be vergo, virgo. Alternatively from vireo (green), whence virigo, virgo." [An
etymological dictionary of the Latin language, Valpy, 1828, p.512-513]

Greek ergon is cognate with the English word 'work' and derives from the Indo-
European root *werg- 'To do'. The Indo-European root *werg-, has the Latin
pronunciation verg-, or virg-, as in Virgo. Some derivatives: energy, erg,
ergonomics, -urgy, work, wrought, erk, -wright, organ, organize, orgy. [Pokorny 2.
werg- 1168.]

Astraea, meaning 'starry', was a Greek title for Virgo which as Aratus says might
derive from Astraeus who was her father. Astraea once dwelt on earth among mankind.
She became ever critical of the Brazen Age man, for their violence and greed, and
for no longer upholding justice. She departed the earth in disgust.

Virgo is also portrayed as Justice (Justitia) or Dike holding the scales of Libra.
Aratus says about Virgo:

Beneath both feet of Bootes mark the Maiden who in her hands bears the gleaming Ear
of Corn (Spica). Whether she be daughter of Astraeus, who, men say, was of old the
father of the stars [Greek astor, star], or child of other sire, untroubled be her
course! But another tale is current among men, how of old she dwelt on earth and
met men face to face, nor ever disdained in olden time the tribes of men and women,
but mingling with them took her seat, immortal though she was. Her men called
Justice (Dike); but she assembling the elders, it might be in the market-place or
in the wide-wayed streets, uttered her voice, ever urging on them judgments kinder
to the people. Not yet in that age had men knowledge of hateful strife, or carping
contention, or din of battle, but a simple life they lived. Far from them was the
cruel sea and not yet from afar did ships bring their livelihood, but the oxen and
the plough and Justice herself, queen of the peoples, giver of things just,
abundantly supplied their every need. Even so long as the earth still nurtured the
Golden Race, she had her dwelling on earth. But with the Silver Race only a little
and no longer with utter readiness did she mingle, for that she yearned for the
ways of the men of old. Yet in that Silver Age was she still upon the earth; but
from the echoing hills at eventide she came alone, nor spake to any man in gentle
words. But when she had filled the great heights with gathering crowds, then would
she with threats rebuke their evil ways, and declare that never more at their
prayer would she reveal her face to man. "Behold what manner of race the fathers of
the Golden Age left behind them! Far meaner than themselves! but ye will breed a
viler progeny! [the Iron Age?]. Verily wars and cruel bloodshed shall be unto men
and grievous woe shall be laid upon them." Even so she spake and sought the hills
and left the people all gazing towards her still. But when they, too, were dead,
and when, more ruinous than they which went before, the Race of Bronze was born,
who were the first to forge the sword of the highwayman, and the first to eat of
the flesh of the ploughing-ox, then verily did Justice loathe that race of men and
fly heavenward and took up that abode, where even now in the night time the Maiden
is seen of men, established near to far-seen Bootes. [Aratus, Phaenomena, 3rd
century B.C., p.237-239]

In the Secret Teachings of All Ages, Manly P. Hall shows how the Assumption of the
Virgin Mary is a parallel to Astraea rise into the Heavens; "and she flew away to
the stars" as Hyginus puts it [Astronomy 2.25 (3)]: Concerning the Catholic Feast
of the Assumption and its parallel in astronomy, he quotes:

"At the end of eight months, when the sun-god, having increased, traverses the
eighth sign, he absorbs the celestial Virgin in his fiery course, and she
disappears in the midst of the luminous rays.... This phenomenon, which takes place
every year about the middle of August... The Roman calendar of Columella marks the
death or disappearance of Virgo at this period. This is where the Catholics place
the Feast of the Assumption, or the reunion of the Virgin to her Son, formerly
called the feast of the Passage of the Virgin. The ancient Greeks and Romans fix
the assumption of Astraea, who is also this same Virgin, on that day.'"
http://www.lf8.org/taboo/TheSecretTeachingsofAllAges.pdf

"In Egypt Virgo was drawn on the zodiacs of Denderah and Thebes which Eratosthenes
and Avienus identified with Isis, the thousand-named goddess, with the wheat ears
in her hand that she afterwards dropped to form the Milky Way" [Allen, Star Names].
(In another myth Hercules is responsible for the formation of the Milky Way)

The astrological influences of the constellation given by Manilius:

"spicifera est Virgo Cereris" � "The Virgin with her sheaf belongs to Ceres".
[Astronomica, Manilius, 1st century AD, p.117]
"Virginis in propriam descendunt ilia sortem", � "the belly comes down to the
Maid as her rightful lot" [Astronomica, Manilius, 1st century AD, p.119]

"At her rising Erigone, who reigned with justice over a bygone age and fled when it
fell into sinful ways, bestows high eminence by bestowing supreme power; she will
produce a man to direct the laws of the state and the sacred code; one who will
tend with reverence the hallowed temples of the gods. [Astronomica, Manilius, 1st
century AD, p.265]

The temperaments of those whose span of life she pronounces at their birth Erigone
will direct to study, and she will train their minds in the learned arts. She will
give not so much abundance of wealth as the impulse to investigate the causes and
effects of things. On them she will confer a tongue which charms, the mastery of
words, and that mental vision which can discern all things, however concealed they
be by the mysterious workings of nature. From the Virgin will also come the
stenographer [scriptor crit velox]: his letter represents a word, and by means of
his symbols he can keep ahead of utterance and record in novel notation the long
speech of a rapid speaker. But with the good there comes a flaw: bashfulness
handicaps the early years of such persons, for the Maid, by holding back their
great natural gifts, puts a bridle on their lips and restrains them by the curb of
authority. And (small wonder in a virgin) her offspring is not fruitful.
[Astronomica, Manilius, 1st century AD, p.237 and 239]

Manilius says: "From the Virgin will also come the stenographer [scriptor crit
velox]: his letter represents a word" ; the speedwriter, the shorthand writer.
Vellum and parchment, derived from the skins of animals, were very expensive
commodities. The need to economise had encouraged the use of a highly abbreviated
style of writing in Latin. The Celtic ogham, and Germanic runes were written on
vellum and parchment. Paper making started in Europe in the 13th century.

� Anne Wright 2008.

Fixed stars in Virgo


Star 1900 2000 R A Decl 1950 Lat Mag Sp Orb
nu 22VIR47 24VIR10 175 49 21 +06 48 35 +04 35 19 4.20 M1 34m
Zavijava beta 25VIR45 27VIR10 177 01 21 +02 02 47 +00 41 37 3.80
F8 37m
Zaniah eta 03LIB08 04LIB31 184 20 12 -00 23 21 +02 04 51 4.00 A0
35m
Vindemiatrix epsilon 08LIB33 09LIB56 194 55 18 +11 13 39 +16 12 28
2.95 G6 45m
Porrima gamma 08LIB46 10LIB08 189 46 53 -01 10 32 +02 47 41 2.91
F0 46m
Auva delta 10LIB04 11LIB28 193 16 15 +03 40 07 +08 37 06 3.66 M3
38m
theta 16LIB51 18LIB14 196 50 22 -05 16 21 +01 44 46 5.65 B0 19m
Heze zeta 20LIB29 22LIB52 203 02 09 -00 20 28 +08 38 25 3.44 A2
41m
Spica alpha 22LIB27 23LIB50 200 38 20 -10 54 04 -02 03 03 0.98 B2
65m
tau 26LIB22 27LIB45 209 46 30 +01 47 08 +13 03 58 4.34 A1 33m
Syrma iota 02SCO24 03SCO48 213 20 49 -05 45 46 +07 12 33 4.16 F5
34m
kappa 03SCO07 04SCO30 212 33 33 -10 02 31 +02 54 55 4.31 K2 33m
Khambalia lambda 05SCO33 06SCO57 14h18m -13.08 00 +00 29 00 4.60
A2 29m
109 07SCO08 08SCO31 220 55 46 +02 06 08 +17 06 22 3.76 A0 37m
mu 08SCO45 10SCO08 220 06 19 -05 26 31 +09 40 49 3.95 F3 35m
Hevelius, Firmamentum, 1690
History of the constellation
from Star Names,1889, Richard H. Allen

Virgo, the Virgin, is the Anglo-Saxon Maeden, the Anglo-Norman Pulcele, the French
Vierge, the Italian Virgine, Bayer's Junckfraw, and the present German Jungfrau, �
in fact a universal title, � generally has been figured with the palm branch in her
right hand and the spica, or ear of wheat, in her left. Thus she was known in the
Attic dialect as Kore, the Maiden, representing Persephone, the Roman Proserpina,
daughter of Demeter, the Roman Ceres; while in the Ionic dialect Nonnus, of our 5th
century, called her stakhuodes Koure {Page 461} (Stachyodes Koure), the Wheat-
bearing Maiden, spicifera Virgo Cereris, the Virgo spicea munera gestans of
Manilius. When regarded as Proserpina, she was being abducted by Pluto in his
Chariot, the stars of adjacent Libra; and the constellation also was Demeter
herself, the Ceres spicifera dea, changed by the astrologers to Arista, Harvest, of
which Ceres was goddess. Caesius had it Arista Puellae, that would seem more
correct as Aristae Puella, the Maiden of the Harvest.

Those who claim very high antiquity for the zodiacal signs assert that the idea of
these titles originated when the sun was in Virgo at the spring equinox, the time
of the Egyptian harvest. This, however, carries them back nearly 15,000 years,
while Aratos said that Leo first marked the harvest month; so that another
signification has been given to the word stachyodes (stakhuodes). We read, too,
that "In Ogygian ages and among the Orientals, she was represented as a sun-burnt
damsel, with an ear of corn in her hand, like a gleaner in the fields;" and, like
most of that class, with a very different character from that assigned to her by
the classic authors. Is it not this ancient story of the Maiden of the Wheat-field
that is still seen in the North English and South Scottish custom of the Kern-baby,
or Kernababy, � the Corn, or Kernel, Baby, � thus described by Lang in his Custom
and Myth ?

The last gleanings of the last field are bound up in a rude imitation of the human
shape, and dressed in some rag-tags of finery. The usage has fallen into the
conservative hands of children, but of old "the Maiden" was a regular image of the
harvest-goddess, which, with a sickle and sheaves in her arms, attended by a crowd
of reapers, and accompanied with music, followed the last carts home to the farm.
It is odd enough that the "Maiden" should exactly translate the old Sicilian name
of the daughter of Demeter. "The Maiden" has dwindled, then, among us to the
rudimentary Kernababy; but ancient Peru had her own Maiden, her Harvest Goddess.

And in Vendee the farmer's wife, as the corn-mother, is tossed in a blanket with
the last sheaf to bring good luck in the subsequent threshing. Perhaps Caesius had
some of this in view when he associated our sky figure with Ruth, the Moabitess,
gleaning in the fields of Boaz.

Virgo also was Erigone, � perhaps from the Homeric Erigeneia, the Early Born, for
the constellation is very old, � a stellar title appearing in Vergil's apotheosis
of his patron Augustus. This was the maiden who hung herself in grief at the death
of her father Icarius, and was transported to the skies with Icarius as Bootes, and
their faithful hound Maira as Procyon, or Sirius; all of which is attested by
Hyginus and Ovid. It may have been this Icarian story that induced Keats' Lines on
the Mermaid Tavern:

{Page 462}

Sipping beverage divine,

And pledging with contented smack


The Mermaid in the Zodiac.

Sometimes she was figured with the Scales in her hands, �

Astraea's scales have weighed her minutes out,

Poised on the zodiac, �

whence she has been considered Dike, the divinity of Justice, the Roman Justa or
Jastitia; and Astraea, the starry daughter of Themis, the last of the celestials to
leave the earth, with her modest sister Pudicitia, when the Brazen Age began. Ovid
wrote of this:

Virgo caede madentes,

Ultima coelestum, terras Astraea reliquit;

when, according to Aratos, she

Soared up to heaven, selecting this abode,

Whence yet at night she shows herself to men.

Thus she is the oldest purely allegorical representation of innocence and virtue.
This legend seems to be first found with Hesiod, and was given in full by Aratos,
his longest constellational history in the Phainomena, Other authors mentioned her
as Eirene, Irene, the sister of Astraea, and the Pax of the Romans, with the olive
branch; as Concordia; as Parthenos Dios, the Virgin Goddess; as Sibulla, the
Singing Sibyl, carrying a branch into Hades; and as Tukhe, the Roman Fortuna,
because she is a headless constellation, the stars marking the head being very
faint.

Classical Latin writers occasionally called her Ano, Atargatis, and Derceto, the
Syrorum Dea transferred here from Pisces; Cybele drawn by lions, for our Leo
immediately precedes her; Diana; Minerva; Panda and Pantica; and even Medusa.
Posidippus, 289 B.C., gave Thesbia or Thespia, daughter of Thespius, or of the
Theban Asopus; and some said that one of the Muses, even Urania herself, was placed
here in the sky by Apollo.

Aspolia is from Kircher, who in turn took it from the Coptic Egyptians, the Statio
amoris, quem in incremento Nili du ostendebant. This, however, is singularly like H
Polias, designating Minerva as guardian of citadels and the State, already seen as
a title for this constellation; and there was a Coptic Asphulia in Leo as a moon
station.

In Egypt Virgo was drawn on the zodiacs of Denderah and Thebes, much
disproportioned and without wings, holding an object said to be a distaff marked by
the stars of Coma Berenices; while Eratosthenes and Avienus identified her with
Isis, the thousand-named goddess, with the {Page 463} wheat ears in her hand that
she afterwards dropped to form the Milky Way, or clasping in her arms the young
Horus, the infant Southern sun-god, the last of the divine kings. This very ancient
figuring reappeared in the Middle Ages as the Virgin Mary with the child Jesus,
Shakespeare alluding to it in Titus Andronicus as the

Good Boy in Virgo's lap;

and Albertus Magnus, of our 13th century, asserted that the Savior's horoscope lay
here. It has been said that her initials, MV, are the symbol for the sign c;
although the International Dictionary considers this a monogram of Par, the first
syllable of Parthenos, one of Virgo's Greek titles; and others, a rude picturing of
the wing of Istar, the divinity that the Semites assigned to its stars, and
prominent in the Epic of Creation.

This Istar, or Ishtar, the Queen of the Stars, was the Ashtoreth of the 1st Book of
the Kings, xi, 5, 33, the original of the Aphrodite of Greece and the Venus of
Rome; perhaps equivalent to Athyr, Athor, or Hathor of the Nile, and the Astarte of
Syria, the last philologically akin to our Esther and Star, the Greek Aster.
Astarte, too, was identified by the Venerable Bede with the Saxon goddess of
spring, Eostre, at whose festival, our Easter, the stars of Virgo shine so brightly
in the eastern evening sky; and the Sumerians of southern Babylonia assigned this
constellation to their sixth month as the Errand, or Message, of Istar.

In Assyria Virgo represented Baaltis, Belat, Belit, and Beltis, Bel's wife; while
some thought her the Mylitta of Herodotus. But this was a very different divinity,
the Babylonian Molatta, the Moon, the Mother, or Queen, of Heaven, against whose
worship the Jews were warned in the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah, xliv, 17, 19, and
should not be confounded with Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Zidonians, that our
figure symbolized.

In India Virgo was Kanya, the Tamil Kauni, or Maiden, � in Hyde's transcription,
Kannae, � mother of the great Krishna, figured as a Goddess sitting before a fire,
or as a Gul; and in the Cingalese zodiac as a Woman in a Ship, with a stalk of
wheat in her hand. Al Biruni thought this ship marked by the line of stars beta
(Zavijava), eta (Zaniah), gamma (Porrima), delta (Auva), and epsilon
(Vindemiatrix), like a ship's keel. Varaha Mihira borrowed the Greek name, turning
it into Parthena, Partina, or Pathona.

In Persia it was Khosha, or Khusak, the Ear of Wheat, and Secdeidos de Darzama,
this last often translated the "Virgin in Maiden Neatness"; but Ideler, doubting
this, cited Beigel's conjecture that it was a Persian rendering of Stachys, one of
the Greek titles of Virgo's star Spica. Bayer had it Seclenidos de Darzama.

The early Arabs made from some members of the constellation the {Page 464} enormous
Lion of their sky; and of others the Kennel Corner, with dogs barking at the Lion.
Their later astronomers, however, adopted the Greek figure, and called it Al
'Adhra' al Nathifah, the Innocent Maiden, remains of which are found in the
mediaeval titles Eladari, Eleadari, Adrendesa, and in the Adrenedesa of Albumasar.
But as they would not draw the human form, they showed the stars as a sheaf of
wheat, Al Sunbulah, or as some stalks with the ripened ears of the same, from the
Roman Spica, its brightest star. Kazwini gave both of these Arabian names, the last
degenerating into Sunbala, found in Bayer, and Sumbela, still occasionally seen.
The Almagest of 1515 says Virgo est Spica.

The Turcomans knew the constellation as Dufhiza Pakhiza, the Pure Virgin; and the
Chinese, as She Sang Neu, the Frigid Maiden; but before their Jesuit days it was
Shun Wei, which Miss Clerke translates the Serpent, but Williams, the Quail's Tail,
a part of the early stellar figure otherwise known as the Red Bird, Pheasant, or
Phoenix.

It appears as Ki, the 20th in the Euphratean cycle of ecliptic constellations, and
considered equivalent to Asru, a Place, i. e. the moon station that Spica marked;
but Jensen thinks that the original should be Siru, or Shiru, perhaps meaning the
"Ear of Corn"; much of this also is individually applied to Spica.

In the land of Judaea Virgo was Bethulah, and, being always associated with the
idea of abundance in harvest, was assigned by the Rabbis to the tribe of Asher, of
whom Jacob had declared "his bread shall be fat." In Syria it was Bethulta.
Thus, like Isis, one of her many prototypes, Virgo always has been a much named and
symbolized heavenly figure; Landseer saying of it, "so disguised, so modernized and
be-Greek'd . . . that we literally don't know her when we see her."

In astrology this constellation and Gemini were the House of Mercury, Macrobius
saying that the planet was created here; the association being plainly shown by the
caduceus of that god, the herald's trumpet entwined with serpents, instead of the
palm branch, often represented in her left hand. But usually, and far more
appropriately, Virgo's stars have been given over to the care of Ceres, her
namesake, the long-time goddess of the harvest. For her astrological colors Virgo
assumed black speckled with blue; and was thought of as governing the abdomen in
the human body, and as bearing rule over Crete, Greece, Mesopotamia, Turkey,
Jerusalem, Lyons, and Paris, but always as an unfortunate, sterile sign. Manilius
asserted that in his day it ruled the fate of Arcadia, Caria, Ionia, Rhodes, and
the Doric plains. Ampelius assigned to it the charge of the wind Argestes, that
blew {Page 465} to the Romans from the west-southwest according to Vitruvius, or
from the west-northwest according to Pliny.

The latter said that the appearance of a comet within its borders implied many
grievous ills to the female portion of the population.

Virgo was associated with Leo and with the star Sirius in the ancient opinion that,
when with the sun, they were a source of heat; Ovid alluding to this in his Ars
Amatoria:

Virginis aetherus cum caput ardet equis.

And John Skelton, the royal orator of King Henry VII, wrote:

In autumn when the sun in Virgine

By radiant heat enripened hath our corne.

A coin of Sardis, the capital of the kingdom of Lydia, bears her figure with the
wheat ear in her left hand and a staff in her right; and the stateres of Macedonia
have much the same. The Alfonsine Tables showed her as a very young girl with
wings; the Leyden Manuscript and the Hyginus of 1488 as a young woman with branch
and caduceus, and the Albumasar of 1489, as a woman with a fillet of wheat ears.
The old German illustration also gave her wings, but dressed her in a high-necked,
trailing gown; and Durer drew her as a lovely winged angel.

Julius Schiller used her stars to represent Saint James the Less, and Weigel, as
the Seven Portuguese Towers.

But all these figurings, ancient as some of them may be, are modern when compared
with the still enduring Sphinx generally claimed as prehistoric, perhaps of the
times of the Hor-she-shu, long anterior to the first historical Egyptian ruler,
Menes; and constructed, according to Greek tradition, with Virgo's head on Leo's
body, from the fact that the sun passed through these two constellations during the
inundation of the Nile. Some Egyptologists, however, would upset this astronomical
connection of the Virgin, Lion, and Sphinx, Mariette claiming the head to be that
of the early god Harmachis, and others as of an early king.

Ptolemy extended the constellation somewhat farther to the east than we have it,
the feet being carried into the modern Libra, and the stars that Hipparchos placed
in the shoulder shifted to the side, to correct, as he said, the comparative
distances of the stars and members of the body. Upon our maps it is about 52� in
length, terminating on the east at lambda and mu, and so is the longest of the
zodiac figures. It is bounded on the north by Leo, Coma Berenices, and Bootes; on
the east by Serpens and Libra; on the {Page 466} south by Hydra, Corvus and Crater;
and on the west by Leo, Crater, and Corvus.

While the beautiful Spica is its most noteworthy object to the casual observer, yet
the telescope shows here the densest nebular region in the heavens, in the space
marked by its beta (Zavijava), eta (Zaniah), gamma (Porrima), delta (Auva), and
Denebola of Leo; while other nebulae are scattered all over this region of the sky.
Sir William Herschel found here no less than 323, which later search has increased
to over 500, � very many more nebulae than naked-eye stars in the constellation.
Argelander gives 101 of the latter, and Heis 181.

It is for these four stars in Virgo, forming with epsilon (Vindemiatrix) two sides
of a right-angled triangle open towards Denebola, gamma (Porrima) at its vertex,
that Professor Young uses his mnemonic word Begde to recall their order. They
extend along the wings through the girdle, and were the Kennel Corner of the
Barking Dogs of the Arabs, often considered as the Dogs themselves.

Von Zach, of Gotha, rediscovered here on the last day of the first year of this
century the minor planet Ceres, whose position had been lost some time after its
discovery by Piazzi on the previous New Year's Day; Olbers repeating this, and
independently, the next evening, the first anniversary of the original discovery.
Here, too, Olbers found, on the 28th of March, 1802, another minor planet, Pallas,
the second one discovered, and appropriately named, for the thirty-first of the
Orphic Hymns described this goddess as "inhabiting the stars."

The sun passes through the constellation from the 14th of September to the 29th of
October; and during this time

the Virgin trails No more her glittering garments through the blue.

You might also like