Scorpius 12

δ, 2.5.

Dschubba is found in the Whitall Planisphere, probably from Al Jabhah, the Front, or Forehead, where it lies.
In the Palermo Catalogue the title Iclarkrav is applied to a star whose assigned position for the year 1800 would indicate our δ. If this be the case, it may have been a specially coined word from the Arabs' Iklīl al ʽAḳrab, the Crown of the Scorpion; and this conjecture would seem justified by our previous experience of that catalogue's star nomenclature as seen in its remarkable efforts with α and β Delphini. Riccioli had Aakràb genubi.
δ was of importance in early times, for with β and π, on either side in a bending line, it is claimed for the Euphratean Gis-gan-gu‑sur, the Light of the Hero, or the Tree of the Garden of Light, "placed in the midst of the abyss," and so reminding us of that other tree, the Tree of Life, in the midst of the Garden of Eden. It was selected by the Babylonian astronomers, with β, to point out their 23d ecliptic constellation, which Epping calls Qablu (und qābu) sha rīshu aqrabi, the Middle of the Head of the Scorpion. The earliest record that we have of the planet Mercury is in connection with these same two stars seen from that country 265 B.C. In the lunar zodiac δ, β, and π were the Persian Nūr, Bright; the Sogdian and Khorasmian Bighanwand, Clawless; and the Coptic Stephani, the Crown.
In China the 2d‑magnitude ε, with μ, ζ, η, θ, ι, κ, υ, and λ, formed the 17th sieu, Wei, the Tail, anciently known as Mi and as Vi, μ being the determinant; but, although this Tail coincided with that part of our Scorpion, Brown thinks that reference is rather made to the tail of the Azure Dragon, one of the quadripartite divisions of the Chinese zodiac which lay here.
θ, a 2d‑magnitude red star, was the Euphratean Sargas, lying in the Milky Way just south of λ and υ, with which it formed one of the seven pairs of twin Stars; as such it was Ma‑a‑su. And it may have been, with ι, κ, λ, and υ, the Girtab of the lunar zodiac of that valley, the Vanant of Persia and Vanand of Sogdiana, all meaning the "Seizer," "Smiter," or "Stinger"; but the Persian and Sogdian words generally are used for our Regulus. In Khorasmia these stars were Khachman, the Curved. θ has a 14th‑magnitude greenish companion that may be in revolution around it, 6ʺ.77 away in 1897, at a position angle of 316°.9. See writes of this:
a magnificent system of surpassing interest; one of the most difficult of known double stars.

λ, 1.7.

Shaula probably is from Al Shaulah, the Sting, where it lies; but, according to Al Bīrūnī, from Mushālah, Raised, referring to the position of the sting ready to strike. These words have been confused with the names for the adjoining υ, and in the course of time corrupted to Shauka, Alascha, Mosclek, and Shomlek; Chilmead writing of these last:
It is also called Schomlek, which Scaliger thinkes is read by transposition of the letters for Mosclek, which signifieth the bending of the taile.
Naturally it was an unlucky star with astrologers.
λ and υ were the 17th manzil, Al Shaulah, and the nakshatra Vicritāu, the Two Releasers, perhaps from the Vedic opinion that they brought relief from lingering disease.
Some Hindu authorities, taking in all the stars from ε to υ, called the whole Mūlā, the Root, with the divine Nirrity, Calamity, as regent of the asterism, which was represented as a Lion's Tail; this title appearing also for stars of Sagittarius. In Coptic Egypt λ and υ were Minamref, the Sting; and, on the Euphrates, Sarur.
An imaginary line extended from υ through Shaula serves to point out the near-by clusters 6 M. and NGC 6475, 7 M., visible together in the field of an opera-glass. These probably were the ancient termination of the sting to which Smyth alluded in his comments on λ and υ, although he is not quite clear about the matter; they certainly were the νεφελοειδής of Ptolemy, among his ἀμόρφωτοι of Σκορπίος; and Girus ille nebulosus in the Latin Almagest of 1551. Ulug Beg's translator had Stella nebulosa quae sequitur aculeum Scorpionis, — Tāliʽ al Shaulah, That which follows the Sting.
In the legends of the Polynesian Islanders, notably those of the Hervey group, the stars in the Scorpion, from the two lettered μ to λ and υ, were the Fish-hook of Maui, with which that god drew up from the depths the great island Tongareva; and the names and legend that Ellis, in his Polynesian Researches, applied to Castor and Pollux in Gemini, the Reverend Mr. W. W. Gill asserts, in his Myths and Songs of the South Pacific, belong here, and are the favorites among the story-tellers of the Hervey Islands. They make the star μ1 a little girl, Piri-ere‑ua, the Inseparable, with her smaller brother, μ2, fleeing from home to the sky when ill treated by their parents, the stars λ and υ, who followed them and are still in pursuit.
This μ1 has recently been discovered to be a spectroscopic binary, with a period of about 35 hours. It is a 3.3‑magnitude, and of Secchi's 1st class.
μ2 is of 3.7 magnitude.

ν, Quadruple, 4, 5, 72, and 8.3,

is Jabbah in the Century Cyclopedia, perhaps from its being one of the manzil Iklīl al Jabhah.
It lies 2° east of β, and is another Double Double like ε Lyrae, although less readily resolved, the larger pair being only 0ʺ.89 apart, and smaller about 1ʺ.9. Espin-Webb says: "Probably a quadruple system." Burnham finds it surrounded by a remarkable winglike nebula some 2° in diameter.

ξ, Triple, 5, 5.2, and 7.5, bright white, pale yellow, and gray.

Bayer wrote that the "Barbarians" called this Graffias, a title that Burritt assigned in 1835 to ξ of Libra; but he transferred this in his Atlas of 1856 to β Scorpii, 8 1/2° to the north, leaving this star nameless. On the Heis map ξ is near the tip of the northern claw, so close to the northern scale that Flamsteed made it the 51 Librae of his catalogue.
The components are 1ʺ.4 and 7ʺ.3 apart, and may form a triple system with a possible period of about 105 years.

σ, Double, 3 and 9, creamy white, and τ, 2.9,

were Al Niyāṭ, the Praecordia, or Outworks of the Heart, on either side of, and, as it were, protecting, Antares, the Heart of the Scorpion. Knobel, in his translation of Al Achsasi's work, explains the word as "the vein which suspends the heart"!
υ, 2.8.
Lesath, or Lesuth, is from Al Lasʽah, the Sting, which, with λ, it marks; yet Smyth, who treats of these two stars at considerable length, says that the word is
formed by Scaliger's conjecture from Alascha, which is a corruption of al‑shaúlah. Lesath, therefore, is not a term used by the Arabs, who designate all these bumps, which form the tail, Al‑fiḳrah, vertebrated twirls; they are formed by ε, μ, ζ, η, θ, ι, κ, λ, and υ, and it is supposed that the sting, punctura scorpionis, was formerly carried to the following star, γ, marked nebulous by Ptolemy.
But this γ is surely wrong; that letter really applying to a star in the right claw very far to the west of the sting, — as far as the make-up of the creature will allow. Still Burritt located it as Smyth did. Al Bīrūnī wrote that λ and υ were in the Ḣarazāh, the Joints of the Vertebrae. Riccioli mentioned υ as Lesath vel potius Lessaa Elaakrab Morsum Scorp. vel Denneb Elaakrab; and Bayer, Leschat recté Lesath, Moschleck, Alascha, which we have seen for λ; but the proximity of these stars renders this duplication not unnatural.
The Chinese knew them as Keen Pi, the Two Parts of a Lock.
Ideler thought υ the γ of Telescopium, but this does not agree with Bode's drawing of the latter.

ω1, 4.1, and ω2, 4.6, red.

The Arabians called these Jabhat al ʽAḳrab, the Forehead, or Front, of the Scorpion; and the Chinese, Kow Kin, a Hook and Latch.
They are an interesting naked-eye pair, 14 1/2ʹ apart, lying just south of β; but Bayer mentions and shows only a single star.

Scorpius 11

α, Binary, 0.7 and 7, fiery red and emerald green.

Antares, the well-nigh universal title for this splendid star, is transcribed from Ptolemy's ἀντάρης in the Syntaxis, and generally thought to be from ἀντί Ἄρης, "similar to," or the "rival of," Mars, in reference to its color, — the Latin Tetrabiblos had Marti comparatur; or, in the Homeric signification of the words, the "equivalent of Mars," either from the color-resemblance of the star to the latter, or because the astrologers considered the Scorpion the House of that planet and that god its guardian. Thus it naturally followed the character of its constellation, — perhaps originated it, — and was always associated with eminence and activity in mankind.
Grotius, however, said that the word signifies a Bat, which, as Vespertilio, Sophocles perhaps called it; but Bayer erroneously quoted from Hesychios Ἄνταρτης, a Rebel, and Tyrannus. Caesius appropriately styled the constellation Insidiata, the Lurking One.
Others say that it was Antar's Star, — but they forget Ptolemy, — the celebrated Antar or Antarah who, just previous to the time of Muḥammād, was the mulatto warrior-hero of one of the Golden Muʽallaḳāt.
Our word, however, is sometimes written Antar, which Beigel said is the Arabic equivalent of "Shone"; but the Latin translator of the 1515 Almagest connected it with Natar, Rapine, and so possibly explaining the generally unintelligible expression tendit ad rapinam applied to Antares in that work and in the Alfonsine Tables of 1521; or the expression here may refer to the character of Ἄρης, the god of war. The Rudolphine Tables designated it as rutilans, Pliny's word for "glowing redly."
The Arabians' Ḳalb al ʽAḳrab, the Scorpion's Heart, which probably preceded the Καρδία Σκορπίου and Cor Scorpii of Greece and Rome respectively, became, in early English and Continental lists, Kelbalacrab, Calbalacrab, Calbolacrabi, Calbalatrab, and Cabalatrab; Riccioli having the unique Alcantub, although he generally wrote Kalb Aakrab. Antares alone constituted the 16th manzil, Al Ḳalb, the Heart, one of the fortunate stations; but the Chinese included σ and τ, on either side, for their sieu, the synonymous Sin, anciently Sam, σ being the determinant; although Brown says that this Heart refers to that of Tsing Lung, the Azure Dragon, one of the four great divisions of their zodiac. They also have a record of a comet 531 B.C., "to the left of Ta Shin," which last Williams identified with Antares; while, as the Fire Star, Who Sing, it seems to have been invoked in worship centuries before our era for protection against fire. With some adjacent it was one of the Ming t'ang, or Emperor's Council-hall; his sons and courtiers, other stars, standing close by, to whom Antares, as Ta Who, announced the principles of his government.
p366 The Hindus used α, σ, and τ for their nakshatra Jyesthā, Oldest, also known as Rohinī, Ruddy, from the color of Antares, — Indra, the sky-goddess, being regent of the asterism that was figured as a pendent Ear Jewel.
It was one of the four Royal Stars of Persia, 3000 B.C., and probably the Guardian of the Heavens that Dupuis mentioned as Satevis; but, as their lunar asterism, it was Gel, the Red; the Sogdians changing this to Maghan sadwis, the Great One saffron-colored. The Khorasmians called it Dharind, the Seizer; and the Copts, Kharthian, the Heart.
It pointed out to the Babylonians their 24th ecliptic constellation, Hurru, of uncertain meaning, itself being Urbat according to an astrolabe discovered in the palace of Sennacherib and interpreted by the late George Smith; Brown, however, assigns this title to stars in Lupus. Other Euphratean names were Bilu-sha‑ziri, the Lord of the Seed; Kak-shisa, the Creator of Prosperity, according to Jensen, although this is generally ascribed to Sirius; and, in the lunar zodiac, Dar Lugal, the King, identified with the god of lightning, Lugal Tudda, the Lusty King. Naturally the inscriptions make much of it in connection with the planet Mars, their Ul Suru, showing that its Arean association evidently had very early origin; and from them we read Masu (?) Sar, the Hero and the King, and Kakkab Bir, the Vermilion Star. Brown identifies it with the seventh antediluvian king, Ἐυεδώρανχος, or Udda-an‑χu, the Day‑heaven-bird.
From his Assyrian researches Cheyne translates the 36th verse from the 38th chapter of the Book of Job:
Who hath put wisdom into the Lance-star?
Or given understanding to the Bow-star?
Jensen referring this Lance-star to Antares. Hommel, however, identifies it with Procyon of Canis Minor.
In Egyptian astronomy it represented the goddess Selkit, Selk‑t, or Serk‑t, heralding the sunrise through her temples at the autumnal equinox about 3700-3500 B.C., and was the symbol of Isis in the pyramid ceremonials. Renouf included it with Arcturus in the immense figure Menat.
Penrose mentions the following early Grecian temples as oriented towards the rising or setting of Antares at the vernal equinox: the Heraeum at Argos, in the year 1760, perhaps the oldest temple in cradle of Greek civilization; the first Erechtheum at Athens, 1070; one at Corinth, 770; an early temple to Apollo at Delphi, rebuilt with this orientation in 630; and one of the same date to Zeus at Aegina; — all of these before our era.
It rises at sunset on the 1st of June, culminating on the 11th of July, and is one of the so‑called lunar stars; and some have asserted that it was the first star observed through the telescope in the daytime, although Smyth made this claim for Arcturus. Ptolemy lettered it as of the 2d magnitude, so that in his day it may have been inferior in brilliancy to the now very much fainter β Librae.
Antares belongs to Secchi's third type of suns, which Lockyer says are "in the last visible stage of cooling," and nearly extinct as self-luminous bodies; although this is a theory by no means universally accepted.
The companion is 3ʺ.5 away, and suspected of revolution around its principal; their present position angle is 270°.
A photograph by Barnard in 1895 first showed the vast and intricate Cloud Nebula stretching to a great distance around Antares and the star σ. It was here, two or three degrees north of Antares, that was discovered, on the 9th of June, Coddington's comet, c of 1898, the third comet made known by the camera.

β, Triple, 2, 10, and 4, pale white, —, and lilac.

Graffias generally is said to be of unknown derivation; but since Γραψαῖος signifies "Crab," it may be that here lies the origin of the title, for it is well known that the ideas and words for crab and scorpion were almost interchangeable in early days, from the belief that the latter creature was generated from the former.2 It was thought by Grotius to be a "Barbarian" designation for the Claws of the double constellation; and Bayer said the same, although he used the word for ξ Scorpii in the modern northern claw. In Burritt's Atlas of 1835 it appears for ξ of the northern Scale, the ancient northern Claw; but in the edition of 1856 he applied it to our β Scorpii, and in both editions he has a second β at the base of the tail, west of ε. The Century Dictionary prints it Grassias, probably from erroneously reading the early type for the letter f. β is near the junction of the left claw with the body, or in the arch of the Kite bow, 8° or 9° northwest of Antares. In some modern lists it is Acrab, — Riccioli's Aakrab schemali.
It was included in the 15th manzil, Iklīl al Jabhah, the Crown of the Forehead, just north of which feature it lies, taking in with this, however, the other stars to δ and π; some authorities occasionally adding ν and ρ. This was one of the fortunate stations, and from this manzil title comes the occasional Iclil. The Hindus knew the group as their 15th nakshatra, Anurādhā, Propitious or Successful, — Mitra, the Friend, one of the Adityas, being the presiding divinity; and they figured it as a Row or Ridge, which the line of component stars well indicates. The corresponding sieu, Fang, a Room or House, anciently Fong, consisted of β with δ, π, and ρ, although Professor Whitney thought it limited to the determinant π, the faintest of the group and farthest to the south. It shared with Antares the title Ta Who, and was the central one of the seven lunar asterisms making up the Azure Dragon, Tsing Lung. But individually β seems to have been known as Tien Sze, the Four-horse Chariot of Heaven, and was worshiped by all horsemen. It probably also was Fu Kwang, the Basket with Handles, and highly regarded as presiding over the rearing of silkworms, and as indicating the commencement of the season of that great industry of China.
Timochares saw β occulted by the moon in the year 295 B.C.; and Hind repeats a statement by Ptolemy, from Chaldaean records, that the planet Mars almost occulted it on the 17th of January, 272 B.C.; Smyth, however, substituted β Librae in this phenomenon and 271 B.C. as the date.
The two largest components are 14ʺ apart, at a position angle of 25°; the third being 0ʺ.9 from the first, with a position angle of 89°.
Half-way from β to Antares lies the fine cluster, on the western edge of a starless opening 4° broad. It was this that called forth Sir William Herschel's exclamation:
Hier ist wahrhaftig ein Loch im Himmel!
although powerful telescopes reveal in it many minute stars. His son afterwards described forty-nine such spots in various parts of the sky. This cluster, that Sir William thought might perhaps have been formed by stars drawn from that vacancy, "was lit up in 1860 for a short time by the outburst of a temporary star."

γ, 3.25, red,

lies, in Bayer's map, on the tip of the southern claw, and is the same star as Flamsteed's 20 Librae; but Smyth strangely alluded to it as being at the end of the sting and nebulous; and Burritt placed Bayer's letter at the object mentioned by Smyth. Indeed for at least three hundred years there has been disagreement among astronomers as to this star; for although Argelander and Heis follow Bayer, Gould writes:
Since it appears out of the question that it should ever again be regarded as belonging to Scorpius, I have ventured to designate it by the letter σ [Librae].
Bayer cited for it Brachium, the Arm, as from Vergil, but this was erroneous in so far as being a title for this star, the original brachia in the Georgics simply signifying the "claws" that it marks; Bayer added Cornu, the Horn, as from some anonymous writer.
In Arabia it was Zubān al ʽAḳrab, the Scorpion's Claw, which has become Zuban al Kravi, Zuben Acrabi; and Bayer said Zuben Hakrabi and Zuben el Genubi, contracted from Al Zubān al Janūbiyyah, the Southern Claw. Similar titles also appear for stars in Libra, the early Claws.
In China it was Chin Chay, the Camp Carriage.
Brown included it, with others near by in Hydra's tail, in the Akkadian Entena-mas‑luv, or Ente-mas‑mur, the Assyrian Etsen-tsiri, the Tail-tip.

Scorpius 10

. . . that cold animal
Which with its tail doth smite among the nations.
Longfellow's translation of Dante's Purgatorio.

Scorpius

was the reputed slayer of the Giant (Orion), exalted to the skies and now rising from the horizon as Orion, still in fear of the Scorpion, sinks below it; p361although the latter itself was in danger, — Sackville writing in his Inductionº to the Mirror of Magistrates, about 1565:
Whiles Scorpio, dreading Sagittarius' dart
Whose bow prest bent in flight the string had slipped,
Down slid into the ocean flood apart.
Classical authors saw in it the monster that caused the disastrous runaway of the steeds of Phoebus Apollo when in the inexperienced hands of Phaethon.
For some centuries before the Christian era it was the largest of the zodiac figures, forming with the Χηλαὶ, its Claws, — the prosectae chelae of Cicero, now our Libra, — a double constellation, as Ovid wrote:
Porrigit in spatium signorum membra duorum;
and this figuring has been adduced as the strongest proof of Scorpio's great antiquity, from the belief that only six constellations made up the earliest zodiac, of which this extended sign was one.
With the Greeks it universally was Σκορπίος; Aratos, singularly making but slight allusion to it, added Μεγαθηρίον, the Great Beast, changed in the 1720 edition of Bayer to Μελαθυρίον; while another very appropriate term with Aratos was Τέρας μέγα, the Great Sign. This reputed magnitude perhaps was due to the mythological necessity of greater size for the slayer of great Orion, in reference to which that author characterized it as πλειότερος προφανείς, "appearing huger still."
The Latins occasionally wrote the word Scorpios, but usually Scorpius, or Scorpio; while Cicero, Ennius, Manilius, and perhaps Columella gave the kindred African title Nepa, or Nepas, the first of which the Alfonsine Tables copy, as did Manilius the Greek adjective Ὀπισθο-βάμων, Walking Backward. Astronomical writers and commentators, down to comparatively modern times, occasionally mentioned its two divisions under the combined title Scorpius cum Chelis; while some representations even showed the Scales in the creature's Claws.
Grotius said that the Arabians called the Claws Graffias, and the Latins, according to Pliny, Forficulae.
In early China it was an important part of the figure of the mighty but genial Azure Dragon of the East and of spring, in later days the residence of the heavenly Blue Emperor; but in the time of Confucius it was Ta Who, the Great Fire, a primeval name for its star Antares; and Shing Kung, a Divine Temple, was applied to the stars of the tail. As a member of the early zodiac it was the Hare, for which, in the 16th century, was substituted, from Jesuit teaching, Tien He, the Celestial Scorpion.

Sir William Drummond asserted that in the zodiac which the patriarch Abraham knew it was an Eagle; and some commentators have located here the biblical Chambers of the South, Scorpio being directly opposite the Pleiades on the sphere, both thought to be mentioned in the same passage of the Book of Job with two other opposed constellations, the Bear and Orion; but the original usually is considered a reference to the southern heavens in general. Aben Ezra identified Scorpio, or Antares, with the Kᵋsīl of the Hebrews; although that people generally considered these stars as a Scorpion, their ʽAḳrabh, and, it is claimed, inscribed it on the banners of Dan as the emblem of the tribe whose founder was "a serpent by the way." When thus shown it was as a crowned Snake or Basilisk. A similar figure appeared for it at one period of Egyptian astronomy; indeed it is thus met with in modern times, for Chatterton, that precocious poet of the last century, plainly wrote of the Scorpion in his line,
The slimy Serpent swelters in his course;

and long before him Spenser had, in the Faerie Queen:
and now in Ocean deepe
Orion flying fast from hissing snake,
His flaming head did hasten for to steepe.
But the Denderah zodiac shows the typical form.

Kircher called the whole constellation Ἰσιας,º Statio Isidis, the bright Antares having been at one time a symbol of Isis.
The Arabians knew it as Al ʽAḳrab, the Scorpion, from which have degenerated Alacrab, Alatrab, Alatrap, Hacrab, — Riccioli's Aakrab and Hacerab; and similarly it was the Syrians' Akrevā. Riccioli gave us Acrobo Chaldaeis, which may be true, but in this Latin word he probably had reference to the astrologers.
The Persians had a Scorpion in their Ghezhdūm or Kazhdūm, and the Turks, in their Koirūghi, Tailed, and Uzun Koirūghi, Long-tailed.
The Akkadians called it Girtab, the Seizer, or Stinger, and the Place where One Bows Down, titles indicative of the creature's dangerous character; although some early translators of the cuneiform text rendered it the Double Sword. With later dwellers on the Euphrates it was the symbol of darkness, showing the decline of the sun's power after the autumnal equinox, then located in it. Always prominent in that astronomy, Jensen thinks that it was formed there 5000 B.C., and pictured much as it now is; perhaps also in the semi-human form of two Scorpion-men, the early circular Altar, or Lamp, sometimes being shown grasped in the Claws, as the Scales were in illustrations of the 15th century. In Babylonia this calendar sign was identified with the eighth month, Arakh Savna, our October-November.
Early India knew it as Āli, Viçrika, or Vrouchicam, — in Tamil, Vrishaman; but later on Varāha Mihira said Kaurpya, and Al Bīrūnī, Kaurba, both from the Greek Scorpios. On the Cingalese zodiac it was Ussika.
Dante designated it as Un Secchione,
Formed like a bucket that is all ablaze;
and in the Purgatorio as Il Friddo Animal of our motto, not a mistaken reference to the creature's nature, but to its rising in the cold hours of the dawn when he was gazing upon it. Dante's translator Longfellow has something similar in his own Poets' Calendar for October:
On the frigid Scorpion I ride.

Chaucer wrote of it, in the Hous of Fame, as the Scorpioun; his Anglo-Norman predecessors, Escorpiun; and the Anglo-Saxons, Throwend.
Caesius mistakenly considered it one of the Scorpions of Rehoboam; but Novidius said that it was
the scorpion or serpent whereby Pharaoh, King of Egypt, was enforced to let the children of Israel depart out of his country;
of which Hood said "there is no such thing in history." Other Christians of their day changed its figure to that of the Apostle Bartholomew; and Weigel, to a Cardinal's Hat.
In some popular books of the present day it is the Kite, which it as much resembles as it does a Scorpion.
Its symbol is now given as ♏, but in earlier times the sting of the creature was added, perhaps so showing the feet, tail, and dart; but the similarity in their symbols may indicate that there has been some intimate connection, now forgotten, between Scorpio and the formerly adjacent Virgo (♍).
Ampelius assigned to it the care of Africus, the Southwest Wind, a duty which, he said, Aries and Sagittarius shared; and the weather-wise of antiquity thought that its setting exerted a malignant influence, and was accompanied by storms; but the alchemists held it in high regard, for only when the sun was in this sign could the transmutation of iron into gold be performed. Astrologers, on the other hand, although they considered it a fruitful sign, "active and eminent," knew it as the accursed constellation, the baleful source of war and discord, the birthplace of the planet Mars, and so the House of Mars, the Martis Sidus of Manilius. But this was located in the sting and tail; the claws, as Ζυγός, Jugum, or the Yoke of the Balance (Libra), being devoted to Venus, because this goddess united persons under the yoke of matrimony. It was supposed to govern the region of the groin in the human body, and to reign over Judaea, Mauritania, Catalonia, Norway, West Silesia, Upper Batavia, Barbary, Morocco, Valencia, and Messina; the earlier Manilius claiming it as the tutelary sign of Carthage, Libya, Egypt, Sardinia, and other islands of the Italian coast. Brown was its assigned color, and Pliny asserted that the appearance of a comet here portended a plague of reptiles and insects, especially of locusts.
Although nominally in the zodiac, the sun actually occupies but nine days in passing through the two portions that project upwards into Ophiuchus, so far south of the ecliptic is it; indeed, except for these projections, it could not be claimed as a member of the zodiac.
Scorpio is famous as the region of the sky where have appeared many of the brilliant temporary stars, chief among them, perhaps, that of 134 B.C., the first in astronomical annals, and the occasion, Pliny said , of the catalogue of Hipparchos, about 125 B.C. The Chinese She Ke confirmed this appearance by its record of "the strange star" in June of that year, in the sieu Fang, marked by β, δ, π, ρ, and others in Scorpio. Serviss thinks it conceivable that the strange outbursts of these novae in and near Scorpio may have had some effect in causing this constellation to be regarded by the ancients as malign in its influence. But this character may, with at least equal probability, have come from the fiery color of its lucida, as well as from the history of the constellation in connection with Orion, and the poisonous attributes of its earthly namesake.
In southern latitudes Scorpio is magnificently seen in its entirety, — nearly 45°, — Gould cataloguing in it 184 naked-eye stars.
Along its northern border, perhaps in Ophiuchus, there was, in very early days, a constellation, the Fox, taken from the Egyptian sphere of Petosiris, but we know nothing as to its details.

. . . capricious Antares
Flushing and paling in the Southern arch.
Willis' The Scholar of Thebet Ben Khorat.

Sagittarius 11

α, 4.
This is Rukbat, but variously written Rucba, Rucbah, Rukbah, and Rucbar, from Ulug Beg's Rukbat al Rāmī, the Archer's Knee; in some early books it is Al Rāmī, the Archer himself. The Standard Dictionary has Ruchbar ur Ranich.
The Euphratean Nibat Anu, already alluded to, may be for this, or for some other of the chief components of the constellation; perhaps for ε if, in early days, that star was comparatively as bright as now.

β1, Double, 3.8 and 8, and β2, 4.4.
Arkab and Urkab are from Al ʼUrḳūb, translated by Ideler as the Tendon uniting the calf of the leg to the heel, and this coincides with their location in the figure on modern maps, as well as with their Euphratean title Ur-ner‑gub, the Sole of the Left Foot; but Al Sufi and the engraver of the Borgian globe assigned these stars to the rear of the horse's body.
Kazwini knew α and the two betas as Al Ṣuradain, the two Surad, desert birds differently described, — by some as "larger than sparrows" and variegated black and white (magpies?); by others as yellow and larger than doves.

γ, 3,1, yellow.
Al Naṣl, the Point, is Al Tizini's word designating this as marking the head of the Arrow; but Hyde cited Zujj al Nushshābah of similar meaning. The Borgian globe termed it Al Wazl, the Junction, indicating the spot where the arrow, bow, and hand of the Archer meet.
This star, with δ and ε and with β of the Telescope, was the sieu Ki, but in the worship of China the three were Feng Shï, the General of Wind.

δ, Double, 3 and 14.5, orange yellow and bluish.
Kaus Meridionalis, or Media, is Arabic and Latin for the Middle (of the Bow). It marked the junction of the two Ashādhā; and, with γ and ε, was the Akkadian Sin-nun‑tu, or Si-nu-nu‑tum, the Swallow.
The companion was 26ʺ away in 1896, at a position angle of 276°.4.

ε, Double, 2 and 14.3, orange and bluish,
is Kaus Australis, the Southern (part of the) Bow.
In Euphratean days it may have been Nibat Anu.
ε comes to the meridian on the 8th of August.
The companion is 32ʺ.5 away, at a position angle, in 1896, of 295°.
The comparison of the magnitudes of α, β, γ, δ, and ε in Sagittarius, each one being brighter than the preceding, goes far to show that Bayer was not guided in his star-lettering by any such rule of alphabetical arrangement in order of brilliancy as has been attributed to him.

ζ, Binary, 3.9 and 4.4.
The Latin Almagest of 1515 gives this as Ascella, i.e. Axilla, the Armpit of the figure, still its location on the maps.
The two components have the rapid orbital revolution of 18 1/2 years.
With σ, τ, and φ it formed a portion of the 18th manzil, Al Naʽām, or Al Naʽāïm al Ṣādirah, and the whole of that nakshatra; but the corresponding sieu included λ and μ, with φ as the determinant.

λ, 3.1, yellow.
Kaus Borealis, the Northern (part of the) Bow, was Al Tizini's Rāʽi al Naʽāïm, the Keeper of the Naʽams, the uncertainty as to the meaning of which has already been noticed; but Kazwini evidently understood by it Ostriches, for in his list it is, with the stars μ, Al Ṭhalimain, plainly meaning these desert birds.
With the same stars it may have been the Akkadian Anu-ni‑tum, said to have been associated with the great goddess Istar.
Near λ appeared in A.D. 386 a bright nova, the fourth on record; and 7° northeasterly the cluster 25 M. is visible to the naked eye.

μ1, Triple, 3.5, 9.5, and 1, and μ2, 5.8,
form a wide naked-eye double on the upper part of the bow, and are named in Akkadia and Arabia with the preceding star.
They mark the point of the winter solstice two thirds of the way southward towards, and in line with, the cluster NGC 6523, 8 M., visible to the naked eye, and with other noticeable clusters and nebulae close by. One of these, NGC 6603, 24 M. towards the northeast, is Secchi's Delle Caustiche, from its peculiar arrangement of curves, while the celebrated Trifid Nebula, NGC 6514, 20 M. lies not far off to the southwest. This was discovered in 1764, and so named from its three dark rifts; it is now specially noted from a suspected recent change in its position with regard to a star in one of these rifts. Spectroscopic observations of this object show considerable discordance in their results.
Brown says that the stars in the bow were the Persian Gau and the Sogdian and Khorasmian Yaugh, but by these nations were imagined as a Bull; the Copts knew them as Polis, a Foal.
ν1 and ν2, red stars of the 5th magnitude, 12ʹ apart, and both double, were ʽAin al Rāmī, the Archer's Eye. Ptolemy catalogued them as a nebulous double star, — νεφελοειδής καί διπλοῦς, — among the first to be so designated.
With ξ and ο they were the Chinese Kien Sing, a Flag-staff.
π, a 3d‑magnitude on the back of the head, was Al Tizini's Al Baldah, from the 19th manzil, which it marked; Al Achsasi considering it as Al Nāʼir, the Bright One, of that lunar station.

σ, 2.3.
This has been identified with Nunki of the Euphratean Tablet of the Thirty Stars, the Star of the Proclamation of the Sea, this Sea being the quarter occupied by Aquarius, Capricornus, Delphinus, Pisces, and Piscis Australis. It is the same space in the sky that Aratos designated as the Water; perhaps another proof of the Euphratean origin of much of Greek astronomy.
In India it marked the junction of the nakshatra Ashādhā with Abhijit.
It lies on the vane of the arrow at the Archer's hand.
σ, with ζ and π, may have been the Akkadian Gu-shi-rab‑ba, the Yoke of the Sea.
The 5th‑magnitude stars ψ1, χ1, and χ2 were the Chinese asterism Kow, the Dog.

ω, 4.8; A, 5; b, 4.7; and c, 4,
forming a small quadrangle on the hind quarter of the horse, were the τετράπλευρον of Ptolemy, which Bayer repeated in the Low Latin Terebellum, still often seen for these stars. The Standard Dictionary gives it thus, but mentions the components as ω, or a1, b and e.
The Chinese knew this little figure as Kow Kwo, the Dog's Country.

Sagittarius 10

. . . glorious in his Cretian Bow,
Centaur follows with an aiming Eye,
His Bow full drawn and ready to let fly.
Creech's Manilius.

Sagittarius

Sagittarius, the Archer,
the French Sagittaire, the Italian Sagittario, and the German Schütze, — Bayer's Schütz, — next to the eastward from Scorpio, was Τοξευτής, the Archer, and Ρύτωρ τόξου, the Bow-stretcher, with Aratos; Τοξευτήρ with other Greeks; and Τοχοτής with Eratosthenes, Hipparchos, Plutarch, and Ptolemy. The Βελοκράτωρ cited by Hyde, though not a lexicon word, probably signifies the Drawer of the Arrow.
These were translated by Lucian and the Romans into our title, although Manilius had Sagittifer; Avienus, Sagittiger; and Cicero, Sagittipotens, a term peculiar to him. His equivalent Arquitenens, the ancient form of Arcitenens, — reappearing with Ausonius ( 16. QVO MENSE QVOD SIGNVM SIT AD CVRSVM SOLISPrincipium Iani sancit tropicus Capricornus.Mense Numae in medio solidi stat sidus Aquari.Procedunt duplices in Martia tempora Pisces.Respicis Apriles, Aries Phryxee, kalendas.Maius Agenorei miratur cornua Tauri.Iunius aequatos caelo videt ire Laconas.Solstitio ardentis Cancri fert Iulius astrum.Augustum mensem Leo fervidus igne perurit.Sidere, Virgo, tuo Bacchum September opimat.Aequat et October sementis tempore Libram.Scorpios hibernum praeceps iubet ire Novembrem.Terminat Arquitenens medio sua signa Decembri. ) and with Al Bīrūnī in Sachau's translation, — was also used by early classic writers for this constellation; although where the word is seen with Vergil it is for the god Apollo.
Flamsteed's Atlas has Sagittary, common for centuries before him; Shakespeare calling Othello's house — probably the Arsenal in Venice — the Sagittary,In Troilus and Cressida, where Agamemnon says
The dreadful Sagittary appals our numbers,
the reference is not a stellar one, but to the famous imaginary monster introduced into the armies of the Trojans by the fabling writer Guido delle Colonne, whose work was translated and versified in the Troye Book by Lydgate, the great poet of the 15th century. , i.e. bearing the zodiac sign. The word was early written Sagitary; and Sagittarie and Saagittare in Chaucer's Astrolabe, from his Anglo-Norman predecessor, De Thaun. The Anglo-Saxons had Scytta.
Columella called it Crotos, and Hyginus, Croton, the Herdsman; but how these names are applicable does not appear.
Others have been Ἱππότης, On Horseback; Semivir, the Half Man; Taurus and Minotauros, from his fabled early shape, although now figured in equine form; while Cicero's Antepes and Antepedes may be for this, or for our Centaur. Cornipedes, Horn-Footed, also has been applied to it.
Sometimes the whole was personified by its parts, as with Aratos, where we see Τόξον, the Bow, the Arcus of Cicero and Germanicus; and the Haemonios Arcus of Ovid; in Egypt, where it is said to have been known as an Arrow held in a human hand; and with Ovid again in Thessalicaº Sagitta, Thessaly being the birthplace of the Centaurs. This induced Longfellow's lines in his Poets' Calendar for November:
With sounding hoofs across the earth I fly,
A steed Thessalian with a human face.
And it has been Sagitta arcui applicata; or plain Telum with Capella of Carthage. Bayer cited Pharetra, the Quiver, and, recurring to the Bow, Elkausu or Elkusu, Schickard's Alkauuso, from the Arabic Al Ḳaus. The translator of Ulug Beg added to its modern name quem etiam Arcum vocant, which the Almagest of 1515 confirmed in its et est Arcus. It was the Persian Kamān and Nimasp; the Turkish Yai; the Syriac Ḳeshta and the Hebrew Ḳesheth; Riccioli's Kertko, "from the Chaldaeans"; all signifying a Bow, whence some early maps illustrated Sagittarius simply as a Bow and Arrow. This was an idea especially prevalent in Asiatic astronomy.
Among the Jews it was the tribal symbol of Ephraim and Manasseh, from Jacob's last words to their father Joseph, "his bow abode in strength."

Novidius claimed it as Joash, the King of Israel, shooting arrows out of "the window eastward," at the command of the dying Elisha; but the p353biblical set generally identified it with Saint Matthew the Apostle, although Caesius claimed that Sagittarius was Ishmael.
The formation of this constellation on the Euphrates undoubtedly preceded that of the larger figure, the Centaur Chiron; but the first recorded classic figuring was in Eratosthenes' description of it as a Satyr, probably derived from the characteristics of the original Centaur, Hea-bani, and it so appeared on the more recent Farnese globe. But Manilius mentioned it, as in our modern style, mixtus equo, and with threatening look, very different from the mild aspect of the educated Chiron, the Centaur of the South; while it sometimes is given in later manuscripts and maps with flowing robes; but his crown always appears near his fore feet, and his arrow is always aimed at the Scorpion's heart.
Dupuis said that it was shown in Egypt as an Ibis or Swan; but the Denderah zodiac has the customary Archer with the face of a lion added, so making it bifaced. Kircher gave its title from the Copts as Πιμάηρε, Statio amoenitatis.
The illustrated manuscript partly reproduced in the 47th volume of Archaeologia has a centaur-like figure, Astronochus, which, perhaps, is our Archer; but the title is of unexplained derivation, unless it be the Star-holder, as Ophiuchus is the Serpent-holder, and Heniochus, the Rein-holder.
It is in this same manuscript that is illustrated a sky group, Joculator, The Latin word, the equivalent of the early French Jongleur, is seen with old Bishop Thomas Percy for a Minstrel, applied to King Alfred, usually rendered the "Jester," and representing the Court Fool of mediaeval days; but I find no trace of this elsewhere.
We have already noticed the confusion in the myths and titles of this zodiacal Centaur with those of the southern Centaur, some thinking Sagittarius the Χείρων of the Greeks, — Chiron with Hyginus and the Romans; although Eratosthenes and others, as did the modern Ideler, understood this name to refer to the Centaur proper. Ovid's Centaurus, however, and Milton's Centaur are the zodiac figure, as has been the case with some later poets; James Thomson writing in the Winter of his Seasons:

Now when the chearless empire of the sky
To Capricorn the Centaur Archer yields.
Early tradition made the earthly Chiron the inventor of the Archer constellation to guide the Argonauts in their expedition to Colchis; although, and about as reasonably, Pliny said that Cleostratos originated it, with Aries, during the 6th or 5th century B.C. As to this we may consider p354that, while Cleostratos, possibly, was the first to write on it, certainly none of the Greeks gave it form or title, for we see abundant evidence of its much greater antiquity on the Euphrates.
Cuneiform inscriptions designate Sagittarius as the Strong One, the Giant King of War, and as the Illuminator of the Great City, personifying the archer god of war, Nērgal or Nērigal, or under his guardianship, as the Great Lord. This may be seen in the Mandaeans' name to‑day — Nerig — for the planet Mars, this divinity is mentioned in the Second Book of Kings, xvii.30. An inscription, on a fragment of a planisphere, transcribed by Sayce as Utucagaba, the Light of the White Face, and by Pinches as Udgudua, the Flowing (?) Day, or the Smiting Sun Face, is supposed to be an allusion to this constellation; while on this fragment also appear the words Nibat Anu, which accord with an astrolabe of Sennacherib, and were considered by George Smith as the name of its chief star. Another inscribed tablet, although somewhat imperfect, is thought to read Kakkab Kastu, the Constellation, or Star, of the Bow, — in Akkadian Ban, — indicating one or more of the bow stars of the Archer. This will account for the Τόξον of Aratos and the Arcus of the Latins, Sayce agreeing with this in his rendering Mulban, the Star of the Bow. Pa and χut, Dayspring, also seem to have been titles, the latter because our Archer was a type of the rising sun. Upon some of the boundary stones of Sippara (Sepharvaim of the Old Testament), a solar city, Sagittarius "appears sculptured in full glory." In Assyria it always was associated with the ninth month, Kislivu, corresponding to our November-December, with which we have already seen Orion associated. From all the foregoing it would seem safe to assume the Archer to be of Euphratean origin.
India also claimed Sagittarius for its zodiac of 3000 years ago, figured as a Horse, Horse's head, or Horseman, — Açvini, — a word that appeared in Hindu stellar nomenclature in different parts of the sky. Al Bīrūnī said that the constellation was the Sanskrit Dhanu, or Dhanasu, the Tamil Dhamsu, given by Professor Whitney as Dhanus; while we have a very early statement that the stars of the bow and human part of the Archer represented the fan of lions' tails twirled by Mula, the wife of Chandra Gupta, the Sandrokottos of 300 B.C., ruler over the Indian kingdom Maurya and the Gangaridae and Prasii along the Ganges. But in later Indian astronomy it became Taukshika, derived from the Greek Τοξότης.

The Hindus located here another of their double nakshatras, the 18th and 19th, the Former and the Latter Ashadha, Unconquered, which, in the main, were coincident with the manzilº and sieu of the same numbering. These were under the protection of the divinities Āpas, Waters, and Viçve Devās, the Combined Gods; each being figured as an Elephant's Tusk, and both together as a Bed.
In ancient Arabia the two small groups of stars now marking the head and the vane of the Archer's arrow were of much note as relics of still earlier asterisms, as well as a lunar station. The westernmost of these, — γ, δ, ε, and η — were Al Naʽām al Wārid, the Going Ostriches; and the easternmost, — σ, ζ, φ, χ, and τ, — Al Naʽām al Ṣādirah, the Returning Ostriches, passing to and from the celestial river, the Milky Way, with the star λ for their Keeper. Ideler thought it inexplicable that these non-drinking creatures should be found here in connection with water, and Al Jauhari compared the figures to an Overturned Chair, which these stars may represent. But Al Bīrūnī said that Al Zajjāj had a word that signifies the Beam over the mouth of a well to which the pulleys are attached; while another authority said that pasturing Camels, or Cattle, were intended. There evidently is much uncertainty as to the true reading and signification of this title. All of the foregoing stars, with μ1 and μ2, were included in the 18th manzil, Al Naʽām.
The 19th manzil lay in the vacant space from the upper part of the figure toward the horns of the Sea-Goat, and was known as Al Baldah, the City, or District, for this region is comparatively untenanted. It was marked by one scarcely distinguishable star, probably π, and was bounded by six others in the form of a Bow, the Arabs' Ḳaus, which, however, was not our Bow of Sagittarius. It also was Al Kilādah, the Necklace; and Al Udḥiyy, the Ostrich's Nest, marked by our τ, ν, ψ, ω, A, and ζ; while the space between this and the preceding mansions was designated by Al Bīrūnī as "the head of Sagittarius and his two locks." In his discussion of this subject, quoting, as he often did, from Arab poets, he compared this 19th manzil to "the interstice between the two eyebrows which are not connected with each other," — a condition described by the word ʼAblad, somewhat similar to the Baldah generally applied to it.

The 18th sieu, Ki, a Sieve, anciently Kit, was the first of these groups; and the 19th, Tew, Tow, or Nan Tow, a Ladle or Measure, anciently Dew, was the second; both being alluded to in the She King:

In the south is the Sieve
Idly showing its mouth
* * * * *
But it is of no use to sift;

the commentator explaining that the two stars widest apart were the Mouth, and the two closer together the Heels; but he does not give the connection of these with the Sieve. And of the second group:

In the north is the Ladle
Raising its handle to the west
* * * * *
But it lades out no liquor;

so that our Milk Dipper, ζ, τ, σ, φ, and λ, in the same spot, is not a modern conceit after all. The stars of this Ladle were objects of special worship in China for at least a thousand years before our era; indeed, also were known as a Temple.
The whole constellation was the Chinese Tiger, Williams giving, as another early name, Seih Muh, the Cleft Tree, or Branches cut for fire-wood, and the later name, from the Jesuits, Jin Ma, the Man-Horse. A part of it was included with Scorpio, Libra, and some of Virgo's stars in the large zodiacal division the Azure Dragon. The astrologers incorporated it with Capricornus in their Sing Ki.
Astrologically the constellation was the House of Jupiter, that planet having appeared here at the Creation, a manuscript of 1386 calling it the Schoter "ye principal howce of Jupit"; although this honor was shared by Aquarius and Leo. Nor did Jupiter monopolize its possession, for it also was the domicile of Diana, one of whose temples was at Stymphalus, the home of the Stymphalian birds. These last, when slain by Hercules, were transferred to the sky as Aquila, Cygnus, and Vultur Cadens, and are all paranatellons of Sagittarius, as has been explained under Aquila. Thus the constellation was known as Dianae Sidus. It inclined to fruitfulness, a character assigned to it as far back as the Babylonian inscriptions; and was a fortunate sign, reigning over Arabia Felix, Hungary, Liguria, Moravia, and Spain, and the cities of Avignon, Cologne, and Narbonne; while Manilius said that it ruled Crete, Latium, and Trinacria. Ampelius associated it with the south wind, Auster, and the southwest wind, Africus; Aries and Scorpio being also associated with the latter. Yellow was the color attributed to it, or the peculiar green sanguine; and Arcandum in 1542 wrote that a man born under this sign would be thrice wedded, very fond of vegetables, would become a matchless tailor, and have three special illnesses, the last at eighty years of age. Such was much of the science of his day!
Sagittarius is shown on a coin of Gallienus of about A.D. 260, with the legend Apollini Conservatori; and on those of King Stephen emblematic of his having landed in England in 1135 when the sun was here.
La Caille took the star η out of this constellation for the β of his new Telescopium. This was the 25th of Ptolemy's list in the σφύρον, or pastern, which would indicate that with him the feet had a very different situation from that on the present maps.

The symbol of the sign, ♐, shows the arrow with part of the bow.
Sagittarius contains 54 naked-eye stars according to Argelander, and 90 according to Heis, although none is above the 2d magnitude.
The sun passes through the constellation from the 16th of December to the 18th of January, reaching the winter solstice, The solstices are first mentioned by Hesiod in three different passages of his Works and Days, near the stars μ on the 21st of December, but then of course in the sign Capricorn.
A noticeable feature in the heavens lies within the boundaries of Sagittarius, an almost circular black void near the stars γ and δ, showing but one faint telescopic star; and to the east of this empty spot is another of narrow crescent form.
An extraordinarily brilliant nova is said to have appeared low down in the constellation in 1011 or 1012, visible for three months. This was recorded in the Chinese annals of Ma Touan Lin.