The Ancient Circle of Animals: The Moon travels among 12 lively constellations.
During the course of a year, the path of the Sun among the stars--the ecliptic--passes through 12 ancient constellations. Because all but one of these 12 constellations represent living things, human or animal, the Greeks called them the "Circle of Animals"--in ancient Greek, kyklos zodiakos, now shortened to zodiac. The one star pattern in the zodiac that doesn't represent an animal is Libra, the Scales. However, the Greeks considered the stars of Libra to be both a Scales and the Claws of the Scorpion, which follows Libra in the zodiac, so it's appropriate to include it in the circle as well.The Greeks inherited the 12 constellations of the zodiac, as well as the concept of the zodiac as a singular object, from the Babylonians. (Ancient BabyIonia occupied south-central Mesopotamia on the floodplain between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers; today, it corresponds to southern Iraq.) The concept of the zodiac was closely related to horoscope astrology --the system of predicting a person's character and future from where the Sun and planets were in the zodiac at the time of their birth--a practice which also came to Greece from Babylonia, though it was a very late development in Mesopotamia. In fact, the earliest known horoscope from Babylonia dates only to 410 BC. But by that time Babylonia had been under the rule of Persian kings for over a century. The ancient Persians were Sun-worshippers, whereas traditionally the Babylonians had used a lunar rather than a solar calendar. Thus, though it was indeed the Babylonians who conceived of the 12 ancient constellations in the path of the Sun as a unit, which the Greeks then called the zodiac, they did so only as late as the 5th century BC under the influence of Persian Sun-worship.
Horoscope astrology as we think of it today developed even later: It didn't attain its final form and great popularity until the 3rd century AD, when the social and political dislocations of the decaying Roman Empire made the powerless multitudes vulnerable to any superstition that promised knowledge about the insecure future and some illusion of control over it.
Lunar versus Solar Calendars
The First Babylonian Dynasty was founded in 1894 BC, but the calculation of lunar calendars dates to even further back. The Sumerians, the cultural predecessors of the Babylonians in southern Mesopotamia, are usually credited with the development of a calendar based on lunar months. The precedence of a lunar over a solar calendar is logical: The path the Moon follows among the stars is much easier to observe than the path of the Sun. The downside of a lunar calendar is evident, however. There isn't an integral number of lunar months in a solar year--it comes out to about 12 and a half --so it's necessary to add an occasional intercalary lunar month to keep a lunar calendar in synch with the meteorological seasons.
The Sumero-Babylonian New Year began with the first visible evening crescent Moon following vernal equinox (when the Sun crosses the plane of Earth's equator, south to north) and therefore usually fell in what corresponds to our late March/early April. Month names, keyed to the lunar calendar, appear on Sumerian clay tablets written before 3000 BC. But most of the Sumerian month names known to us relate to religious festivals that took place during those months: None refer explicitly to any constellation on the ecliptic.
The Babylonian "Lunar Zodiac"
The oldest, complete, surviving astronomical work is a 2-tablet compilation titled (by the ancients themselves, after its first words) MUL.APIN, meaning "Constellation of the Plow." Several copies of it--broken, but almost fully restorable --were found in the mid-19th century in the ruins of the palace at Nineveh of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (r. 668-627 BC). These tablets were written in the early 7th century BC, but internal evidence suggests that the text itself was actually composed before 1000 BC.
Given the importance of the lunar calendar to the ancient Mesopotamians, it isn't surprising that MUL.APIN doesn't itemize the stars and constellations along the path of the Sun, but rather catalogs those "In the Path of the Moon" (see the table on page 67). This list includes 18 stars and star-groups, or six more than we find in the modern solar zodiac, and none are associated with specific, individual months. Virtually all of the 12 Graeco-Roman zodiacal constellations appear in this catalog in some form, seven explicitly so. Two of the star groups, Pa-bil-sag and GU-LA, served as prototypes for the classical conceptions: Pa-bil-sag was envisioned as an Archer-Centaur and GU-LA as a Water-Pourer holding a Streaming Water-Jar. It would seem, then, that the Graeco-Roman 12-constellation solar zodiac resulted from a process of selection from this Mesopotamian ur-catalog of an 18-constellation lunar zodiac. That winnowing, as mentioned above, was done by Babylonian astronomers and astrologers during the 5th century BC, when Babylonia was under control of the Sun-worshipping Persians.
Earliest Ecliptic Constellations
The antiquity of the list of constellations "In the Path of the Moon" is indicated by its lead star-group, MUL.MUL, the Greek Pleiades. At the time the surviving tablets of MUL. APIN were inscribed, around 700 BC, the vernal equinox was in the middle of the classical constellation of Aries. Given the importance of the vernal equinox for the Mesopotamian lunar calendar, had the constellation list actually been compiled around the time it was inscribed, it undoubtedly would have started withHun-ga, predecessor of the modern constellation Aries. The Pleiades were just west-northwest of the vernal equinox during the 3rd millennium BC and would have risen in the morning twilight around the time of the equinox. That they head the list suggests that it was first compiled in the 3rd millennium BC. This is consistent with the fact that the vast majority of the list's star and constellation names are in Sumerian, which ceased to be a living language soon after 2000 BC.
The most ancient zodiac constellations are probably the Bull, the Lion, and the Scorpion. Neolithic art and religious iconography are rich in images of those creatures, though it's difficult to discern which of these, if any, were meant to be explicitly astronomical. In any case, the star patterns of Taurus and Scorpius are sufficiently similar to actual bulls' heads and scorpions that it is a safe bet that those constellations were conceived of during the Neolithic. Around 7000 BC, numerous bulls'-heads and bulls'-horns were sculpted of clay plaster on walls and benches (altars?) in what seem to have been ceremonial rooms in the Neolithic town excavated at Qatal Huyuk in modern southern Turkey. Whether or not these objects were thought to have astronomical relevance is impossible to say; but such a culture would have had a natural inclination to see the star pattern of our Taurus as representing a bull's head.
The Northern Zodiac
The presence in MUL.APIN of Sipa-zi-an-na (Orion) and Su-gi (Perseus), groups that are not on the ecliptic, is at first sight something of a puzzle. However, the Moon's path among the stars is inclined 5[degrees] to the Sun's path, so the Moon sometimes does approach southern Perseus and northern Orion. The Sumerian prototypes of Perseus and his Scimitar--a wizard with his curved wand--are described in a previous article (S&T: May 2016, p. 24).
Though it's a northern constellation, Mas-tab-ba gal-gal, the Great Twins (Gemini), was associated with the patron deity of the southern skies, Enki, the water-god of the archaic Sumerian city of Eridu. This association might hearken back to the early 4th millennium BC, when Eridu was the cultural center of Mesopotamia, and its patron deity presumably held sway over most of the heavens. The Great Twins were envisioned as the Gatepost-Holders of Enki and shown as such on numerous cylinder seals carved during the 3rd millennium BC. These seals display the god enthroned, holding his sacred Streaming Water-Jar, flanked by two nude, wild-haired, frontally faced figures grasping buckled gateposts.
The same kind of nude, wild-haired figure is shown on other cylinder seal designs that include Enki's Streaming Water-Jar and was the prototype of the classical Aquarius. Later Mesopotamian texts recommended that terracotta plaques of these Gatepost-Holders, which they called talim ("Twins"), be buried in the corners of courtyards as protection against evil influences and demonic intruders.
Virgo and Her Ear of Grain
As its appearance on the "In the Path of the Moon" list suggests, the celestial Ear of Grain, the classical Spica, also has Mesopotamian roots. The original meaning of the Sumerian word ab-sm was "furrow": The Sumerians thought of the ecliptic as a celestial plow-furrow and our Alpha Virginis as a seed-grain planted in in it. Planting scenes, some of them clearly astronomical, were quite frequent in Mesopotamian cylinder seal designs of the mid-3rd millennium BC, so it's reasonably certain that the celestial Ear of Grain was in the sky by that time.
Though not explicitly included in the table of constellations "In the Path of the Moon," other sections of MUL.APIN refer to a celestial "Great Lady," Nin-mah, and locate her in the same area of the sky as the Ear of Grain. Nin-mah was one of the Sumerian epithets for the famous fertility goddess Ishtar (Sumerian Inanna), forerunner of the Greek Aphrodite. Thus the constellation Nin-mah was almost certainly the predecessor of the classical Virgo.
As a fertility goddess, Nin-mah was accompanied in the sky by two of her icons: the Ear of Grain, represented by Alpha Virginis; and a Date Cluster represented by the Coma Berenices Star Cluster. A mid-3rd millennium BC cylinder seal design shows a winged Inanna/Ishtar holding her Date Cluster and standing on a mountain range from behind which the sun-god Utu is rising. To the right is Enki, patron deity of the southern heavens, holding Corvus, the celestial Raven, in one hand; and to the left is Leo, the Lion (the constellation west of Coma Berenices), as well as Enlil, patron god of the northern skies. This cylinder seal design shows the heavens as they would have appeared in the third millennium BC at sunrise in early September, the time of year the highly important date harvest began.
By the time the "rising Sun" cylinder seal was carved, the balance-beam Scales that would become Libra were also in the sky. The remains of such scales have been found during excavations at Sumero-Babylonian sites, and at least three mid-3rd millennium seal designs are known which show a balance-beam scale with trays. One of these designs depicts the scale being held over an altar in front of the enthroned Sun-god, Utu. This could be interpreted as a reference to the Sumerian god of Justice, Utu (Akkadian Shamash).
The Archaic Archer
The deity name Pa-bil-sag, which MUL.APIN applies to the stars of the classical Sagittarius, was a throwback. During the early 3rd millennium BC, Pa-bil-sag was the war-god of the
A EVOLVING TWINS This seal impression shows the enthroned water god Enki receiving his double-faced vizier, Isimud. The pair is flanked by the Twin Gatepost-Holders, the prototype(s) of Gemini. Enki holds his Streaming Water-Jar, which eventually would evolve into Aquarius. archaic Sumerian city of Larak. But by the end of the millennium he'd been absorbed by Ninurta, the war-god of the great Sumerian religious capital of Nippur, sacred city of Enlil, and the paramount deity of the Sumerian pantheon. Thus the title Pa-bil-sag for the stars of Sagittarius can be read as a residual of early 3rd millennium BC Sumerian astro-nomenclature.
It is, however, doubtful that Pa-bil-sag was originally envisioned as an archer-centaur: Centaurs do not appear in Mesopotamian art until the late 2nd millennium BC, and centaur-archers even later. However, there's absolutely no doubt that the classical Sagittarius figure did originate in Mesopotamia, because the archer-centaurs that appear on the Egyptian zodiacs carved in the temples at Dendera and Esna on the Nile during the final two centuries BC under Hellenistic Greek influence are exactly the same as archer-centaurs that appeared on Neo-Assyrian cylinder seals around 800 BC.
The "Watery" Zodiac
I described the origins of the "watery" constellations of the zodiac--Capricornus, Aquarius, and Pisces--in a previous article (S&T: March 2015, p. 36). Briefly, the celestial Goat-Fish seems to have been invented around 2100 BC as the descendant of a celestial goat-prowed Boat that had previously occupied these stars; and the Water-Jar and Streams of Aquarius probably go back at least to the early 4th millennium BC as they were the special icons of Enki, whose city Eridu was the cultural center of Mesopotamia at that time. In any case, the Water-Pourer figure appears on Mesopotamian cylinder seals as early as 2300 BC. Pisces, however, was likely a late addition to the "watery" part of the Mesopotamian heavens because 1) there's no clear mention of celestial "Fishes" in the texts of the 2nd millennium BC; 2) even a name like MUL.APIN's Kunmes ("Tails"), is indirect; and 3) at least one part of the classical Pisces, the asterism of the Circlet, had a separate name in Sumerian--Sim-mah ("Great Swallow"), which goes back to the 3rd millennium BC. Taken together, these facts suggest that the zodiacal Fishes were an afterthought inspired by the presence of the more ancient "watery" constellations near it.
The Origin of the Ram
Finally, there's the problem of Aries, the Ram, the one constellation of the Graeco-Roman zodiac that doesn't have an obvious Sumero-Babylonian forerunner. MUL.APIN calls these stars (probably referring particularly to the asterism of Alpha-Beta-Gamma Arietis) luHun-ga, "Hired Laborer." This may be taken'to mean "Plowman," because the Mesopotamians figured a celestial Plow occupying the stars of our Triangulum plus Gamma Andromedae just to the north of this figure. This Plow was pulled by the Bull (Taurus) just to its east to cut the Furrow of the heavens (the ecliptic), with the Plowman guiding it. That scene is shown on a Neo-Assyrian cylinder seal of about 800 BC. The seal's design also shows the Pleiades in their correct position above the Bull's back, and the Ear of Grain--our Spica--directly in front of the Bull.
But all this doesn't explain why the Greeks had a Ram in the stretch of the zodiac where the Mesopotamians earlier had a Plowman. However, MUL.APIN itself provides a possible explanation: It identifies the celestial Hired Laborer with the shepherd-god Dumuzi. Accepting this interpretation of the Hired Laborer as the shepherd-god Dumuzi, the Greek zodiacal Ram can be read as the Leader of the Flock of Dumuzi.
This identification of Dumuzi with the stars of the Plowman isn't as arbitrary as it might seem: Preceding Dumuzi (luHun-ga) "In the Path of the Moon" is Anunitum, an epithet for the fertility goddess Inanna/Ishtar, spouse of Dumuzi, who therefore occupied the stars of the Northern Fish of Pisces. Moreover, the association of the stars of the Northern Fish with Inanna/Ishtar was no accident, because the part of the zodiac that stands 180[degrees] from Virgo is Nin-mah, which, it will be recalled, was another epithet for Inanna/Ishtar (as other tables in MUL.APIN show, the Mesopotamians were very alert to which constellations rose and set opposite each other).
The association of the stars of Pisces with Inanna/Ishtar, prototype of the Greek Aphrodite and Roman Venus, was remembered in Graeco-Roman astrology because Pisces was the hypsomata, "House," of the planet Venus. Moreover, both classical astro-mythographers Hyginus and Manilius relate the story that Venus and Cupid, when confronted on the banks of the Euphrates (the very venue of the story suggests a Mesopotamian origin!) by the monster Typhon, escaped by diving into the river and changing into a pair of fish, the zodiacal Pisces.
The Cycle of Animals
So how and when did the constellations of the zodiac come from Mesopotamia to Greece? The "how" is easier to answer than the "when." For thousands of years, trade had been going from southern Mesopotamia up the Tigris and Euphrates rivers north into southeastern Anatolia (modern Turkey) and west to Syria and the Mediterranean. From Syria, the trade went south to Egypt and west to the Greek islands. This trade carried not only goods but also the culture of the Sumerians and Babylonians. A fragmentary list of Mesopotamian star and constellation names that dates to roughly 1375 BC was found at Tell el-Amarna in central Egypt. But the Mesopotamian constellations were probably known in Egypt long before this, because features of Sumerian culture --particularly in art and architecture--appeared in Egypt before 3000 BC and presumably the Sumerian constellations had come with them.
Constellation figures are easier to follow on their march from Babylonia to Greece than constellation names because most of the traders and travellers were not literate. Thus the constellation figures can be thought of as tracers of the flow of civilization in ancient times. For example, the image of the Mesopotamian Water-Pourer appears in the early 2nd millennium BC in the art of both southeastern Anatolia and Syria. By the mid-2nd millennium Babylonian star-figures like the Water-Pourer, the Goat-Fish, the Serpent-Wrestler, and the Dragon-Drawn Wagon had become part of general Eastern Mediterranean culture. Therefore they were part of the fabric from which the Greek poets of the early 1st millennium BC wove their myths and epics.
* CRAIG CROSSEN is a freelance writer, editor, and traveler who calls Minnesota home base. He co-authored Sky Vistas (2004) and has published several articles on the structure of the Milky Way Galaxy in Sky & Telescope and elsewhere. Presently he is completing books on the origins of the Classical constellations and on the history of archaeology in Iraq.
Caption: ANCIENT ART Mesopotamian astronomy dates to the First Babylonian Dynasty (c. 1894-1595 BC), but it continued to develop through the Selucid Empire (c. 323-60 BC).
Caption: ANCIENT ASTRONOMICAL TEXT Left: Unearthed from the ruins of an Assyrian palace in southern Iraq, this clay tablet, composed in the Akkadian language and inscribed in cuneiform, displays the opening lines of MUL.APIN. The full text of MUL.APIN, known from several larger tablets, contains a wealth of astronomical information, including the names of the major stars and constellations; the heliacal rising dates of important stars; lists of stars and constellations that rise, culminate, or set at the same time; and methods for determining the positions and movements of the Sun, Moon, and planets. Right: Egyptologist E. A. Wallis Budge of the British Museum published this transcription of the reverse side of the MUL.APIN tablet in 1912. Though broken, enough of this and other tablets remain to allow archaeologists like Budge to decipher the names of the important stars "In the Path of the Moon." The relevant section is highlighted on the transcription above.
Caption: NEOLITHIC CATTLE The settlement of Qatal Huyuk, which dates to c. 7500-5700 BC, consisted of rectangular mud-brick houses, arranged such that access was available only through roof openings. Inside many of these single-story dwellings were rooms ornamented with colorful pigments, animal heads, bucrania (bovine skulls), and horns embedded in stylized bulls' heads or attached to benches and pillars.
Caption: EVOLVING TWINS This seal impression shows the enthroned water god Enki receiving his double-faced vizier, Isimud. The pair is flaned by the Twiun Gatepost-Holders, the prototype(s) of Gemini. Enki holds his Streaming Water-Jar, which eventually would evolve into Aquarius.
Caption: MORNING HARVEST This impression, made from a seal dating to c. 2300 BC, shows a winged Ishtar/Inanna holding her date cluster (Coma Berenices) over the rising Sun-god, Utu. The water-god Enki, his Streams replete with fish, steps over a crouched Bull. A Raven (Corvus) perches on Enki's hand. To Enki's right stands the two-faced vizier, Isimud. At left, a Lion (Leo) roars at a figure carrying a bow (possibly the war-god Ninurta). This seal illustrates the heavens just before sunrise at the time of the southern-Mesopotamian date harvest during the 3rd millennium BC.
Caption: HALF HORSE WARRIOR The archer-centaur, a familiar concept in Mesopotamian art, was associated with the Sumerian deity Pa-bil-sag, whose name was given to the star pattern that became Sagittarius. The Greek-influenced archer-centaurs that appear on the Egyptian zodiacs in the temples at Dendera, such as the one circled above, are identical to those found on Neo-Assyrian cylinder seals engraved c. 800 BC.
Caption: BULL WITH SEVEN SISTERS Probably carved around 800 BC, this Neo-Assyrian seal made explicit the connections between agriculture and the heavens for Mesopotamian cultures. Here, a plowman drives a single beast to make a furrow. Above the Bull shine the Sun, Moon, and Pleiades. In front is the Ear of Grain, the Roman Spica.
Sumero-Babylonian Constellations
In the Path of the Moon
Name Translation Identification
MUL.MUL The Constellation Pleiades
par excellence
[Gu.sub.4]-an-na Bull of Heaven Taurus
Sipa-zi-an-na Steadfast Shepherd Orion
of Heaven
Su-gi Old Man, Wizard Perseus
Gam Scimitar, Perseus
Wizard's Wand Double
Cluster
Mas-tab-ba gal-gal Great Twins Gemini
AL-LUL Crab Cancer
UR-GUL-LA Lion Leo
Ab-sin Ear of Grain Spica
Zibanitum Scales Libra
Gir-tab Scorpion Scorpius
Pa-bil-sag [an archaic war-god] Sagittarius
[Suhur-mas.sup.ku6] Goat-Fish Capricornus
MUL.GU-LA The Great Constellation Aquarius
[Kun.sup.mes] Tail (of the Fishes) Pisces
Sim-mah Great Swallow Circlet of Pisces
Anunitum [the goddess Ishtar] Northern Fish
& Beta ([beta]) And
[sup.lu]Hun-ga Hired Laborer, Plowman Head of Aries
These entries come from the MUL.APIN, Tablet 1, column iv, lines
33-57. The transcriptions in the left column follow standard
Assyriological practice for transcribing the original cuneiform.
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| Title Annotation: | ZODIAC HISTORY |
|---|---|
| Author: | Crossen, Craig |
| Publication: | Sky & Telescope |
| Date: | Dec 29, 2017 |
| Words: | 3567 |
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