Page:Aratus The Phenomena and Diosemeia.pdf/93

 Manillius closely imitates Aratus in his description of the constellations of the Bears:

Aratus prefaces the first fable which he introduces with hereby shewing that he himself did not credit these fabulous notions, and cautioning his reader to distinguish between the astronomical truths and ornamental fictions of his poem. In like manner Germanicus says of the Goats in the constellation of Auriga:

There were various fables respecting the constellations of the Bears. The one adopted by Aratus is, that Helice and Cynosyra, two nymphs of Mount Ida in Crete, nursed the infant Jove, when his mother Ops secreted him for a year among the Corybantes from the cruel intention of his father