Page:Star Lore Of All Ages, 1911.pdf/174

116 This is the explanation of this figure given by most authorities on constellational history to account for the amphibious character of Capricornus. It also explains the ancient oriental legend that Jupiter was suckled by the goat Amalthea, the meaning of which appears to be that the sun, emerging from the stars of Capricornus at the winter solstice, begins to grow in light and heat as he mounts toward the vernal equinox. He is thus figuratively said to be nourished by a goat.

Maunder takes exception to this explanation, and holds that as the constellations were mapped out many centuries before the winter solstice fell in Capricornus, this view of the matter, though ingenious, is illogical and erroneous.

Capricornus was called by the ancient Oriental nations "the Southern Gate of the Sun." In Grecian mythology it was considered "the Gate of the Gods," and through its stars the souls of men released at death were supposed to pass to the hereafter.

Allen tells us that Aratos called this constellation the "Horned Goat," to distinguish it from the of Auriga. The Latinised form, "Ægoceros," was in frequent use with all classical authors who wrote on astronomy.

"The Yoke" was another title borne by the constellation, a name suggested by the configuration of the three principal stars, α, β and δ. According to Brown, the Akkadai, the most ancient nation known to us, called the tenth month "the cave of the rising" (of the sun), and its nocturnal sign Capricornus, the solar goat, a reduplication of the solar ram, represented the sun rising from the great deep of the under world, as Shakespeare puts it: "from the blind cave of eternal night," and hence a demi-fish.

The Romans considered that Capricornus was under the special protection of Vesta, and they regarded the constellation with great veneration as having shed its influence on the birth of Augustus. We find the figure of a goat on