Page:Star Lore Of All Ages, 1911.pdf/439

Rh "Corona Australis," the Southern Crown, which is generally represented as a ring-shaped wreath. This accounts for the substitution of the crown or wreath for the bow and arrow.

From approximately 6000 to 4000 Sagittarius was the constellation in which the autumnal equinoctial point was located, the equinoctial colure passing through the constellations Sagittarius and Taurus. In accordance with this, we find on one of the ancient Assyrian standards the figure of an archer above that of a galloping bull.

Plunket claims that originally only the bow and arrow of Sagittarius were represented for this division of the ecliptic. The first recorded classic figuring of the Archer was in Eratosthenes' description of it as a Satyr. Afterwards it was changed to a Centaur or Bull Killer. The centaurs were an ancient race inhabiting Mt. Pelion in Thessaly.

Longfellow in his "Poet's Calendar" thus refers to the Archer:

The stars ζ, τ, σ, φ and λ Sagittarii form a figure known as "the Milk Dipper." The Dipper appears inverted and the title is appropriate as it is situated in the Milky Way. This figure was known to the ancients as "the Ladle," and these stars were the objects of special worship in China for at least a thousand years before our era. The Chinese called this figure "the Temple," and Sagittarius was known to them as "the Tiger." The Milk Dipper is also called "the Hobby Horse of Sagittarius."

λ, δ, and ε Sagittarii form the bow of the Archer. This bow has metaphorically been regarded as "the Bow of Promise Set in the Cloud," succeeding the Deluge, the "Cloud" being represented by the Milky Way.

The Arabs called this constellation "the Bow." They imagined the stars in the group represented ostriches passing