Page:The Music of the Spheres.djvu/47



One of the most famous statues extant is the Venus de' Medici preserved in the Uffizi Gallery at Florence. This statue, which was dug up in several fragments during the the 17th century, is the work of Cleomenes, an Athenian who "flourished" in 150

Venus was called Aphrodite by the Greeks, from aphros, meaning foam. Some poets have told how the foam itself suddenly turned iridescent, trembled, and from its center rose the lovely Venus. Others tell how a closed shell tinted like a rose floated to the top of a billow where it opened and disclosed the pearly daintiness of the goddess. The god Zephyrus, the west wind, then wafted her to the shores of Cyprus where she was adorned by the Hours and later carried to the home of the gods on Mount Olympus where the most beautiful star in the sky, the planet Venus, was named after her.

Owing to the slanting motion of the stars when in the east or west, the figures of these star groups show marked changes. The "Great Square," for instance, stands on a corner star when seen in the east and west although it is a perfect square when seen in the south, while the "Twins" appear above the eastern horizon standing on their heads, slowly right themselves as they travel across the sky and sink feet first when they disappear below the horizon in the west.

To illustrate more clearly one might imagine the "Giant Orion" to be a tiny toy fastened by his waist to a wire bent in the shape of an arc. As he slides from east to west it is easy to see how his position changes in relation to an eye directly in front of him. This vary-