http://www.skyandtelescope.com.au 41The 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.
APINcallsthesestars(probablyreferringparticularlytothe
asterism of Alpha-Beta-Gamma Arietis)lúHun-gá, ‘Hired
Labourer’. This may be taken to mean ‘Ploughman,’ because
the Mesopotamians figured a celestial Plough occupying the
starsofourTriangulumplusGammaAndromedaejustto
the north of this figure. This Plough was pulled by the Bull
(Taurus) just to its east to cut the Furrow of the heavens (the
ecliptic), with the Ploughman guiding it. That scene is shown
on a Neo-Assyrian cylinder seal of about 800 BCE. The seal’s
design also shows the Pleiades in their correct position above
theBull’sback,andtheEarofGrain—ourSpica—directlyin
frontoftheBull.
Butallthisdoesn’texplainwhytheGreekshadaRamin
the stretch of the zodiac where the Mesopotamians earlier had
a Ploughman. However,MUL.APINitself provides a possible
explanation: It identifies the celestial Hired Labourer with
the shepherd-god Dumuzi. Accepting this interpretation of
the Hired Labourer as the shepherd-god Dumuzi, the Greek
zodiacalRamcanbereadastheLeaderoftheFlockofDumuzi.
This identification of Dumuzi with the stars of the
Ploughman isn’t as arbitrary as it might seem: Preceding
Dumuzi (lúHun-gá) ‘In the Path of the Moon’ is Anunı ̄tum,
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° 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
BCE 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 BCE 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 civilisation in ancient times. For example, the image of
the Mesopotamian Water-Pourer appears in the early 2nd
millennium BCE 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
BCE wove their myths and epics.CRAIG CROSSEN is a freelance
writer, editor and traveller. He co-
authored Sky Vistas (2004) and has
published several articles on the
structure of the Milky Way Galaxy
in this magazine and elsewhere.
Presently he is completing books
on the origins of the Classical
constellations and on the history of
SEAL: W. H. WARD, archaeology in Iraq.
THE SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA
(CARNEGIE INSTITUTE, 1910); RAM: HEVELIUS
BULL WITH SEVEN SISTERS Probably carved around
800 BCE, this Neo-Assyrian seal made explicit the
connections between agriculture and the heavens for
Mesopotamian cultures. Here, a ploughman 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.