Cicero's Tusculan Disputations Part 40

[163] The treatise of Aristotle, from whence this is taken, is lost.

[164] To the universe the Stoics certainly annexed the idea of a limited s.p.a.ce, otherwise they could not have talked of a middle; for there can be no middle but of a limited s.p.a.ce: infinite s.p.a.ce can have no middle, there being infinite extension from every part.

[165] These two contrary reversions are from the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. They are the extreme bounds of the sun's course. The reader must observe that the astronomical parts of this book are introduced by the Stoic as proofs of design and reason in the universe; and, notwithstanding the errors in his planetary system, his intent is well answered, because all he means is that the regular motions of the heavenly bodies, and their dependencies, are demonstrations of a divine mind. The inference proposed to be drawn from his astronomical observations is as just as if his system was in every part unexceptionably right: the same may be said of his anatomical observations.

[166] In the zodiac.

[167] Ibid.

[168] These verses of Cicero are a translation from a Greek poem of Aratus, called the Phaenomena.

[169] The fixed stars.

[170] The arctic and antarctic poles.

[171] The two Arctoi are northern constellations. Cynosura is what we call the Lesser Bear; Helice, the Greater Bear; in Latin, _Ursa Minor_ and _Ursa Major_.

[172] These stars in the Greater Bear are vulgarly called the "Seven Stars," or the "Northern Wain;" by the Latins, "Septentriones."

[173] The Lesser Bear.

[174] The Greater Bear.

[175] Exactly agreeable to this and the following description of the Dragon is the same northern constellation described in the map by Flamsteed in his Atlas Coelestis; and all the figures here described by Aratus nearly agree with the maps of the same constellations in the Atlas Coelestis, though they are not all placed precisely alike.

[176] The tail of the Greater Bear.

[177] That is, in Macedon, where Aratus lived.

[178] The true interpretation of this pa.s.sage is as follows: Here in Macedon, says Aratus, the head of the Dragon does not entirely immerge itself in the ocean, but only touches the superficies of it. By _ortus_ and _obitus_ I doubt not but Cicero meant, agreeable to Aratus, those parts which arise to view, and those which are removed from sight.

[179] These are two northern constellations. Engonasis, in some catalogues called Hercules, because he is figured kneeling [Greek: en gonasin] (on his knees). [Greek: Engonasin kaleous'], as Aratus says, they call Engonasis.

[180] The crown is placed under the feet of Hercules in the Atlas Coelestis; but Ophiuchus ([Greek: Ophiouchos]), the Snake-holder, is placed in the map by Flamsteed as described here by Aratus; and their heads almost meet.

[181] The Scorpion. Ophiuchus, though a northern constellation, is not far from that part of the zodiac where the Scorpion is, which is one of the six southern signs.

[182] The Wain of seven stars.

[183] The Wain-driver. This northern constellation is, in our present maps, figured with a club in his right hand behind the Greater Bear.

[184] In some modern maps Arcturus, a star of the first magnitude, is placed in the belt that is round the waist of Bootes. Cicero says _subter praecordia_, which is about the waist; and Aratus says [Greek: hypo zone], under the belt.

[185] _Sub caput Arcti_, under the head of the Greater Bear.

[186] The Crab is, by the ancients and moderns, placed in the zodiac, as here, between the Twins and the Lion; and they are all three northern signs.

[187] The Twins are placed in the zodiac with the side of one to the northern hemisphere, and the side of the other to the southern hemisphere. Auriga, the Charioteer, is placed in the northern hemisphere near the zodiac, by the Twins; and at the head of the Charioteer is Helice, the Greater Bear, placed; and the Goat is a bright star of the first magnitude placed on the left shoulder of this northern constellation, and called _Capra_, the Goat. _Hoedi_, the Kids, are two more stars of the same constellation.

[188] A constellation; one of the northern signs in the zodiac, in which the Hyades are placed.

[189] One of the feet of Cepheus, a northern constellation, is under the tail of the Lesser Bear.

[190] Grotius, and after him Dr. Davis, and other learned men, read _Ca.s.siepea_, after the Greek [Greek: Ka.s.siepeia], and reject the common reading, _Ca.s.siopea_.

[191] These northern constellations here mentioned have been always placed together as one family with Cepheus and Perseus, as they are in our modern maps.

[192] This alludes to the fable of Perseus and Andromeda.

[193] Pegasus, who is one of Perseus and Andromeda's family.

[194] That is, with wings.

[195] _Aries_, the Ram, is the first northern sign in the zodiac; _Pisces_, the Fishes, the last southern sign; therefore they must be near one another, as they are in a circle or belt. In Flamsteed's Atlas Coelestis one of the Fishes is near the head of the Ram, and the other near the Urn of Aquarius.

[196] These are called Virgiliae by Cicero; by Aratus, the Pleiades, [Greek: Pleiades]; and they are placed at the neck of the Bull; and one of Perseus's feet touches the Bull in the Atlas Coelestis.

[197] This northern constellation is called Fides by Cicero; but it must be the same with Lyra; because Lyra is placed in our maps as Fides is here.

[198] This is called Ales Avis by Cicero; and I doubt not but the northern constellation Cygnus is here to be understood, for the description and place of the Swan in the Atlas Coelestis are the same which Ales Avis has here.

[199] Pegasus.

[200] The Water-bearer, one of the six southern signs in the zodiac: he is described in our maps pouring water out of an urn, and leaning with one hand on the tail of Capricorn, another southern sign.

[201] When the sun is in Capricorn, the days are at the shortest; and when in Cancer, at the longest.

[202] One of the six southern signs.

[203] Sagittarius, another southern sign.

[204] A northern constellation.

[205] A northern constellation.

[206] A southern constellation.

[207] This is Canis Major, a southern constellation. Orion and the Dog are named together by Hesiod, who flourished many hundred years before Cicero or Aratus.

[208] A southern constellation, placed as here in the Atlas Coelestis.

[209] A southern constellation, so called from the s.h.i.+p Argo, in which Jason and the rest of the Argonauts sailed on their expedition to Colchos.

[210] The Ram is the first of the northern signs in the zodiac; and the last southern sign is the Fishes; which two signs, meeting in the zodiac, cover the constellation called Argo.

[211] The river Erida.n.u.s, a southern constellation.

[212] A southern constellation.