And they devised other inventions much greater than
these. For they divided the entire skye and the
other stars that are inerrant and fixed, and do never
move, into twelve segments for such as move: which
they styled “houses,” although they resemble living
creatures, each patterned after the figure of a
different kind, whereof some are sea-monsters, some
humans, some wild beasts, some volatiles, some
juments.
 
For this reason, indeed, the Aegyptian deities are
portrayed in various aspects. In accrediting the invention of the signs of the Zodiac to the Egyptians, our author is at one with his contemporaries (cf. Macrobius, loc. cit.), but in deriving from these signs the animal forms of the Egyptian gods, and in connecting the fishtaboo in that country with the constellation Pisces he presents the results of original research. For it is not to be
supposed that all Aegyptians were wont to draw
prognosticks from all the twelve signs; but some
had one sign in use, others another. The ram is
reverenced by those who looked up unto Aries, fish
is not eaten by those who attached signality unto
Pisces, the goat is not slain by those who had knowledge of Capricorn, and the other creatures are
severally venerated by other folk. Assuredly the
bull too is adored in honour of the celestial Taurus,
and Apis, esteemed by them an object of the uttermost sanctity, depastureth their land, and they that
inhabit it vouchsafe him an oracle in token of the
auspiciality of Taurus.
 
Not long after, the Libyans also espoused the
science; for the Libyan oracle of Ammon was founded
in regard of the heavens and his knowledge thereof;


 

whence they represent Ammon with a ram’s head.
 
And the Babylonians came to know all these things,
even before the others, as they themselves say; but
I think that the science reached them long afterward. In the Goddesse of Surrye (2) Lucian is similarly minded as to Babylonian claims of priority in religion; and in the Runaways Philosophy goes successively to India, Ethiopia, Egypt, Babylon, and Greece. 
 
As for the Greeks, they learned not a whit of
astrology either from the Aethiopians or from the
Aegyptians. It was Orpheus, the son of Oeagrus and
Calliope, that first declared these matters unto them,
but not at all plainly, nor did he bring the science
forth unto illucidation but unto ingannation and pious
fraude, such being the humour of the man. It seems better established that Atlas was the first astronomer; cf. Cicero, 7’usc. Disp., V, 3, 8, and Vergil, Aen., I, 740. He taught the doctrine of the sphere to Heracles, and the fact that Heracles introduced it into Greece underlies the story of the golden apples of the Hesperides—so, at all events, says Diodorus. Orpheus, however, was no doubt a very active person in many ways; e.g. in connection with philosophy (Runaways, 8) and very likely dancing (Dance, 15), and the mathematician Nicomachus of Gerasa (pp. 241, 271, 274 Jan.), Lucian’s contemporary, agrees with him that the lyre of Orpheus had seven strings to match the number of the planets and played the harmony of the spheres. _ For he
made a harp and exposed his mystick rites in poesy
and his theology in song; and the harp, that had
seven chords, discoursed the harmony of the errant
spheres. It was by investigating and ventilating
these matters that he enchanted and enthralled all
creatures; for he regarded not that harp of his nor
yet concerned himselfe with other musick, but this
was the mightie harp of Orpheus, The thought is that the planets form the only musical instrument and render the only music in which Orpheus, as primarily an astronomer, had any real interest. and to honour
these things, the Greeks set apart a station in the
heavens and numerous stars are denominated
Orpheus his harp. 
If ever you see Orpheus pictured in mosaick stones
or in pigment, he sitteth in the centre, in the simili-





 

tude of one that sings, holding in his hands the harp,
and about him stand numberless creatures, among
which a bull, a man, a lion, and others after their
kind. When you see these, bethink you, pray, what
his song was, what his harp, and what the bull or
the lion that giveth ear to him. And if you would
know the originalls that I speak of, you may behold
each of them in the heavens.