Astronomicon

Brightly she shines, distinguished by a glowing flame, and the Cretan girl’s original: "gnosia," referring to Ariadne of Crete. This describes the constellation Corona Borealis, the Northern Crown, which Dionysus placed in the sky after Ariadne was abandoned by Theseus. monuments of her abandonment gleam.

And the Lyre, its horns drawn down through the sky, is conspicuous among the stars; with this Orpheus once captivated all that he touched with song, even reaching the spirits of the dead. He brought it to pass that he subdued the laws of the underworld with his melody. For this Lyre, there is heavenly honor and a power similar to its original cause; then it drew forests and stones, but now it leads the stars and sweeps along the immense orb of the revolving world.

Ophiuchus The Serpent-Bearer divides the Serpent among the great signs, a body plunging into a body with its whole frame. He unfolds the knots and the coiled back through the rings; yet the Serpent looks back with its neck bent softly, and the man returns with his palms spread through the loose coils. Their war will always be an equal struggle between balanced forces.

Next is the lot of the Swan, which Jupiter himself placed in the sky—the form he first took to seize his lover, when the god descended transformed into a snowy swan original: "holorem," an archaic word for swan (cygnus) and submitted his feathered back to the trusting Leda. Even now, covered in stars, he flies with outstretched wings.

From here, the stars of the Arrow shine, mimicking both its course and its flight. Then the bird of great Jove The Eagle, Aquila is carried on high, flying as if it were bearing thunderbolts through a familiar world—a bird worthy of Jove and the heaven it equips with sacred weapons.

Then, the Dolphin rises from the sea toward the stars stars.