The Temple of the Muses

goat original: "bok," referring here to Capricorn attack the ⁸ Crab; the ⁹ Scorpion defends itself against the ¹⁰ Bull; the ¹¹ Virgin treads the ¹² Fish underfoot; the ¹³ Ram entangles the Scales of the ¹⁴ Equator original: "Evenaer," referring here to the constellation Libra, which sits upon the celestial equator with its feet; the ¹⁵ Dog barks at the ¹⁶ Serpent, which threatens him with its venomous teeth; and the ¹⁷ Bear attacks the Sun. One sees the Stars scattered here and there in confusion: some are fixed to the rocks, others are placed in the fire, or in the water; and everything in the Heavens is inscribed, even down to the name of the Artist. He will perhaps be criticized for having also brought the Elements into the arrangement of the Chaos after they had already been separated from one another, as well as the Constellations after they were entirely formed; but it is permissible to deviate from the common rules when one treats a subject as unpleasing and strange as this, and concerning which those who wish to hold to the true nature of things with the greatest possible caution will nonetheless always remain far below what is probable.

REMARKS.

give reason to believe that it was the Goat of Amalthea, which suckled Jupiter in his infancy. Others believe it to be Pan, who, upon the arrival of the Giant Typhon in Egypt, was seized by such a fright that he changed from the top into a goat, and from the bottom into a fish; after which Jupiter transported him into the Heaven.
8. THE CRAB.] The Sign of June. It was taken up into the Heaven by Juno, after it had been trodden underfoot by Hercules in his struggle against the Hydra of Lerna.
9. THE SCORPION.] The Sign of October. It is by this Scorpion that Orion, while he was on the Hunt, was wounded. Orion was born from the urine of Neptune and Minerva This refers to a myth where the gods Neptune, Jupiter, and Mercury produced Orion as a gift for Hyreus; the text substitutes Minerva, as a reward for the good reception which Hyreus gave them in his house, in a certain city of Boeotia. He was a great Hunter. But when, at a certain time, he laid snares for the chastity of Diana and suddenly fell upon her in a lonely place, this Goddess shot him through with her arrows, and thus punished his audacity. Jupiter, moved by pity, placed him among the Heavenly Signs.
10. THE BULL.] The Sign of April. This is the one which, according to Euripides, abducted the beautiful Europa. Others say it was the Cow Io. Vossius (On Idolatry, Book 1, Chapter 29) Gerardus Vossius (1577–1649) was a noted Dutch scholar who attempted to reconcile pagan myths with biblical history believes that it is Joseph or Osiris, whom the Egyptians placed among the Constellations because Osiris taught them agriculture, and Joseph fed them and protected them from famine through the corn which he had gathered, of which the Bull is a symbol.
11. THE VIRGIN.] The Sign of the month of August, the Virgin Astraea, or Justice. But others say it was Erigone, the Daughter of Icarius.
12. THE FISH.] The Sign of February. They were placed among the Heavenly Signs in memory of the fact that Venus and her Son Cupid changed themselves into Fish at a certain time to hide themselves from the rage of the Giant Typhon.
13. THE RAM.] The Sign of March. This is the Ram which bore the Golden Fleece, and upon which Phrixus and his Sister Helle took flight, and thus escaped the persecution of Ino, Wife of Athamas, King of Thebes. Helle, ter-

rified by the thought that she sat upon a Ram in the middle of the Hellespont, fell into the sea and gave it her name, Hellespontus. Phrixus, having arrived safely in Colchis, sacrificed the beast that had carried him across to Jupiter, and the latter placed it in the Heaven. Others say that it is the Ram which showed a water fountain to Bacchus when he wandered through the wildernesses of Libya and was oppressed by a violent thirst.
14. THE EQUATOR.] The Sign of September. This Sign makes up only a part of the Constellation of the Scorpion. This is the Balance The scales of Libra of the Virgin Astraea, the Goddess of Justice, who, by the wickedness of men in the iron age, was forced to flee from the earth to the Heaven.
15. THE DOG.] Or Procyon. This is the Dog of Cephalus, or of Orion; or according to Hyginus, the Dog of Icarius, named Maera. It is this Dog which, by its howling, revealed to Erigone, the Daughter of Icarius, the place where the body of her Father lay, who had been murdered by the Athenian cattle-herders.
16. THE SERPENT.] This was, according to the saying of some, the Serpent which was harnessed before the chariot of Triptolemus, the friend of Ceres.
17. THE BEAR.] Or the Pole Star: otherwise Callisto, who was changed into a Bear by the jealousy of Juno, and wounded by her son Arcas, called Arctophylax in the Heaven. One has two Constellations of this name: namely, the Great and the Little Bear. They are both close to the Poles and also carry the name of the Wagon Known today as the Big and Little Dipper.
18. THE NAME OF THE ARTIST.] This is Abraham Diepenbeek, born in 's-Hertogenbosch, a Student of Peter Paul Rubens; and one of those who sketched the Tableaus of this Book. Jan Meyffens, who placed the Image of Diepenbeek in the rank of the excellent Painters of the Netherlands, tells us in his Book of Portraits of Painters that he surpassed all those who in his time concerned themselves with glass painting, but that he afterwards gave himself over to all sorts of Painting-works in Antwerp, where he still lived in great esteem in the Year 1649, when Meyffens published his Book. Paulus Pontius has painted his portrait.