Aratus with Commentaries

And within it is the belt of bright Orion
and the coil of the burning Hydra; within it also is the light
Krater Cup, and the Korax Raven, and within it not many stars
of the Chelai Claws; and in it are the knees of Ophiouchos Serpent-holder borne.
Not, however, does it share in the Aietos Eagle, but near it
520 the great messenger of Zeus is wafted. And along it
the head of the Horse and that beneath the neck revolve.
525

The axis encloses these upright in a row,
having them all in the middle; and the fourth is constricted,
sharp in both, which they hold from either side
opposite, the tropics, and the middle cuts it in the middle.
By this, a man trained in the hands of Athena
530

could fasten other revolving wheels
as many and as great, all revolving in a sphere,
just as these, joined in the celestial oblique circle,
are pursued from dawn to night for all the days.
And these rise and immediately set below
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all in turn; and there is one for each,
in order on either side, a descent and an ascent.
But it passes by so much of the water of Ocean,
as much as from the rising Aigokeres Capricorn
to the rising Karkinos Cancer it revolves. As much as it covers
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everywhere rising, so much it sets elsewhere.
And as much as the bolt of the eye is stretched out by light...