Astronomicon, Book I

Sagittarius Diana’s hound, Capricorn Vesta’s lamp, Aquarius Juno’s peacock, Pisces Neptune’s dolphins. In the two menologia rustica, the Colotianum and the Vallense, mentioned by Scaliger and now shown on pp. 280 sq. of C.I.L. I i ed. 2, the gods, through an error explained by Mommsen, Roem. chron. ed. 2 p. 306, have all slipped one place westward, so that Minerva has Pisces, Venus Aries, and so on throughout the circle. Scattered traces of the system are found elsewhere, as in Servius (cited at verse 439) and in Valens I 2 ed. Kr. pp. 5–14. The scheme of the planetary houses, so important in later astrology, is an altogether distinct affair with a very different origin; and it is only a fortuitous coincidence that Taurus is one of the two houses of the planet Venus, and Scorpius one of the two houses of the planet Mars.

The gods, by this arrangement, are sorted in couples, males facing females.

The same six pairs are sculptured on the triangular pedestal known as the Ara Borghese, Visconti Mon. Gab. tables A, B, C. Some of the figures, especially Apollo and Vulcan, are mutilated, but all are recognisable.

453-465

Still more digression. The signs have dominion severally over the parts of the human body. Aries rules the head, Taurus the neck, Gemini the arms, Cancer the breast, Leo the sides and shoulder-blades, Virgo the belly, Libra the loins, Scorpius the groin, Sagittarius the thighs, Capricornus the knees, Aquarius the shanks, and Pisces the feet.

The same list is repeated in IV 701-9 and occurs with little variation in many other astrologers whom I enumerate in my note.

466-484

Now we return to the geometrical relations of the signs, from which we were led away at verse 433; and we come to the relation kata suzygian (by pairing), by parallel lines drawn across a diameter of the circle. Manilius himself says nothing to indicate that geometry is at the bottom of this matter, but swims contentedly on the surface amidst the metaphors in vogue. Three suzygiai are treated in the next paragraph, verses 485–519: that to which Geminus Isag. 2 27 gives the name, and which unites the signs, usually called bleponta (seeing), on either side of the diameter joining the solstitial signs; that which unites the signs, usually called akouonta (hearing), on either side of the diameter joining the equinoctial signs; and a third, peculiar to Manilius, which unites, or rather fails to unite, in sexual love the masculine and feminine signs on either side of a diameter drawn from the first point of Taurus to the first point of Scorpius. The enmity and friendship, odium and foedus, of the signs, mentioned in verse 469, are expounded later, in verses 520–580 and 608–640: these are not suzygiai, though they are in great measure geometrical.