Recognition of the constellations can be traced to early civilizations. When people looked up at the sky at night they noticed that many of the brightest stars were arranged in a certain pattern or group. The part of the sky through which the sun, moon, and the planets travelled was named the Zodiac, meaning ‘circle of living things’. The Zodiac was divided into twelve sections, each named after one of the twelve constellations. We know these constellations as Taurus, the bull; Aries, the ram; Pisces, the fish; Aquarius, the water carrier; Capricorn, the goat; Sagittarius, the archer; Scorpio, the scorpion; Libra, the scales; Virgo, the virgin; Leo, the lion; Cancer, the crab; and Gemini, the twins. The oldest record of the zodiacal signs as such is a wedge-shaped (or cuneiform) horoscope from 419 BC.
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Fact File: In addition to the twelve constellations wee familiar to peoples of ancient times. These 48 are known as the ‘ancient’ constellations. |
Picture Credit : Google