Capricornus Image

About Capricornus

  • alphabet
    Capricornus/Goat
  • Katakana, Onyomi
    Capricornus

Capricornus was established by Claudius Ptolemy. It has an area of 414 square degrees and contains 79 stars visible to the naked eye.
It is one of the 48 Claudius Ptolemy constellation and also one of the twelve ecliptic constellation.

In Mesopotamia, it was called Suhul-Mash. Suhul means a giant carp in Sumerian, and Mash means a male goat. The god Ea is depicted with the upper body of a goat and the lower body of a fish. In Babylonia, Ea was the father of the chief god Marduk and the god of water and wisdom. In Greece, he was passed down in the form of a goat-fish and called Aegokeros. Gradually, he came to be identified with the faun Pan in the form of a goat. Pan is said to be the son of Hermes or Zeus, with the upper body of a human and the lower body of a goat, and has goat horns.

Long ago, when the gods gathered in Egypt, the monster Typhon attacked them. The gods were frightened and transformed into various forms. Among them, Pan jumped into the river and escaped by becoming a goat above the water surface and a fish below the water surface. It is said that Zeus added him to constellation because his appearance was so comical.

[Source of the story]
Encyclopedia of the Cultural History of Stars, Hakusuisha Publishing (December 2019)
Encyclopedia of constellation, Kawade Shobo Shinsha (February 2011)

Capricornus Story

Even the same constellation is viewed and has different anecdotes depending on the era.
We will introduce stories about Capricornus in each era and region.

Ancient Egyptian Civilization

Seret

In Egypt, the Goat (or Sheep) was a very common constellation. From Scorpius Sagittarius …

Ancient Greece

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Chinese Civilization

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Ainu

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  • Mesopotamian civilization
  • Ancient Egyptian Civilization
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  • Chinese Civilization
  • Ainu
  • Edo period Japan
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  • Japanese translation, kun reading
    Capricorn
  • Katakana, Onyomi
    Yagiza
  • Traditional Region
    Egypt
  • Local Language Expressions
    セレト
  • Tradition period
    Around 1950 BC ~
  • Approximate location
    right ascension (a): 19h50m to 21h00m
    declination (d): -15° to 12°
    (Northern sky map estimated by Locher)
  • Degree of reliability
    Some of the constituent stars have not been identified
Source of the story
Jiro Kondo, "The Origin of constellation Myths -constellation of the Nile in Egypt" Seibundo Shinkosha
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  • alphabet
    Xuanwu
  • Katakana, Onyomi
    Genbu
  • Traditional Region
    China
  • Local Language Expressions
    ショワンウー
  • Tradition period
    investigating
  • Approximate location
    right ascension (a): 248.71 to 336.79
    declination (d): -25.98 to 3.71
    (Chinese Book)
  • Degree of reliability
    The constituent stars have been identified
Source of the story
Genbu is a collective name for the 28 constellations that make up the seven northern Capricornus. Originally written as "Genmei," it referred to a sacred turtle that went to the underworld and returned after receiving oracles. The oracles were determined by the degree to which the shell of a turtle placed on a fire cracked, so we can see that it was created from divination using a tortoise shell.

During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, a Taoist priest of the Neo-Confucian school was visiting Mount Lu in Jiangxi Province, China, when he was resting by a mountain stream when suddenly a bundle of cotton-like serpent appeared. It is said that when it became hungry, it turned into a giant turtle and paraded around the mountains. This turtle came to be called Xuanbu.

There is another legend. The father of the rabbit who founded the Xia dynasty was named Gun, and because his character was Xuanming, he came to be known as Xuanwu. Before controlling the Great Rabbit flood, Gun assisted Shun in controlling the flood. However, Gun's method of controlling the flood was to pile up earth on both sides of the river, but the force of the water was too strong, and he failed. From this myth, Gun came to be said to be the incarnation of the spiritual turtle.

Source of the story
https://prometheusblog.net/2018/02/14/post-614/
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