when the constellations were designed, the
sun at the spring equinox was near Aldebaran, the brightest star of the
Bull; at the summer solstice it was near Regulus, the brightest star of
the Lion; at the autumnal equinox it was near Antares, the brightest
star of the Scorpion; at the winter solstice it was near Fomalhaut, the
brightest star in the neighbourhood of the Waterpourer. These four stars
have come down to us with the name of the "Royal Stars," probably
because they were so near to the four most important points in the
apparent path of the sun amongst the stars. There is also a celebrated
passage in the first of Virgil's _Georgics_ which speaks of the white
bull with golden horns that opens the year. So when the Mithraic
religion adopted several of the constellation figures amongst its
symbols, the Bull as standing for the spring equinox, the Lion for the
summer solstice, were the two to which most prominence was given, and
they are found thus used in Mithraic monuments as late as the second or
third century A.D., long after the Ram had been recognized as the
leading sign.

It is not possible to push back the origin of the constellations to an
indefinite antiquity. They cannot at the very outside be more than 5000
years old; they must be considerably more than 4000. But during the
whole of this millennium the sun at the spring equinox was in the
constellation of the Bull. There is therefore no possible doubt that
the Bull--and not the Twins nor the Ram--was the original leader of the
zodiac.

The constellations, therefore, were designed long before the nation of
Israel had its origin, indeed before Abraham left Ur of the Chaldees.
The most probable date--2700 B.C.--would take us to a point a little
before the Flood, if we accept the Hebrew chronology, a few centuries
after the Flood, if we accept the Septuagint chronology. Just as the
next great age of astronomical activity, which I have termed the
Classical, began after the close of the canon of the Old Testament
scriptures, so the constellation age began before the first books of
those scriptures were compiled. Broadly speaking, it may be said that
the knowledge of the constellation figures was the chief asset of
astronomy in the centuries when the Old Testament was being written.

Seeing that the knowledge of these figures was preserved in Mesopotamia,
the country from which Abraham came out, and that they were in existence
long before his day, it is not