enant between Me
and the earth."

Close by this group was another, made up of five constellations. Towards
the south, near midnight in spring, the observer in those ancient times
saw the Scorpion. The figure of a man was standing upon that venomous
beast, with his left foot pressed firmly down upon its head; but the
scorpion's tail was curled up to sting him in the right heel. Ophiuchus,
the Serpent-holder, the man treading on the Scorpion, derives his name
from the Serpent which he holds in his hands and strangles; the Serpent
that, as we have seen in the preceding chapter, marked the autumnal
colure. The head of Ophiuchus reached nearly to the zenith, and there
close to it was the head of another hero, so close that to complete the
form of the two heads the same stars must be used to some extent twice
over. Facing north, this second hero, now known to us as Hercules, but
to Aratus simply as the "Kneeler," was seen kneeling with his foot on
the head of the great northern Dragon. This great conflict between the
man and the serpent, therefore, was presented in a twofold form. Looking
south there was the picture of Ophiuchus trampling on the scorpion and
strangling the snake, yet wounded in the heel by the scorpion's sting;
looking north, the corresponding picture of the kneeling figure of
Hercules treading down the dragon's head. Here there seems an evident
reference to the word spoken by God to the serpent in the garden in
Eden: "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy
seed and her Seed; It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His
heel."

[Illustration: THE MIDNIGHT CONSTELLATIONS OF SPRING, B.C. 2700.]

These two groups of star-figures seem therefore to point to the two
great promises made to mankind and recorded in the early chapters of
Genesis; the Promise of the Deliverer, Who, "Seed of the woman," should
bruise the serpent's head, and the promise of the "Bow set in the
cloud," the pledge that the world should not again be destroyed by a
flood.

[Illustration: THE MIDNIGHT CONSTELLATIONS OF WINTER, B.C. 2700.]

One or two other constellations appear, less distinctly, to refer to the
first of these two promises. The Virgin, the woman of the zodiac,
carries in her hand a bright star, the ear of corn, the seed; whilst,
immediately under her, the great Water-snake, Hydra, is drawn out at
enormous length, "going on its belly;" not writhing upwards like the
Serpent, nor twined round the