and the
hare into huntsmen and hares when utilising a description originally
referring to the constellation.

I conceive that the original description related to one of those zodiac
temples whose remains are still found in Egypt, though the Egyptian
temples of this kind were probably only copies of more ancient Chaldaean
temples. We know from Assyrian sculptures that representations of the
constellations (and especially the zodiacal constellations) were common
among the Babylonians; and, as I point out in the essay above referred
to, 'it seems probable that in a country where Sabaeanism or star-worship
was the prevailing form of religion, yet more imposing proportions would
be given to zodiac temples than in Egypt.' My theory, then, respecting
the two famous 'Shields' is that Homer in his eastern travels visited
imposing temples devoted to astronomical observation and star-worship,
and that nearly every line in both descriptions is borrowed from a poem
in which he described a temple of this sort, its domed zodiac, and those
illustrations of the labours of different seasons and of military or
judicial procedures which the astrological proclivities of
star-worshippers led them to associate with the different
constellations. For the arguments on which this theory is based I have
not here space. They are dealt with in the essay from which I have
quoted.

One point only I need touch upon here, besides those I have mentioned
already. It may be objected that the description of a zodiac temple has
nothing to connect it with the subject of the Iliad. This is certainly
true; but no one who is familiar with Homer's manner can doubt that he
would work in, if he saw the opportunity, a poem on some subject outside
that of the Iliad, so modifying the language that the description would
correspond with the subject in hand. There are many passages, though
none of such length, in both the Iliad and the Odyssey, which seem thus
to have been brought into the poem; and other passages not exactly of
this kind yet show that Homer was not insensible to the advantage of
occasionally using memory instead of invention.

Any one who considers attentively the aspect of the constellation Draco
in the heavens, will perceive that the drawing of the head in the maps
is not correct; the head is no longer pictured as it must have been
conceived by those who first formed the constellation. The two bright
stars Beta and Gamma are now placed on a head in