order he "set all the great gods
in their several stations", and "also created their images, the stars
of the Zodiac,[323] and fixed them all" (p. 147).

Our signs of the Zodiac are of Babylonian origin. They were passed on
to the Greeks by the Phoenicians and Hittites. "There was a time ",
says Professor Sayce, "when the Hittites were profoundly affected by
Babylonian civilization, religion, and art...." They "carried the
time-worn civilizations of Babylonia and Egypt to the furthest
boundary of Egypt, and there handed them over to the West in the grey
dawn of European history.... Greek traditions affirmed that the rulers
of Mykenae had come from Lydia, bringing with them the civilization
and treasures of Asia Minor. The tradition has been confirmed by
modern research. While certain elements belonging to the prehistoric
culture of Greece, as revealed at Mykenae and elsewhere, were derived
from Egypt and Phoenicia, there are others which point to Asia Minor
as their source. And the culture of Asia Minor was Hittite."[324]

The early Babylonian astronomers did not know, of course, that the
earth revolved round the sun. They believed that the sun travelled
across the heavens flying like a bird or sailing like a boat.[325] In
studying its movements they observed that it always travelled from
west to east along a broad path, swinging from side to side of it in
the course of the year. This path is the Zodiac--the celestial "circle
of necessity". The middle line of the sun's path is the Ecliptic. The
Babylonian scientists divided the Ecliptic into twelve equal parts,
and grouped in each part the stars which formed their constellations;
these are also called "Signs of the Zodiac". Each month had thus its
sign or constellation.

The names borne at the present day by the signs of the Zodiac are
easily remembered even by children, who are encouraged to repeat the
following familiar lines:

The _Ram_, the _Bull_, the heavenly _Twins_,
And next the _Crab_, the _Lion_ shines.
The _Virgin_ and the _Scales_;
The _Scorpion, Archer_, and _Sea goat_,
The man that holds the _water pot_,
And _Fish_ with glitt'ring[326] tails.

The table on p. 308 shows that our signs are derived from ancient
Babylonia.

The celestial regions were also divided into three or more parts.
Three "fields" were allotted to the ancient triad formed by Ea, Anu,
and Bel. The zodiacal "path" ran through these "fields". Ea's f