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The First Point of Aries, the location of the vernal equinox, is named for the constellation. This is because the Sun crossed the celestial equator from south to north in Aries more than two millennia ago. Hipparchus defined it in 130 BC. as a point south of Gamma Arietis. Because of the precession of the equinoxes, the First Point of Aries has since moved into Pisces and will move into Aquarius by around 2600 AD. The Sun now appears in Aries from late April through mid May, though the constellation is still associated with the beginning of spring. | The First Point of Aries, the location of the vernal equinox, is named for the constellation. This is because the Sun crossed the celestial equator from south to north in Aries more than two millennia ago. Hipparchus defined it in 130 BC. as a point south of Gamma Arietis. Because of the precession of the equinoxes, the First Point of Aries has since moved into Pisces and will move into Aquarius by around 2600 AD. The Sun now appears in Aries from late April through mid May, though the constellation is still associated with the beginning of spring. | ||
Medieval Muslim astronomers depicted Aries in various ways. Astronomers like al-Sufi saw the constellation as a ram, modeled on the precedent of Ptolemy. However, some Islamic celestial globes depicted Aries as a nondescript four-legged animal with what may be antlers instead of horns. Some early Bedouin observers saw a ram elsewhere in the sky; this constellation featured the Pleiades as the ram's tail. The generally accepted Arabic formation of Aries consisted of thirteen stars in a figure along with five "unformed" stars, four of which were over the animal's hindquarters and one of which was the disputed star over Aries's head. Al-Sufi's depiction differed from both other Arab astronomers' and Flamsteed's, in that his Aries was running and looking behind itself.<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aries_(constellation)}</ref> | Medieval Muslim astronomers depicted Aries in various ways. Astronomers like al-Sufi saw the constellation as a ram, modeled on the precedent of Ptolemy. However, some Islamic celestial globes depicted Aries as a nondescript four-legged animal with what may be antlers instead of horns. Some early Bedouin observers saw a ram elsewhere in the sky; this constellation featured the Pleiades as the ram's tail. The generally accepted Arabic formation of Aries consisted of thirteen stars in a figure along with five "unformed" stars, four of which were over the animal's hindquarters and one of which was the disputed star over Aries's head. Al-Sufi's depiction differed from both other Arab astronomers' and Flamsteed's, in that his Aries was running and looking behind itself.<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aries_(constellation)}</ref> | ||
==Etymology== | |||
There are a number of comments on the Net on the resemblance of the Dodge Ram logo to the human female reproductive system. | |||
This is not a new idea, 7th century Isidore commented on the likeness: "it is called uterus because it is two-fold and divides on both (uterque) sides, into two parts that extend apart and bend back in the shape of a ram's horn" [The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville, 7th century AD, p.240.] | |||
The "two parts that extend apart and bend back in the shape of aram's horn" is what we call the fallopian tubes, salpinges (singular salpinx). Tuba is a Latin word for trumpet, related to the English 'tube'. In the textbooks the fallopian tubes are called oviducts (the adjective applying to sheep is ovine). Greek salpinx has three meanings; a trumpet, a fallopian tube, and also the eustachian tube in the ear. The Greek salpinx, trumpet, might be the same as the shofar trumpet which has been translated as salpinx into Greek . The salpinges are two tubes leading from the ovaries of female mammals into the uterus. After the ovum or egg matures in the ovary it falls into and down the fallopian tube. The trip to the uterus takes hours or days. Conception takes place in the fallopian tube (with some exceptions). | |||
"Many think that our figure [Aries] was designed to represent the Egyptian King of Gods shown at Thebes withram's horns, and variously known as Amon, Ammon, Hammon, Amen, or Amun, and worshiped with great ceremony at his temple in the oasis Ammonium, now Siwah, 5° west of Cairo on the northern limit of the Libyan desert [Libya was a term for the African continent]. Kircher gave Aries' title there as TametouroAmoun, Regum Ammonis" . Sacred to Ammon is a fat-tailed species of ram--ovis platyura aegyptiaca, whose horns are large, curved and downturned-- that is found only in the area of the Sceptre Nome, Egypt. | |||
==HGS Session References== | ==HGS Session References== | ||