Quotulatiousness

November 28, 2020

Miscellaneous Myths: The Zodiac

Overly Sarcastic Productions
Published 27 Nov 2020

Thanks to longtime patron Volt for requesting this topic!

We know their names! We know their symbols! We know there’s a truly staggering number of websites dedicated to their stereotypical personality traits! But what do we know about their stories? Let’s discuss!

FUN FACT I GLOSSED OVER IN THE VIDEO: like I said, it’s REALLY hard to determine when these constellations entered Greece. Most people set the date at 300ish, when Eudoxus codified the Greek calendar based on the Babylonian one — but that clashes with the fact that Heracles’s labors predate that by at least three centuries, and they’ve had those zodiacal themes since that lost epic poem was initially written. We know, therefore, that the Babylonian zodiac entered greece between Homer’s time (when he conspicuously didn’t mention them — and neither did Hesiod in his Astronomia) and Peisander’s time (author of the lost Heracleia), basically the interval between 800 and 600 CE. The phoenician traders carrying that info is a reasonable assumption, especially considering how important the stars are to sailors navigating at night. But it is WILD to me how hard this is to research and how nobody seems to have really explored the timeline here!

Two Zodiac merch designs are available on our redbubble!
The modern constellations-only zodiac: https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/634…
The MUL*APIN Babylonian zodiac: https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/634…

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