...shapes, and he is said to speak thus:

"It was not my lineage or blood, but virtue that raised me above the heavens; it is virtue that makes men into gods."

For the twelfth constellation of human form, Andromeda is seen bound in chains, which is composed of twenty-three stars.

The fourteenth northern figure is human, whom some identify as Bellerophon; however, according to the mind of Pausanias, it is the chaste Hippolytus, son of Theseus. Yet most authors lean toward the view that this celestial constellation represents the Athenian Erichthonius, the inventor of the art of charioteering, whom others call the Carrier, others the Driver, and others the Agitator. Thus, he is introduced speaking:

"Skill harms, skill profits; by a lightning bolt I lost my life through it, yet through it I sought the celestial rays."

They call the twentieth northern constellation Ophiuchus, the Serpent-Bearer, or the Serpent-Handler, because this image appears to be holding a serpent. They claim that he represents the most famous physician Aesculapius and declare that he is adorned with twenty-four stars.

Orion is the first southern constellation, made up of thirty-eight stars. On his right shoulder, a large star called Bellatrix is seen; a similar one shines on his left foot. To the ancient Romans, this constellation was known by the name *Jugula*. For this reason, a servant in Plautus, marveling at the stillness of the heavens, said that neither *Jugula* nor *Vesperugo* (that is, Hesperus) nor the *Virgiliae* (the Pleiades) were setting. They say that Orion was a prince in Boeotia who was taught astronomy by Atlas; because of his excellence in this discipline, they declared that he earned a celestial home after his death. Thus, Orion is said to sing in this manner:

"The earth thought to destroy me with the flames of envy, but restoring me to eternity, it bore me to the gods above."

Next to be weighed are the Gemini, which represent the third sign of the Zodiac. They are depicted as a double human likeness because when the Sun enters this sign, all things born of the earth flourish and grow. The ancients proclaim that Castor and Pollux were born of a single birth and placed among the stars. Of them, it is sung:

"I am a brother, and my brother is believed to be one with me; he is one, yet each of us encompasses two. One love and one mind preserve two hearts; he who doubts this does not truly love his brother."

If we contemplate the other signs of the Zodiac, we find two more reflecting human form. Virgo occupies the sixth place in the Zodiac; she is said to have been the daughter of Icarius and the sister of Penelope. After her father was killed by drunken peasants, she was so overcome with grief that she hanged herself, and was therefore transformed by the gods into this celestial sign. Astrologers say that just as a virgin is a sterile woman, the earth likewise experiences sterility while the Sun travels through this sign, as it produces no further fruit from then on. Of this sign, it is sung:

"I am called Erigone, Fortune, Ceres, or the daughter of Phoebus; the shadows give these names of light."

Finally, in the eleventh place of the Zodiac, Aquarius is positioned in human form. They assert that he was Ganymede, who was snatched up by Jove and placed among the stars, though he claimed the name of Aquarius for himself because he appears to be pouring out a jug full of water. This is explained in this couplet:

"Those who call me Cecropian are wrong; I am the boy snatched to the celestial axes—behold Jove's bowl."

However, astrologers assigned the name Aquarius to this sign based on its effect, since the Sun illuminating this sign usually produces an abundance of rain. Nevertheless, there have been authors who, by sketching human figures, attempted to represent the "faces" of each individual Zodiac sign. Indeed, Johannes Angelus, in his *Astrolabium Planum*, designated the first sign of the Zodiac by depicting a man's head within a man, and indicated the first face of Aries with the figure of a man with a drawn sword in his right hand—just as a standing man dressed in a toga signifies the second face of the same sign. And so, in the other faces