ZODIAC - The zodiacal wheel. Drawing with figures in red from cod. Vat. lat. 643, f. 98f (12th century) containing the De natura rerum and various Astronomica by the Venerable Bede. A zodiac from the 6th century AD is reproduced at V. SINAGOGA, vol. XI, col. 635 - Vatican Library.
when the bishop began to restore the crumbling abbey and transformed it into a Camaldolese hermitage. The monks dwelt there until 1782, when they were suppressed by Joseph II. The third period began in 1936, when the bishop of Nitra, K. KMETKO, KAROL (v.), rebuilt the monastery and entrusted it to the Divine Word Missionaries for the novitiate, who added a house for retreats. In 1956 religious life at Z. was again suppressed, with the imprisonment of the religious by the communist government.
ZODIAC. - The name derives from the Greek (ζωδίαχος χόλλος), a term with which Greek astronomers and astrologers designated that zone of the celestial sphere in which the course of the sun, moon, and principal planets appears to take place.
It is divided into twelve signs, called by the Greeks ζόδια, each of 30°, and each of which the sun traverses in a month; to these signs there correspond more or less exactly twelve groups of stars or constellations, which are Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces; on the celestial sphere the zone delimited by two circles parallel to the ecliptic, which are 90° distant from it, one to the north and the other to the south, has a width of 180°; the zodiacal band comprises all the points in the sky in which the moon and planets can appear.
The history of the zodiac is very ancient; its origins certainly go back to a series of lunar stations or mansions, and date to the Sumerians, since the oldest names of the twelve zodiacal constellations are Sumerian; the Babylonians then elaborated and refined what they had drawn from the astronomical science of their predecessors in the valley of the two rivers. The celestial constellations are the product of Mesopotamian imagination, which believed it saw in the stars of the celestial vault images of deities and sacred animals; they were venerated as divine beings and considered particularly significant for future events by astrologers. They have therefore had great importance not only in the religion of the Sumerians, Babylonians, and Assyrians and of those nations whose civilization is closely dependent on them, but also in the astronomy and astrology of Western peoples, notably the Greeks and Romans, and down to our own day, so that it can be affirmed that most of our zodiacal signs are still the same as those that the Sumerians and Babylonians had.
Zodiac - The zodiacal wheel. Drawing with figures in red from cod. Vat. lat. 643, f. 967 (12th century) containing the De natura rerum and various Astronomica by the Venerable Bede. A zodiac from the 6th century AD is reproduced at V. sinagoga, vol. XI, col. 655 - Vatican Library.
Taurus could be denoted by the Pleiades or by Taurus or by the Hyades + Aldebaran; the Babylonian zodiacal signs therefore resulted as being absolutely equal in length; the Babylonians then divided each sign into 30° and thus the entire circle was divided into 360°. According to an astronomical text, the equinoxes and solstices correspond to the midpoints of the signs Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn. It is highly probable that the method of determining nighttime by observing the six parts of the zodiacal circle that rise during the night also goes back to the Babylonians; they also observed and recorded the stars that rise and set simultaneously, as well as those that rise when others culminate, and it is known that the Greeks observed the paranatellonta, i.e., stars that rise and set together with the rising zodiacal signs, and it is probable that the Babylonians had already determined times by means of this observation. The Babylonians called the zodiacal signs (kakkab) lumasi, a name that originally denoted the thirty-six principal constellations of the celestial sphere. A text from Uruk deals with these twelve signs, the names of which are as follows, in Babylonian:
ARIES: (kakkab) (amēlu) agru = constellation of the hireling;
TAURUS: (kakkab) zappu = constellation of the lock of hair (?), the Pleiades;
GEMINI: (kakkab) maššu = constellation of the twin; it also bears the name of tu'amē = twins;
CANCER: (kakkab) alluttu = constellation of the crab;
LEO: (kakkab) nēšu = constellation of the lion;
VIRGO: (kakkab) sherū = constellation of the ear of grain;
LIBRA: (kakkab) zibanītu = constellation of the scales;
SCORPIO: (kakkab) agrabu = constellation of the scorpion;
SAGITTARIUS: (kakkab) mālišu uššu (?) = constellation of the archer;
CAPRICORN: (kakkab) šulhumāšu = constellation of the goat-fish;
AQUARIUS: (kakkab) GU.L.A = constellation of the giant (?);
PISCES: (kakkab) zibāti = constellation of the tails.
These are in all the twelve parts of the z. (kakkab) lu, in which the Moon and the Sun walk. For this reason it was also said that “Venus and Mercury pass into the zodiacal constellations.” The Babylonian word lumasi passed into Aramaic with the same value of constellation in general and of zodiacal constellation in particular in the form malwāšā. The Babylonian zodiac passed into the astrology and astronomy of all Eastern nations and into those of the Greeks and Romans.
In Persia, in Zoroastrianism and Mazdaism, the signs have almost the same names. In Mazdean writings the signs are the ahtar, the twelve captains who belong to the party of Oromasdes, while the seven planets belong to the party of Akimane; the twelve are the creators and preservers of the world; all the good in this creation Oromasdes has transferred to the Sun, the Moon, and the twelve zodiacal signs, and these have accepted it to distribute it according to justice and equity. All the good that those constellations confer upon the creatures of Oromasdes the planets take away from them as much as possible. The signs are among the noblest stars. Their names denote the same objects or persons as the Greek zodiac, except for the water jar (Aquarius); the zodiac is divided into twenty-eight lunar mansions. In Pahlavi the names of the signs sound as follows:
ARIES: Varak = lamb, ram;
TAURUS: Tord = bull;
GEMINI: Dō-patkar = two fingers;
CANCER: Kalakang = crab;
LEO: Sher = lion;
VIRGO: Hušak = virgin;
LIBRA: Tarāzūk = scales;
SCORPIO: Gazdūm = scorpion;
SAGITTARIUS: Nimāsp = half-hair, centaur;
CAPRICORN: Vahik = goat;
AQUARIUS: Dūl = water jar;
PISCES: Māhīk = fish.
To Zoroaster is attributed the doctrine that souls descend from heaven and return to it in the circle of the twelve constellations. In Manichaeism the revolution of the zodiac carries it up to the zenith, as if it were hydraulic wheels that draw water from rivers and lift it; it was also said that pious souls go from sign to sign along the sphere that contains them.
Among the Mandaeans (v.) the signs of the zodiac are no longer deities but demons, ever intent on harming men; this radical change in their nature is to be attributed to the fact that their religion is fundamentally monotheistic and therefore strongly opposed to Babylonian and Greek paganism, and has thus made the planetary deities of the twelve signs demoniacal. Their names in Mandaic are as follows: EMBRA = Aries; TAURA = Taurus; SELMIA = Twins (Gemini); SARTANA = Cancer; ARIA = Leo; ŠUMBILTA = Ear of Corn (Virgo); QUIANA = Balance (Libra); ARQBA = Scorpion; HITIA = Mare (Sagittarius); GADIA = Goat (Capricorn); DAULA = Bucket (Aquarius); NUNA = Fish (Pisces). To each sign the Mandaeans assigned a certain number of years and the creation of evil beings or things; to the Scorpion, for example, all evil reptiles that kill souls with their venom. The Twelve thus belong to that host of evil beings that continually wage war on Life and Light, and which the pious man must therefore detest and seek to escape their snares.
The Babylonian zodiac passed into Greek astronomy and astrology and became an important part thereof after the Greeks, at the time of Alexander the Macedonian, came into close contact with Babylonian civilization. It retained its dual character, both religious and scientific, serving both astronomers and astrologers for their calculations and predictions, and was also an object of cult, as it had been among the Babylonians, in the astral religions of the Greeks and Romans of the Hellenistic period, which likewise divinized the individual zodiacal constellations of Babylon.
Egypt welcomed oriental astrology favorably even in the Persian period, studied it, and developed it further with original fervor, directing its attention especially to the zodiac. The Egyptians divided each sign into three equal parts of 10° and assigned the resulting thirty-six parts to an equal number of stellar deities. The zodiacal images carved in stone found in Egypt bear witness to its wide diffusion (zodiac of Denderah, Esneh, and Akhmim, and frescoes in tombs).
The Greeks and Romans gave the signs the following names: ARIES: Κρῖος, Aries; TAURUS: Ταῦρος, Taurus; GEMINI: Ἀδύμ, Gemini; CANCER: Καρκῖνος, Cancer; LEO: Λέων, Leo; VIRGO: Παρθένος, Virgo; LIBRA: Ζυγός, Libra; SCORPION: Σκορπίος, Scorpio; SAGITTARIUS: Τοξότης, Sagittarius; CAPRICORN: Αἰγοκέρωτος, Capricornus; AQUARIUS: Ὑδροχόος, Aquarius; PISCES: Ἰχθύς, Pisces. In the Hellenistic period, doctrines concerning the zodiac and its astrological significance developed greatly in Rome as well; among other things, one of the twelve chief gods was assigned to each month and each zodiacal sign. At the same time, oriental deities were replaced by the *šōdēxā šol*. The zodiac also played an important part in the mysteries of Mithras; the signs often surround the image of this god in the act of sacrificing the bull, or that of Cronus; or they are carved on the body of this lion-headed god, or painted or depicted in mosaic on the walls of temples, often grouped in threes, corresponding to the seasons to which they are attributed. Helios too is surrounded by the zodiac. Reflections of the veneration of the twelve signs are found in the twelve garments that the initiate into the mysteries of Isis and Serapis successively donned, thus symbolizing passage through the twelve signs. Sometimes in depictions the sphere of the signs encompasses and surrounds that of the seven planets; for according to the ancients the sphere of the fixed stars embraces the other seven spheres. The concept of the harmony of the spheres is doubtless reflected in the image of Pan playing his horn surrounded by a band with the zodiacal signs. In the zodiac, moreover, the Sun, Moon, and planets are represented; all these stars either have their stations there, or move through it, or combine their influences with II. Since the treatment of diseases was made dependent on the position of the stars, it is not surprising that Asclepius, with or without Hygieia, is sometimes accompanied by the zodiac. Nike too is sometimes depicted surrounded by the twelve signs; for she is Fortune in close connection with these, which grants men victory. Even hippodromes were constructed according to zodiacal conceptions; they had twelve starting gates for chariots, which were the abodes of the zodiac that governs the earth, the sea, and the course of human life. Aion sometimes holds in his hand a celestial globe with the zodiac. Often this image signifies that the scene depicted is to be placed in the heavens; yet almost always our signs have a precise doctrinal significance. The zodiac can allude to the doctrine of sidereal immortality when it appears in a funerary representation or an apotheosis. The twelve labors of Hercules are also related to the zodiac. The zodiac has played an important part in magic as well. The success of magical operations was made dependent on the position of the planets in the signs; often the symbol of a sign is drawn and invoked to ensure the success of the spell, and zodiacal representations are used for the same purpose, in which case they serve as infallible amulets. In Egyptian magic the thirty-six decans played a great part, for each was associated with a part of the human body. For magical purposes the twenty-four letters of the Greek alphabet were attributed to the twelve signs.
With the passage of time the doctrine connected with the zodiac spread so widely that its figures were thought to be present in almost all manifestations of human life; they became a very common decorative motif. They were even used to decorate dishes for food, since each sign was made to correspond to a dish that stood in some more or less mystical relation to it; and it is no wonder that architects adorned the walls of rooms with the zodiacal band and reproduced it in the mosaics of floors.