Profile / Characteristics
| English translation | Latin declination and pronunciations | Size/ °² | # stars (visible) |
| the Bull | Taurus – TOR-us Tauri – TOR-eye | 797 | 222 |
Main Star (brightest one):
| Designation | HIP number | name in IAU-CSN | brightness |
| α Tau | HIP 21421 | Aldebaran | 0.86 mag (V) |
Our (modern) Explanation
Taurus has its origin in ancient Sumer. It depicts The Bull of Heaven, a gigantic creature that was slaughtered by Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, to protect his people. Therefore it is depicted half in the sky. The Bull of Heaven was considered a gate-keeper for the Sun when it goes from the southern to the northern hemisphere (first constellation after spring equinox). Its counterpart in autumn is “the bull of the earth”, a metaphor for the scorpion. Therefore, Taurus and Scorpius are opposite each other in the zodiac.
Ancient Globes
Farnese Globe
Kugel Globe
Mainz Globe
Ancient Lore & Meaning
Aratus
Reference:
English translation by Douglas Kidd (1997).
Aratus: Phaenomena, Cambridge Classical Texts and Commentaries, Series Number 34
Pseudo-Eratosthenes
the bull carried princess Europa from Phoenicia to Crete. Some also say that it is a cow which is a depiction of princess Io for whom Zeus was worshipped. On the forehead, there are the Hyades, on the cut off of the back, there are the Pleiades.
References:
French translation by:
Jordi Pàmias i Massana and Arnaud Zucker (2013). Ératosthènes de Cyrène – Catastérismes, Les Belles Lettres, Paris
English version in:
Robin Hard (2015): Eratosthenes and Hyginus Constellation Myths with Aratus’s Phaenomena, Oxford World’s Classics
Early Modern Interpretation
Contemporary
As one of their first tasks in the 1920s, the newly founded International Astronomical Union (IAU) established constellation standards. The Belgian astronomer Eugène Delporte was assigned to the task to define borders of constellations parallel to lines of declination and right ascension. They were accepted by the General Assembly in 1928. The standardized names and abbreviations had already been accepted in 1922 and 1925.
