Abstract
The River Tigris as a constellation (Fig. 27.1) was introduced sometime in the first quarter of the seventeenth century. Ptolemy left the stars comprising this constellation unformed, although mostly acknowledged, and this tradition was kept as late as the time of Bayer (1603). The main body of the river in part paralleled the path of the “Great Rift” in the Milky Way, a layer of obscuring interstellar dust in the mid plane of the Galaxy stretching roughly from Cygnus to Centaurus. In this sense the identification of a constellation here is opposite the usual sense in which stars outline a figure; rather, Tigris followed a path suggested by the relative absence of stars. It is sometimes shown on maps as two-branched, reflecting the proper geographic sense of the rivers Tigris and Euphrates as they flow through lands referred to as the “Fertile Crescent.”
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- 1.
“From β and γ, in the right shoulder of Ophiuchus, onwards between Aquila and the left hand of Hercules; thence between Albireo (β Cygni) and Sagitta to Equuleus and the front parts of Pegasus, ending at the latter’s neck” (Allen, 1899); “Began at Pegasus and flowed between Cygnus and Aquila (an area now occupied by Vulpecula), ending by the right shoulder of Ophiuchus” (Ridpath, 1989).
- 2.
Both rivers also appear on a 1649 reprint of the Globus coelestis in quo stellae fixae … gores, which seems to have been the stylistic model for Andreas Cellarius’ Harmonia Macrocosmica (1661).
- 3.
“ TIGRIS fluvius Asiae insignis, Mesopotamiam ab ortu alluens, quem ex Paradiso oriri facrae literae testantur. Gen. 2. Noviter ex variis Pegasi, Equulei, Cygni, & Ophiuchi informibus formatus & adjectus, iisdem alluit.” (p. 55)
- 4.
Genesis 2:10–14: “A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are also there.) The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush. The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Ashur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.” (NIV).
- 5.
“Ex 6. pr. inter anconem alae cygni & caput delphini” (p. 42).
- 6.
Royer may have meant Brocchi’s Cluster (Collinder 399), a small asterism commonly known as the “Coathanger” from its distinctive shape. At least six of its stars are brighter than seventh magnitude, and may be visible to observers with sufficient visual acuity under superb conditions.
- 7.
“Ex 4. pr. in origine vers serpentarii” (p. 38).
- 8.
“Tigris. Fluvius ex Paradiso derivatus, quem sacra pagina Pison vocat, hodie Mesopotamiam interluit, cujus nomen Recentiores Astronomi, in vacuas coeli sedes, sidera nempe Pegasum inter & Ophiuchum sinuata, transmisére.” (p. 184)
- 9.
Thomas appears to confuse the Tigris with the Pishon, mentioned in Genesis but whose course has never been clearly identified. Alternately, by “sacra pagina” he may have referred to “The Book of the All-Virtuous Wisdom of Joshua ben Sira,” also known as the “Wisdom of Sirach,” a work on ethics written in the first quarter of the second century bc by the Jewish scribe Shimon ben Yeshua ben Eliezer ben Sira. In Sirach 24:25 the Law of Moses “fills men with wisdom, like the Pishon, and like the Tigris at the time of the first fruits.” (Revised Standard Version)
- 10.
Carlos A. Benito, “Enki and Ninmah and Enki and the world order.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pennsylvania (1969).
- 11.
2:10-14; see Footnote 4.
- 12.
10:4–6, “On the twenty-fourth day of the first month, as I was standing on the bank of the great river, the Tigris, I looked up and there before me was a man dressed in linen, with a belt of fine gold from Uphaz around his waist. His body was like topaz, his face like lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and his voice like the sound of a multitude.”
- 13.
A dictionary of Greek and Roman geography, Volume 2, London: John Murray (1872), p. 1208.
- 14.
“The Tigris flows through this lake after issuing from the mountainous country near the Niphates; and because of its swiftness it keeps its current unmixed with the lake; whence the name Tigris, since the Median word for ‘arrow’ is ‘tigris.”’ Strabo, Geography Book 11, trans. H.C. Hamilton and W. Falconer.
- 15.
Smith, p. 1209.
- 16.
If the spur representing the Euphrates on some maps is included, the result would be five (adding Cygnus).
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Barentine, J.C. (2016). Tigris. In: The Lost Constellations. Springer Praxis Books(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22795-5_27
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