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52. In the Babylonian view the Goat (Capricornus) was illustrated as a kind of fish, the Goatfish:

This makes sense because the Land (the plane of the ecliptic) here would become immersed, so to say:

... Far away, the Mangaians of old (Austral Islands, Polynesia), who kept the precessional clock running instead of switching over to 'signs', claim that only at the evening of the solstitial days can spirits enter heaven, the inhabitants of the northern parts of the island at one solstice, the dwellers in the south at the other ... Considering the fact that the crossroads of ecliptic and Galaxy are crisis-resistant, that is, not concerned with the Precession, the reader may want to know why the Mangaians thought they could go to heaven only on the two solstitial days. Because, in order to 'change trains' comfortably, the constellations that serve as 'gates' to the Milky Way must 'stand' upon the 'earth', meaning that they must rise heliacally either at the equinoxes or at the solstices. The Galaxy is a very broad highway, but even so there must have been some bitter millenia when neither gate was directly available any longer, the one hanging in midair, the other having turned into a submarine entrance ...

... This [σ Sagittarii] has been identified with Nunki of the Euphratean Tablet of the Thirty Stars, the Star of the Proclamation of the Sea, this Sea being the quarter occupied by Aquarius, Capricornus, Delphinus, Pisces, and Pisces Australis. It is the same space in the sky that Aratos designated as Water ...

... In China, with Capricornus, Pisces, and a part of Sagittarius, it [Aquarius] constituted the early Serpent, or Turtle, Tien Yuen; and later was known as Hiuen Ying, the Dark Warrior and Hero, or Darkly Flourishing One, the Hiuen Wu, or Hiuen Heaou, of the Han dynasty, which Dupuis gave as Hiven Mao. It was a symbol of the emperor Tchoun Hin, in whose reign was a great deluge; but after the Jesuits came in it became Paou Ping, the Precious Vase. It contained three of the sieu, and headed the list of zodiac signs as the Rat, which in the far East was the ideograph for 'water', and still so remains in the almanacs of Central Asia, Cochin China, and Japan ...

And the Precious Vase began already in the Archer ('a part of Sagittarius'), possibly in day 10 * 29½ = 295, i.e. in OCTOBER 22:

ORBIT OF MARS AD 2023-2024

April 14 (180 - 76)

*16

April 30 (196 - 76)

*133

Dec 7 (*261 = 341 - 80)

Mebsuta (*100)

Pollux (*116)

ω Ophiuchi (*249)

Ga2-6 (36)

Ga2-22 (52)

 Ga7-16 (185 = 265 - 80)
APRIL 26 (116) MAY 12 (132)

SEPT 22 (EQUINOX)

*30

Jan 13 (378 = 454 - 76)

 

Jan 22 (463 - 76)

Kaus Borealis (*279)

Mebsuta (*100)
Ga8-12 (215) Ga8-15 (36 + 182)

OCT 22 (295)

OCT 25 (116 + 182)

We could alternatively guess Water began at the point of Nash (γ Sagittarii → γ Monocerotis) or perhaps at τ Sagittarii ↔ δ Monocerotis:

 

'2

 

 

'2

 

 

*10

 

Ga8-8 (211)

Ga8-10 (213)

Ga8-12 (215)

Ga8-22 (210 + 15)

MONOCEROTIS

γ (*93)

 

εlsie (*95)

 

β → λazy (*97)

 

δ → τillie (*107)

Polis = μ (*275.9)

Kaus Medius = δ (*277)

 Kaus Borealis = λ (*279)

τ (*289)

SAGITTARIUS

Or maybe at Ga8-10, the place which corresponded to counting from the Julian spring equinox:

*4

Ga8-6

Ga8-10

NASH (*273)

CANOPUS (*95)

6h (*91.3)

KAUS MEDIUS (*277)

Or it could be argued that the Chinese lunar list should be used, which seems to suggest the place of φ Sagittarii:

... The plane of the ecliptic circus seems to cut across the Milky Way River from the gate between M20 (Trifid Nebula) and M8 (Lagoon) to λ.(Kaus Borealis) in the asterism named the South Dipper:

 

*4

Ga8-17 (220)

Ga8-21

OCT 27 (300)

Φ SAGITTARII

OCT 31

NUNKI (*288)

 

Which was 405 - 353 = 52 days before the Rat:

 
1 Horn α Virginis (Spica) Crocodile (202.7) Oct 9 (282)
2 Neck κ Virginis Dragon (214.8) Oct 21 (294)
3 Root α Librae (Zuben Elgenubi) Badger (224.2) Oct 31 (304)
4 Room π Scorpii (Vrischika) Hare (241.3) Nov 17 (321)
5 Heart σ Scorpii Fox (247.0) Nov 23 (327)
6 Tail μ Scorpii (Denebakrab) Tiger (254.7) Nov 30 (334)
7 Winnowing Basket γ Sagittarii (Nash) Leopard (273.7) Dec 19 (353)
December solstice
8 South Dipper φ Sagittarii (?) Unicorn (284.0) Dec 30 (364)
9 Ox / Herd Boy β Capricornii (Dabih) Buffalo (308.0) Jan 23 (388)
10 Girl ε Aquarii (Albali) Bat (314.8) Jan 29 (394)
11 Emptiness β Aquarii (Sadalsud) Rat (325.9) Feb 9 (405)