Wonders of the East and Astronomical-Calendrical Treatise

It must therefore be known that God placed within the firmament the vast, solid dome of the sky that medieval scholars believed held the stars in place itself the dwellings which we call "signs." For reasons that can be imagined with a likeness of truth, the ancients named the twelve annual parts of the Zodiac—that is, the signifer literally "the star-bearer," the circle of the heavens carrying the signs of the zodiac circle—attaching what seemed to be appropriate names to each part. Concerning the Ram. Aries is thought to be the ram who had carried Phryxus and Helle across the Hellespont the narrow strait between Europe and Asia; the name literally means "Helle’s Sea," named after her fall. This ram is said to have possessed a golden fleece. However, it is told that Helle fell into the sea and, having been embraced by Neptune the Roman god of the sea, gave birth to Paeon. Furthermore, it is said that Phryxus reached Mount Aeetes in Colchis and sacrificed the ram to Jupiter the king of the gods, and fixed its golden fleece in the temple. Witnesses claim that the likeness of the ram itself was placed among the stars by a cloud original: "a nube"; a reference to Nephele, the goddess of the clouds and mother of Phryxus and Helle. Demosthenes likely referring to the mythographer Demosthenes of Cyrene rather than the famous orator, however, says that the ram pulled off its own skin and gave it to Phryxus. For this reason, as a memorial, it ascended into the heavens. They established this sign as the first of the twelve because they say the sun travels through that part of the sky in March, which is the beginning of the year. Aries, moreover, consists of eighteen stars in total, as it is laid out here.