Secondly, it is necessary that the actual appearance of the heavens, with reference to the position of the pole in Homer’s time should be indicated. For my present purpose, it is not necessary that we should know the exact date at which the most ancient of the zodiac-temples were constructed (or to which they were made to correspond). There are good reasons, though this is not the proper place for dwelling upon them, for supposing that the great epoch of reference amongst ancient astronomers preceded the Christian era by about 2200 years. Be this as it may, any epoch between the date named and the probable date at which Homer flourished—say nine or ten centuries before the Christian era—will serve equally well for my present purpose. Now if the effects of equinoctial precession be traced back to such a date, we are led to notice two singular and not uninteresting circumstances. First, the pole of the heavens fell in the central part of the great constellation Draco; and, secondly, the equator fell along the length of the great sea-serpent Hydra, in one part of its course, and elsewhere to the north of all the ancient aquatic constellations,[21] save that one-half of the northernmost fish (of the zodiac pair) lay north of the equator. Thus, if a celestial sphere were constructed with the equator in a horizontal position, the Dragon would be at the summit, Hydra would be extended horizontally along the equator—but with his head and neck reared above that circle—and Argo, Cetus, Capricornus, Piscis Australis, and Pisces—save one-half of the northernmost—would lie _below_ the equator. It may also be mentioned that all the bird-constellations were then, as now, clustered together not far from the equator—Cygnus (the farthest from the equator) being ten degrees or so nearer to that circle than at present.
Now let us turn to the two ‘shields,’ and see whether there is anything to connect them with zodiac-temples, or to remind us of the relations exhibited above. To commence with the ‘Shield of Achilles,’ the opening lines inform us that the shield showed—
The starry lights that heav’n’s high convex crown’d, The Pleiads, Hyads, with the northern team, And great Orion’s more refulgent beam.