Taurus (zodiac sign)
The zodiac sign Taurus ( Greek ταῦρος Taúros , Latin Taurus ) corresponds to the second section of the zodiac from 30 ° to 60 ° ecliptical longitude from the vernal equinox .
The sun is located in this sign on average between April 21 and May 21 . Due to the migration of the spring equinox , the zodiac sign Taurus no longer corresponds to the constellation Taurus . In the constellation Taurus, the sun is roughly between May 14th and June 21st.
After the Tetrabiblos by Claudius Ptolemy
- is the bull female (I.12),
- he is the house of Venus (I.17), and
- the moon is exalted in Taurus (I.19).
As a Melothesian equivalent, the bull was assigned the neck as a human body part in ancient iatroastrology . The assigned deity was the ruler of the sign according to Venus .
With Virgo and Capricorn , Taurus forms the trine of the earth element , and with Leo , Scorpio and Aquarius the square of the four fixed signs.
The sign was already part of the Babylonian zodiac. It appears on the MUL.APIN boards as the “Heavenly Bull” or “Bull of Anu ” (GUD.AN.NA). It is the same word that is used to designate the heavenly bull in the Sumerian epic Gilgamesh .
The sign has been depicted since ancient times as a bull with horns lowered to attack, with only the front half being shown, which corresponds to the constellation. The astrological symbol is the stylization of a bull's head (seen from the front) as a circle with a pair of horns attached.
The Unicode character for the symbol is U + 2649 (♉).
literature
- Wolfgang Huebner: Zodiac. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 12, Metzler, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-476-01470-3 , Sp. 553-563.
