- Capricornus is an unlikely looking creature, with the head and forelegs of a goat and the tail of a fish. The constellation evidently originated with the Sumerians and Babylonians, who had a fondness for amphibious creatures; the ancient Sumerians called it SUHUR-MASH-HA, the goat-fish. But to the Greeks, who named it Αἰγόκερως (Aigokeros, or Aegoceros in Latin transliteration), meaning goat-horned, the constellation was identified with Pan, god of the countryside, who had the horns and legs of a goat.
passage through the ecliptic
- Star Tales - Aquarius (ianridpath.com)
Star maps show Aquarius as a young man pouring water from a jar or amphora, although Ovid, in his Fasti, says the liquid is a mixture of water and nectar, the drink of the gods. The water jar is marked by a Y-shaped asterism of four stars centred on 4th-magnitude Zeta Aquarii, and the stream ends in the mouth of the Southern Fish, Piscis Austrinus. Who is this young man commemorated as Aquarius?