16. The signs of the twelve months
THE RECKONING OF TIME
together bore the name ''Litha''; hence they called [the embolismic] year ''Thrilithi''. It had four summer months, with the usual three for the other seasons. But originally, they divided the year as a whole into two seasons, summer and winter, /331/ assigning the six months in which the days are longer than the nights to summer, and the other six to winter. Hence they called the month in which the winter season began
''Winter¢lleth'', a name made up from ''winter'' and ''full Moon'', because winter began on the full Moon of that month.
Nor is it irrelevant if we take the trouble to translate the names of the other months. The months of Giuli derive their name from the day when the Sun turns back [and begins] to increase, because one of [these months] precedes [this day] and the other follows. Solmonath can be called ''month of cakes'', which they o¡ered to their gods in that month.
Hrethmonath is named for their goddess Hretha, to whom they sacri- ¢ced at this time. Eosturmonath has a name which is now translated
''Paschal month'', and which was once called after a goddess of theirs named Eostre, in whose honour feasts were celebrated in that month.
Now they designate that Paschal season by her name, calling the joys of the new rite by the time-honoured name of the old observance. Thrimilchi was so called because in that month the cattle were milked three times a day; such, at one time, was the fertility of Britain or Germany, from whence the English nation came to Britain. Litha means ''gentle'' or ''navigable'', because in both these months the calm breezes are gentle, and they were wont to sail upon the smooth sea. Weodmonath means ''month of tares'', /332/ for they are very plentiful then. Halegmonath means ''month of sacred rites''. Winter¢lleth can be called by the invented composite name ''winter-full''. Blodmonath is ''month of immolations'', for then the cattle which were to be slaughtered were consecrated to their gods. Good Jesu, thanks be to thee, who hast turned us away from these vanities and given us [grace] to o¡er to thee the sacri¢ce of praise.
16. THE SIGNS OF THE TWELVE MONTHS
Each ofthe months has its own sign in which it receives the Sun: April [the sign] of Aries; May, Taurus; June, Gemini; July, Cancer; August, Leo;
September,Virgo; October, Libra; November, Scorpio; December, Sagittarius; January, Capricorn; February, Aquarius; March, Pisces. As one of the ancients explained in heroic verse: /333/
TRANSLATION
The Phrygian Ram looks back on the kalends of April.
May marvels at the horns of Agenor the Bull.
June sees the Laconian pair travel the heavens.
At the solstice July brings in the constellation of ¢ery Cancer.
Burning Leo scorches the month of August with £ame.
O Virgo, September swells Bacchus under your star.
In the sowing season, October balances Libra.
The diving Scorpion bids wintry November come in.
The Archer brings his sign to a close in mid-December.
The tropic of Capricorn marks o¡ the commencement of January.
The star of stout Aquarius stands in the midst of Numa's month.
The twin ¢sh go forth in the season of Mars.163
He shows that what he states explicitly about December should be understood of the others in every case, namely, that each sign ends in the middle of its month, and begins in the middle of the previous month. I beseech those who are knowledgeable not to consider it an imposition to instruct those who do not know concerning the precise position [of the signs].
The gyre of the heavens, perfectly round at every point, is bound by the line of the zodiacal circle, like the discrete settings of twelve gems adjacent to each other on a sort of girdle wrapped around a very large sphere.164 /334/ They are of such great size that they cannot rise or set
163 Ausonius, Ecloga 16, ed. Sextus Prete (Leipzig: Teubner, 1978):108^109. Bede derived the eclogue and its introduction from a text entitled De causis quibus nomina acceperunt duodecim signa, ed. by Jones in BOD 665^667. This edition omits the poem proper, but it is included in Jones' earlier transcription in Bedae pseudepigrapha 103. This same text was the primary source for The Nature of Things 17. Its presence in the ''Bobbio computus''
(Milan Ambrosiana H 150 inf; PL 129.1324^1325) suggests an Irish origin. On this, and other possible sources for this chapter, see Jones, BOT 351^2. It should be noted that Bede has rearranged the poem tobegin in April rather than January.This deliberate displacement away from the civic calendar and towards the natural phenomenon of the equinox may re£ect the positive attraction of Easter for the computist, but it may also be in part inspired by a long-standing Christian polemic against the persistent pagan associations of the January New Year: see ch. 12, n. 147.
164 Bede's image of the zodiac signs as jewels is striking. He may have been thinking of the 12 jewels in the foundations of the New Jerusalem (Apoc. 2.19^20), which were closely connected with the 12 gates of the city, facing the four cardinal directions (ibid.
21.13). These 12 gates are also described as ''pearls'' (ibid. 21.21). However, unlike later writers, Bede did not, in his Explanatio Apocalypsis, compare the foundations or gates of the New Jerusalem to the zodiac, and there is no indication that his immediate lapidary
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or move from a position in less than two hours. Thirty parts are ascribed to each sign, because of the thirty days in which the Sun illuminates each of them. The 101 2 hours left over are not added in right away,165 because they do not make up a full measure of 24 hours. Nonetheless, since the full solar year is ¢nished, not just in 360 days, but with an additional 5ˆ~˘ days, it is evident that this [period of 10ˆ~˜ hours], multiplied by twelve and making up 5ˆ~˘ days, has been added to the thirty parts.166
Now the ¢rst sign of Aries begins in that part of the heavens where the Sun stands in the middle of March.167 It ends in that part which the Sun has traversed in the middle of April. Therefore it indicates the location of the vernal equinox, according to some,168 in its eighth part, but according to the Egyptians, who are skilled in calculation beyond all others,169 [the equinox] is more correctly [said to be] in the fourth part.170 The second [sign], Taurus, starting from that part of the celestial circle where the Sun is borne about in mid-April, ¢nishes in [the part] which [the Sun] occupies in mid-May. Gemini, the third [sign, starts] in the part of the zodiac where the Sun is in mid-May. The fourth [sign],
Cancer, begins in that [part] which it illumines in the middle of June.
Therefore, according to some, it receives the solstice in its eighth part, /335/ but in fact, if one follows a more careful line of research, it is a few parts earlier. From this point, I take a downward course towards the sources would have suggested such a link: cf. Peter Kitson, ''Lapidary Traditions in AngloSaxon England: Part I, the Background; the Old English Lapidary'', Anglo-Saxon England
7 (1978):9^60; ''Part II, Bede's Explanatio Apocalypsis and Related Works'', Anglo-Saxon
England 12 (1983):73^123.
165 De causis quibus nomina acceperunt duodecim signa, 667.60^61.
166 This is an interesting illustration of a basic principle of calendar construction, which is that one cannot calculate with less than a whole day. The Sun actually spends 30 days and 10ˆ~˜ hours in each zodiac sign ^ as is evident from the length of the tropical year ^ but if one is going to mark its entry into each sign on a calendar, one will have to choose one or another day, not a part of a day. In this chapter, Bede only states that the Sun enters each zodiac sign ''in the middle'' of the calendar month, but his main source, De causis quibus nomina acceperunt duodecim signa, gives the exact dates, and we have included these in our reconstruction of Bede's solar calendar in Appendix 1. The extra ¢ve days are absorbed by the additional day in each of the seven 31-day months, minus 2 for the two days' shortfall in February.
167 De causis quibus nomina acceperunt duodecim signa 666.49^50.
168 E.g. Isidore, Etym. 5.34.
169 Dionysius Exiguus, Ep. ad Petronium 65.22.
170 Pliny, HN 2.17.81 (2.224).
TRANSLATION
bottom of the zodiac,171 that is, the circle of the signs. The ¢fth [sign], Leo, [begins] in the part where the Sun is in the middle of July; the sixth,
Virgo, from where it is in the middle of August. The seventh [sign], Libra, begins to rise from where [the Sun] orbits in the middle of September; hence according to common opinion it furnishes a place in its eighth part for the autumn equinox,172 but to a more unclouded judgement it occurs rather before this. Then, as the zodiac tips towards the winter region, the eighth sign, Scorpio, begins from where [the Sun is] in the middle of October; the ninth, Sagittarius, from where it is in the middle of November. The tenth [sign], Capricorn, takes its start from where the Sun is in mid-December. Hence it consecrates a mansion for the winter solstice in its eighth part, as is commonly believed; but as Egypt, the mother of the arts,173 teaches, it is a few days before this.
Then, when the course of the zodiac returns to higher regions, the eleventh constellation, Aquarius, [starts] from the Sun's position in the middle of January. The twelfth [sign], Pisces, beginning in that same part of February, comes to an end in the middle of March, where Aries, following after, shows the beginning of its rise. As all the signs agree in the fashion in which they are measured and in the conjunction of their zones174 ^ albeit not in their visible form ^ the poet has said of them: thus the golden Sun holds sway over the sphere, divided into ¢xed sections, by the twelve stars.175 /336/
The zodiac touches the Milky Way in Sagittarius and Gemini.176 Much 171 The ''bottom'' of the zodiac (ad inferiora situ zodiaci) comprises the signs through which the Sun will pass from summer solstice to winter solstice, that is, from the point at which its daily orbit will begin to travel southwards. It represents not only the ''bottom'' of the year, but also the fact that Sun will be heading towards its lowest point in the sky, closest to the horizon.
172 Isidore, Etym. 3.71.29; Pliny, HN 2.17.81 (2.224).
173 Macrobius, Saturnalia 1.15.1 (69.13^14).Cf. Proterius, Ep.ad Leonem 2 (271), who refers to the Egyptian church quae mater huiuscemodi laboris extitit.
174 regionum tamen suarum coniunctione: Jones thinks that this obscure phrase refers to the meeting-point of Pisces and Aries, and cites in this regard Hyginus 3.29. But Bede clearly states that ''all the signs'' (and not just Pisces and Aries) ''agree'' in this. What is meant is not exactly clear: one possibility is that Bede means to say that all the signs are of the same width.
175 Vergil, Georgics 1.231^232; cf. Letter to Wicthed 6.
176 Cf. The Nature of Things 18, which draws on the same source, namely Pliny,
HN 18.281 (5.367).