Page 218 - Foundations

important intelligence, shall they not seem worthy of investigation?...

These signs were known among all nations and in all ages. From the almost antediluvian
chronologies of China, India, and Egypt, to the traditions of the recently discovered islands of the
South Sea, traces of them are discerned, most clearly among the most ancient and earliest civilized
nations. In the remains of Assyria they are recognized; in those of Egypt they are perfectly preserved;
in those of Etruria and Mexico they are traceable.

This wide diffusion indicates a common origin, both of the race of man and of the symbols of
astronomy...

The earliest positive evidence of the primeval existence of the signs is in the Chinese annals, where
it is said that the Emperor Yao, 2317 years before the Christian era, divided the twelve signs of the
zodiac by the twenty-eight mansions of the moon: but it is not said that he invented them. The Chinese
national emblem of the dragon appears to be the dragon of the sphere, which was at that time the
polar constellation, the brightest star in the dragon's head having been the pole-star in the
antediluvian ages.

The Signs are next alluded to by the patriarch Jacob, who in his dying blessing was held by the
ancient Hebrews to have spoken of them as the appointed cognizances of his twelve sons, and as such
they were borne on the standards of Israel in the wilderness.

The Egyptians, on whose early monuments the signs are found, acknowledged that they derived their
astronomy from the Chaldeans. The Chaldeans attributed their science to Oannes, supposed to be
Noah. The Arabs and Brahmins, among whom astronomy was early cultivated, seem to have derived
it from Abraham, through Ishmael and the children of Keturah. The Greeks supposed their imperfect
knowledge of the subject came through the Egyptians and the Chaldeans. The Romans are thought
to have received through the Etrurians the names of the signs still in use among the European
nations. The Etrurians are considered to have derived them, with their other arts and sciences, from
Assyria. The early Greek poet Hesiod is said to have made use of Assyrian records. He mentions
some of the constellations by the names they now bear...

A later Greek poet, Aratus, described the constellations such as we now have them, and by equivalent
names. He gave neither history nor conjecture as to their date, their meaning, nor their origin. They
were to him, as to us, of immemorial antiquity. Cicero, in translating from Aratus, says, "The signs
are measured out, that in so many descriptions Divine wisdom might appear:" but he does not say
in what manner. No attempt is made by any of these writers to explain the figures, or to assign any
inventor to them... None of these earlier writers allude to any tradition concerning the meanings of
the names and emblems of the constellations, nor as to where, when, or by whom they were
originated.
[Frances Rolleston, Mazzaroth]

There is a very interesting book that can be read freely online, or downloaded, written in the year
1876 by George Smith, an archaeologist who was employed by the Department of Oriental
Antiquities at the British Museum. The book is titled The Chaldean Account of Genesis. It describes