The
Epitome records the mature and definitive development of a long process: the Hellenes' assimilation of a Mesopotamian
zodiac, transmitted through Persian interpreters and translated and harmonized with the known terms of
Greek mythology. A fundamental effort in this translation was the application of Greek mythic nomenclature to designate individual stars, both
asterisms like the
Pleiades and
Hyades, and the constellations. In
Classical Greece, the "wandering stars" and the gods who directed them were separate entities, as for
Plato; in Hellenistic culture, the association became an inseparable identification. Chapters 1–42 of the
Epitome treat forty-three of the forty-eight constellations (including the
Pleiades) known to
Ptolemy (2nd century CE); chapters 43–44 treat the five planets and the
Milky Way. † Not one of the modern constellations. Of the 48
Ptolemaic constellations, the ones not included are
Corona Australis,
Equuleus,
Libra,
Lupus, and
Serpens. In
modern times, Argo Navis (the ship
Argo) has been divided into three constellations:
Carina (the keel),
Puppis (the stern), and
Vela (the sails); and the Pleiades are recognized as a star cluster within the constellation Taurus. The work cites in some places the lost
Astronomia attributed to
Hesiod. A similar later account is the
Poeticon Astronomicon, or
De Astronomica (tellingly also titled
De Astrologia in some manuscripts that follow Hyginus' usage in his text) attributed to
Gaius Julius Hyginus. During the
Renaissance, printing of the
Epitome under the title
Catasterismi, began early, but the work was always overshadowed by
Hyginus, the only other ancient repertory of catasterisms. The
Catasterismi was illustrated by woodcuts in the first illustrated edition by
Erhard Ratdolt, (Venice 1482). Johann Schaubach's edition of the
Catasterismi (Meiningen 1791) was also illustrated with celestial maps drawn from another work,
Johann Buhle's Aratus (Leipzig, 2 volumes, 1793–1801). After the old
Teubner edition of A. Olivieri,
Pseudo-Eratosthenis Catasterismi (Leipzig 1897), the text has a new complete edition including the recensio Fragmenta Vaticana. In 1997, an English translation and commentary by Theony Condos was published (including the
De astronomia), which the classicist John Ramsey writes "cannot be relied upon to convey accurately the content of the original texts". In 2013, a Greek-French scientific translation and commentary by Jordi Pàmias I Massana and Arnaud Zucker was published. ==Notes==