Gennady Kurtik

While it is well known that the Mesopotamian tradition played a definitive role in the development of the Greek Zodiac, the question about the origin of the Greek Zodiacal constellation names is still an unresolved issue in the history of ancient astronomy. This article addresses this problem by discussing the early Greek written sources on, and images of, the Zodiacal constellations and the signs of the Zodiac; the names of the constellations distinguished in the Zodiacal belt and the related system of the 12 Zodiacal constellations and signs, used in cuneiform writing; and the Mesopotamian images of the Zodiacal constellations. It is shown that the Greek names of the Zodiacal constellations could not be derived from direct translation of their Mesopotamian names, but were most likely closely related to the symbolic images of the Zodiacal constellations adopted in the Mesopotamian astronomy and astrology.