Tigris
Authors: Susanne M Hoffmann, Doris Vickers
Tigris or River Tigris is an obsolete constellation. It was invented twice in different times and places: First in Southern Mesopotamia in the first millennium BCE and second (independently) in Europe in the early 17th century.
Concordance, Etymology, History
Spelling Variants
- Tigris
- Tygris
- Tÿgris Fluvi9 (Tygris Fluvius)
Origin of Constellation
Today's name of the river is Greek, with uncertain etymology.
There are two independent inventions of this constellation:
Ancient Mesopotamia
mul ídIDIGNA (𒀯𒀀𒇉𒈦𒄘𒃼), the Tigris-river asterism, is a constellation that is mentioned in late cuneiform texts in the area of northeastern Pisces and western Andromeda. Together with the Euphrates' asterism (BURANUN) it formed a super-constellation that corresponds to the ribbons of classical Pisces and ZIBme in cuneiform, a late form of KUNme(š) mulSIM.MAḪ, the Tails of the Swallow, in MUL.APIN I iv 36.
Some star lists from the first millennium BCE equate the constellations Anunitu and Swallow with the two river constellations Euphrates and Tigris. The uranology MLC 1866 explicitly mentions that they meet at the "tip of The Tails (ZIBme)"ː
- [MU]L.MEŠ ídIDIGNA u ídBURANUNki ina ṣip-ri mulZIB<me>,
- "The stars of the Tigris and the Euphrates at the tip of the Tails" (D i 8)
Beaulieu et al. (2018, 35, 39, Section A)[1].
Early Modern Europe
Ian Ridpath[2] writes about the 17th century constellation:
A constellation representing the river Tigris, a real river of Mesopotamia which joins with the Euphrates in the modern Iraq. The constellation was introduced in 1612 by the Dutchman Petrus Plancius on the same globe that the river Jordan (Jordanus) made its first appearance.
The celestial Tigris began at the neck of Pegasus and flowed between Cygnus and Aquila, an area now occupied by Johannes Hevelius’s later invention Vulpecula. It ended by the right shoulder of Ophiuchus in a V-shaped group of stars that Ptolemy had listed as lying outside Ophiuchus; these were later to be incorporated in another short-lived constellation, Taurus Poniatovii.
Like Jordanus, Tigris first appeared in print on the 1624 chart by Jacob Bartsch and as a result Bartsch was sometimes wrongly credited with its formation. Also like Jordanus, it was not adopted by Hevelius for his influential atlas of 1687. Both constellations became forgotten during the 18th century and were not shown by Johann Bode on his Uranographia atlas of 1801.
Plancius did not publish an accompanying star catalogue in book form; rather, his additions debuted directly on the 26.5 cm celestial globe engraved by Pieter van den Keere (Petrus Kaerius) in Amsterdam (1612–1613).
In the commentary accompanying his star maps, Bartsch outlined the biblical symbolism of the newly added constellations while reinterpreting the traditional Ptolemaic figures through a scriptural lens. Likely unaware of Plancius’s original contributions, owing to the rarity of his globes, Bartsch noted that he had encountered these new constellations via his mentor Isaac Habrecht’s 1621 globe. Because Bartsch’s volume paired practical astronomical tables with constellation lore, it circulated widely among seventeenth- and eighteenth-century astronomers. However, since few readers paid close attention to his citation of Habrecht, posterity often mistakenly credited Bartsch himself as the creator of these biblical figures.
"TIGRIS fluvius Asiae insignis, Mesopotamiam ab ortu alluens, quem ex Paradiso oriri sacrae literae testantur. Gen. 2. Noviter ex variis Pegasi, Equulei, Cygni, & Ophiuchi informibus formatus & adjectus, iisdem alluit."
"The Tigris, a renowned river of Asia washing Mesopotamia from the east, which the Sacred Scriptures testify arises from Paradise (Genesis 2). Newly formed and added from various unformed stars of Pegasus, Equuleus, Cygnus, and Ophiuchus, washing past the same." (Translation: Doris Vickers)
Bartsch’s work served as the primary printed vehicle that disseminated Plancius’s globe additions across Europe.
The Christian association for Bartsch is also clearly attested in the descriptions of the previous and following constellations, Delphinus connected to the Ship of Simon and Cygnus as the cross of Christ.
Sources
Plancius's Biblical Maps (1590) with the rivers Jordan and its two sources Ior and Dan, Tigris and Euphrates, and the Biblical paradise & tree of life south of Babylon. "Paradise" is depicted at the confluence of the Euphrates and the Tigris, illustrating Bartsch's citation that Tigris "arises from Paradise (Gen. 2)". This cultural interpretation might be the reason why Tigris is copied by other astronomers while Euphrates (geographically much longer) is dropped by Habrecht, Bartsch, Hevelius and others.
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Jordanus on Globe gores by van den Keere & Plancius (1612) -
Tigris and Euprates on Plancius (1612) and van den Keere's globe gores. -
Plancius (1590): Biblical Maps, with modern highlighting of Jor-Dan. -
Plancius (1590): Biblical Maps, with modern highlighting of Jor-Dan, Euphrates, Tigris and the Paradise south of Babylon.
Identifications
Depending on the season and context, the term "..." can have the following identifications:
- (a) Ancient Mesopotamia: Pisces
- (b) Plancius 1612: Tigris and Euphrates
- (c) Habrecht 1621, Bartsch 1661 and Hevelius 1687 follow Plancius with Tigris but leave out the Euphrates
Transfer and Transformation of the Constellation
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Tigris and Euphrates on Plancius' globe gores (1612).
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Tigris on globe gores by Habrecht (1621) -
Tigris in Jakob Barsch (1661) Planisphaerium Stellatum -
Mythology
mnemonic tales and cultural significance
Weblinks
References
- References (general)
- ↑ Beaulieu, P.-A., Frahm, E., Horowitz, W. & Steele, J. (2018), The Cuneiform Uranology Texts: Drawing the Constellations, American Philosophical Society Press, Philadelphia, USA.
- ↑ Ridpath, Ian, Star Tales (Cambridge: Lutterworth Press, 1988) ISBN 0-7188-2695-7 [Internet Archive link] -- a revised and expanded edition was published in 2018 [ISBN 978-07188-9478-8] -- online version on Ridpath's website.
