Syncellus tells us, that the five days were added to the old year by the last King of the Shepherds: and the difference in time between the Reign of this King, and that of Ammon, is but small; for the Reign of the Shepherds ended but one Generation, or two, before Ammon began to add those days. But the Shepherds minded not Arts and Sciences.

The first month of the Luni-solar year, by reason of the Intercalary month, began sometimes a week or a fortnight before the Equinox or Solstice, and sometimes as much after it. And this year gave occasion to the first Astronomers, who formed the Asterisms, to place the Equinoxes and Solstices in the middles of the Constellations of Aries, Cancer, Chelæ, and Capricorn. Achilles Tatius [[69]] tells us, that some antiently placed the Solstice in the beginning of Cancer, others in the eighth degree of Cancer, others about the twelfth degree, and others about the fifteenth degree thereof. This variety of opinions proceeded from the precession of the Equinox, then not known to the Greeks. When the Sphere was first formed, the Solstice was in the fifteenth degree or middle of the Constellation of Cancer: then it came into the twelfth, eighth, fourth, and first degree successively. Eudoxus, who flourished about sixty years after Meton, and an hundred years before Aratus, in describing the Sphere of the Ancients, placed the Solstices and Equinoxes in the middles of the Constellations of Aries, Cancer, Chelæ, and Capricorn, as is affirmed by [[70]] Hipparchus Bithynus; and appears also by the Description of the Equinoctial and Tropical Circles in Aratus, [[71]] who copied after Eudoxus; and by the positions of the Colures of the Equinoxes and Solstices, which in the Sphere of Eudoxus, described by Hipparchus, went through the middles of those Constellations. For Hipparchus tells us, that Eudoxus drew the Colure of the Solstices, through the middle of the great Bear, and the middle of Cancer, and the neck of Hydrus, and the Star between the Poop and Mast of Argo, and the Tayl of the South Fish, and through the middle of Capricorn, and of Sagitta, and through the neck and right wing of the Swan, and the left hand of Cepheus; and that he drew the Equinoctial Colure, through the left hand of Arctophylax, and along the middle of his Body, and cross the middle of Chelæ, and through the right hand and fore-knee of the Centaur, and through the flexure of Eridanus and head of Cetus, and the back of Aries a-cross, and through the head and right hand of Perseus.

Now Chiron delineated σχηματα ολυμπου the Asterisms, as the ancient Author of Gigantomachia, cited by [[72]] Clemens Alexandrinus informs us: for Chiron was a practical Astronomer, as may be there understood also of his daughter Hippo: and Musæus, the son of Eumolpus and master of Orpheus, and one of the Argonauts, [[73]] made a Sphere, and is reputed the first among the Greeks who made one: and the Sphere it self shews that it was delineated in the time of the Argonautic expedition; for that expedition is delineated in the Asterisms, together with several other ancienter Histories of the Greeks, and without any thing later. There's the golden RAM, the ensign of the Vessel in which Phryxus fled to Colchis; the BULL with brazen hoofs tamed by Jason; and the TWINS, CASTOR and POLLUX, two of the Argonauts, with the SWAN of Leda their mother. There's the Ship ARGO, and HYDRUS the watchful Dragon; with Medea's CUP, and a RAVEN upon its Carcass, the Symbol of Death. There's CHIRON the master of Jason, with his ALTAR and SACRIFICE. There's the Argonaut HERCULES with his DART and VULTURE falling down; and the DRAGON, CRAB and LION, whom he slew; and the HARP of the Argonaut Orpheus. All these relate to the Argonauts. There's ORION the son of Neptune, or as some say, the grandson of Minos, with his DOGS, and HARE, and RIVER, and SCORPION. There's the story of Perseus in the Constellations of PERSEUS, ANDROMEDA, CEPHEUS, CASSIOPEA and CETUS: That of Callisto, and her son Arcas, in URSA MAJOR and ARCTOPHYLAX: That of Icareus and his daughter Erigone in BOOTES, PLAUSTRUM and VIRGO. URSA MINOR relates to one of the Nurses of Jupiter, AURIGA to Erechthonius, OPHIUCHUS to Phorbas, SAGITTARIUS to Crolus the son of the Nurse of the Muses, CAPRICORN to Pan, and AQUARIUS to Ganimede. There's Ariadne's CROWN, Bellerophon's HORSE, Neptune's DOLPHIN, Ganimede's EAGLE, Jupiter's GOAT with her KIDS, Bacchus's ASSES, and the FISHES of Venus and Cupid, and their Parent the SOUTH FISH. These with DELTOTON, are the old Constellations mentioned by Aratus: and they all relate to the Argonauts and their Contemporaries, and to Persons one or two Generations older: and nothing later than that Expedition was delineated there Originally. ANTINOUS and COMA BERENICES are novel. The Sphere seems therefore to have been formed by Chiron and Musæus, for the use of the Argonauts: for the Ship Argo was the first long ship built by the Greeks. Hitherto they had used round vessels of burden, and kept within sight of the shore; and now, upon an Embassy to several Princes upon the coasts of the Euxine and Mediterranean Seas, [[74]] by the dictates of the Oracle, and consent of the Princes of Greece, the Flower of Greece were to sail with Expedition through the deep, in a long Ship with Sails, and guide their Ship by the Stars. The People of the Island Corcyra [[75]] attributed the invention of the Sphere to Nausicaa, the daughter of Alcinous, King of the Pheaces in that Island: and it's most probable that she had it from the Argonauts, who [[76]] in their return home sailed to that Island, and made some stay there with her father. So then in the time of the Argonautic Expedition, the Cardinal points of the Equinoxes and Solstices were in the middles of the Constellations of Aries, Cancer, Chelæ, and Capricorn.

In the end of the year of our Lord 1689 the Star called Prima Arietis was in

. 28°. 51'. 00", with North Latitude 7°. 8'. 58". And the Star called ultima caudæ Arietis was in

. 19°. 3'. 42", with North Latitude 2°. 34'. 5". And the Colurus Æquinoctiorum passing through the point in the middle between those two Stars did then cut the Ecliptic in

. 6°. 44': and by this reckoning the Equinox in the end of the year 1689 was gone back 36°. 44'. since the Argonautic Expedition: Supposing that the said Colure passed through the middle of the Constellation of Aries, according to the delineation of the Ancients. The Equinox goes back fifty seconds in one year, and one degree in seventy and two years, and by consequence 36°. 44'. in 2645 years, which counted back from the end of the year of our Lord 1689, or beginning of the year 1690, will place the Argonautic Expedition about 25 years after the Death of Solomon: but it is not necessary that the middle of the Constellation of Aries should be exactly in the middle between the two Stars called prima Arietis and ultima Caudæ: and it may be better to fix the Cardinal points by the Stars, through which the Colures passed in the primitive Sphere, according to the description of Eudoxus above recited. By the Colure of the Equinoxes, I mean a great Circle passing through the Poles of the Equator, and cutting the Ecliptic in the Equinoxes in an Angle of 66½ degrees, the complement of the Sun's greatest Declination; and by the Colure of the Solstices I mean a great Circle passing through the same Poles, and cutting the Ecliptic at right Angles in the Solstices: and by the Primitive Sphere, that which was in use before the motions of the Equinoxes and Solstices were known: now the Colures passed through the following Stars according to Eudoxus.