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Capricorn · Zodiac Spirit Animal

Capricorn Spirit Animal

Capricorn the Sea-Goat: Babylonian SUHUR.MASH ('goat-fish'), Greek identification with Pan and Amalthea, and Hindu astrological identification with the makara.

Published

Hand-colored engraving of the constellation Capricornus (sea-goat) from Sidney Hall's Urania's Mirror star atlas, London, 1825.
Capricornus from Sidney Hall's Urania's Mirror (London, 1825). First attested on a 21st-century BCE cylinder seal, the sea-goat had been a Babylonian constellation for over a millennium before Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos (c. 150 CE) formalized the system. Sidney Hall, Urania's Mirror (London, 1825). Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

Capricorn is the Sea-Goat (December 22 – January 19, Earth element). Babylonian SUHUR.MASH ('goat-fish'). Greek identification with Pan (who transformed into a sea-goat to escape Typhon, per Hyginus Astronomica 2.28) and Amalthea (goat-nurse of Zeus, whose horn became the cornucopia). Hindu astrological identification with the makara (Matsya Purana; see our crocodile page). Primary animal: goat, with composite sea-animal features.

Capricorn is the Sea-Goat. Babylonian SUHUR.MASH. Greek Pan-and-Amalthea. Hindu makara. See our crocodile page for the makara.

Frequently asked

What animal is Capricorn?
The Sea-Goat, a composite creature with goat-forequarters and fish-tail. Babylonian SUHUR.MASH ('goat-fish'). Greek Pan-as-sea-goat. Hindu astrological identification is the makara (composite crocodile-creature; see our crocodile page).

Sources

  1. PRIMARYMUL.APIN (SUHUR.MASH) — Hunger & Pingree, 1989.
  2. PRIMARYHyginus, Astronomica 2.28 — Grant trans., University of Kansas Press, 1960.
  3. PRIMARYMatsya Purana — Sacred Books of the Hindus 17, 1916.
  4. PRIMARYPtolemy, Tetrabiblos — Loeb.