THE CANCERIAN CRAB
van gogh
Vincent van Gogh, Two Crabs.

Deborah Houlding, Star Lore of the Constellations, Cancer the Crab

Reverse Tetradrachm of Akragas (Agrigentum)
Macrobius on CANCER
Angelo de Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology or The Legends of  of Animals.  CHAPTER II. THE CRAB.  red

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aesop's_Fables

Fox. Aesop, Fables, ed. Chambry, 1927, 66, No. 150. The crab and the fox. A fox seeing a crab emerging from the water, is about to devour it, when it cries, "I deserve my fate, for I live in the sea and have tried to live on the land as well."

204. THE CRAB AND THE FOX  Vernon Jones (1912)

A Crab once left the sea-shore and went and settled in a meadow some way inland, which looked very nice and green and seemed likely to be a good place to feed in. But a hungry Fox came along and spied the Crab and caught him. Just as he was going to be eaten up, the Crab said, "This is just what I deserve; for I had no business to leave my natural home by the sea and settle here as though I belonged to the land."

Be content with your lot.


Aesop's Fables: A New Translation by V.S. Vernon Jones with illustrations by Arthur Rackham (1912). This book is available online at Project Gutenberg.

 http://mythfolklore.net/aesopica/vernonjones/204.htm


351   Macrobius, Commentary on the Dream of Scipio, I, chap. XII (Nisard ed., 40) :

  "The Milky Way takes up as much of the Zodiac in its oblique path across the skies that it cuts it at two points, at Cancer and Capricorn, which are the names given to the two tropics; Physicians call these two signs the portals of the sun, . . . It is through these doors, they say, that souls come down to earth and return to heaven . . . They call one the mortals' gate and the other the gate of the gods. It is through the mortals' gate, or through Cancer, that the souls leave who are making their way to earth ; and it is through the gate of the gods, or Capricorn, that the souls return to the seat of their rightful immortality and take their place with the gods." Cf. also Saturn., I. chap. XVII, 63. Cf. Curio. whose hieroglyphics have been annexed to those of Pierius Valerianus, trans. Mondyart, Lyons, 1615, 798, Bk. II, chap. VI. "Capricorn, Death or the souls of the dead and propitious fate. The Platonists call the sign of Capricorn (which is to be seen on several coins of Augustus Caesar and which promises good fortune to those born under it, according to the astrologers) the gate of the gods. For they hold that by this means the souls delivered of their bodies mount forthwith to heaven, where they participate in the divine being. And yet this celestial sign represents the souls of the dead or death itself, and sometimes good fortune and prosperity" ; ibid., chap. VII : "Man's birth, or life. The crayfish, in the opinion of the Platonists, symbolizes the birth and life of man, for they believe that souls are sent out in human form through the gate of the Crayfish, which they call the gate of Man, just as the Capricorn is the gate of the gods. in that the souls leave by this gate to embark on their human lives."

302 Pliny, Hist. nat., XXVIII, chap. XLV, 5: "lucemarum luminibus advolens." Cf. earlier the butterfly and the rose, solar emblem, on Rhodian coins, on engraved stones. The crayfish and other crustaceans are also attracted by light, Pierius Valerianus, Hieroglyphica, [trans. Montlyart, Lyons, 1615, Bk. XXVIII, chap. XVII], whence the emblem of a crayfish or some other crustacean, with a torch, to signify "some secret hidden thing brought to light."

216 Albani statue.

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