LEO

, the Lion, a considerable constellation of the northern hemisphere, being one of the 48 old constellations, and the 5th sign of the zodiac. It is marked thus <*>, as a rude sketch of the animal.

The Greeks fabled that this was the Nemæan lion, which had dropped from the moon, but being slain by Hercules, was raised to the heavens by Jupiter, in commemoration of the dreadful conflict, and in honour of that hero. But the hieroglyphical meaning of this sign, so depicted by the Egyptians long before the invention of the fables of Hercules, was probably no more than to signify, by the fury of the lion, the violent heats occasioned by the sun when he entered that part of the ecliptic.

The stars in the constellation Leo, in Ptolomy's catalogue are 27, besides 8 unformed ones, now counted in later times in the constellation Coma Berenices, in Tycho's 30, in that of Hevelius 49, and in Flamsteed's 95; one of them, of the first magnitude, in the breast of the Lion, is called Regulus, and Cor Leonis, or Lion's Heart.

Leo Minor, the Little Lion, a constellation of the northern hemisphere, and one of the new ones that were formed out of what were left by the ancients, under the name of Stellæ Informes, or unformed stars, and added to the 48 old ones. It contains 53 stars in Flamsteed's catalogue.

Cor Leonis, Lion's heart, a fixed star, of the first magnitude, in the sign Leo; called also Regulus, Basilicus, &c.