TAURUS

, the Bull, in Astronomy, one of the 12 signs in the zodiac, and the second in order.

The Greeks fabled that this was the bull which carried Europa safe across the seas to Crete; and that Jupiter, in reward for so signal a service, placed the creature, whose form he had assumed on that occasion, among the stars, and that this is the constellation formed of it. But it is probable that the Egyptians, or Babylonians, or whoever invented the constellations of the zodiac, placed this figure in that part of it which the sun entered about the time of the bringing forth of calves; like as they placed the ram in the first part of spring, as the lambs appear before them, and the two kids (for that was the original figure of the sign Gemini), afterward, to denote the time of the goats bringing forth their young.

In the constellation Taurus there are some remarkable stars that have names; as Aldebaran in the south or right eye of the bull, the cluster called the Pleiades in the neck, and the cluster called Hyades in the face.

The stars in the constellation Taurus, in Ptolomy's catalogue are 44, in Tycho's catalogue 43, in Hevelius's catalogue 51, and in the Britannic catalogue 141.