Early Medieval Astrological Glyphs

The early use of the glyphs which represent the signs of the zodiac, planets and other astrological or astronomical phenonema can be traced to 10th or 11th century manuscripts. The Hellenistic astrologers (up through late antiquity) typically wrote out the names of the signs and planets or abbreviated them. This period did use glyphs for the Sun and the Moon, but there is little surviving evidence of any pictorial representations of the planets and signs they may have had. The following table of glyphs is derived from the 10th century manuscript of 6th century Byzantine astrologer in Otto Neugebauer's Greek Horoscopes.

Glyph Signified Notes
Aries The modern glyph is very similar to this one.
Taurus This is drastically different than the modern glyph. It looks very much like the modern glyph for Capricorn.
Gemini The lines for the twins are horizontal while the modern are vertical like the Roman numeral II.
Cancer Same as the modern glyph.
Leo Similar to the modern glyph but turned on its side.
Virgo Very different than the modern glyph, though one can see how it could have evolved into the crossed "M".
Libra Same as the modern glyph.
Scorpio Very different than modern glyph. The "M" appears of the modern glyph may be the compression of the looser structure here. This also looks closer to the modern glyph for Capricorn.
Sagittarius Similar to the modern glyph but presented vertically.
Capricorn This is quite different than the modern glyph. This one looks like that used in contemporary astrology for the asteroid Ceres.
Aquarius Same as the modern glyph.
Pisces Similar to modern glyph. Instead of a bond holding the fish together, dots perhaps represent eyes.
Sun This is the Hellenistic glyph. Early use of it is evident in the magical papyri.
Moon This is the Hellenistic glyph. Early use of it is evident in the magical papyri. Sometimes the modern crescent is reversed.
Saturn The modern glyph could be derived from this by stretching out the left leg and adding a crossed line.
Jupiter Zeta likely for "Zeus". Dios was the later Greek word for Jupiter, sometimes used interchangeably with the older Zeus.
Mars Similar to the modern glyph. However, an arrow runs through the entire circle.
Venus Similar to modern Venus but with a hook instead of a cross.
Mercury Like Venus, similar to the modern but with hook instead of cross.
North Lunar Node The North and South Nodes are represented here in the exactly reverse manner as the modern glyphs.
South Lunar Node The reverse of the modern South Node.
Ascendant Possibly a combination of various Greek letters.
Midheaven Possibly a combination of various Greek letters.
Lot of Daimon This unusual glyph looks like a jellyfish. It seems to represent a swaying motion downward - as a daimon descending to concern itself with the sublunar realm.
Pre-Natal New Moon While pre-natal lunations, full or new, were very important in Hellenistic astrology, they fell out of favor so there is no modern glyph with which to compare.

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