Note 104 — BOOK II. AN ACCOUNT OF THE WORLD AND THE ELEMENTS.
John Bostock translation
“Sidera.” The word sidus is used, in most cases, for one of the heavenly bodies generally, sometimes for what we term a constellation, a particular assemblage of them, and sometimes specially for an individual star. Manilius employs the word in all these senses, as will appear by the three following passages respectively; the first taken from the opening of his poem,
“Carmine divinas artes, et conscia fati Sidera....”
The second,
“Hæc igitur texunt æquali sidera tractu Ignibus in varias cœlum laqueantia formas.” i. 275, 276.
The third
“... pectus, fulgenti sidere clarius;” i. 356.
In the Fasti of Ovid, we have examples of the two latter of these significations:—
“Ex Ariadnæo sidere nosse potes;” v. 316.
“Et canis (Icarium dicunt) quo sidere noto Tosta sitit tellus;” iv. 939, 940.
Lucretius appears always to employ the term in the general sense. J. Obsequens applies the word sidus to a meteor; “sidus ingens cœlo demissum,” cap. 16. In a subsequent part of this book, chap. 18 et seq., our author more particularly restricts the term sidus to the planets.