Main Menu | List of entries | finished

ALDIRAN. The term refers to the star in one of the forepaws of the lion in the constellation Leo. In an old Parisian list of stars Aldiran is described as in fronte leonis, in front of the lion. The Arabs applied the grammatical dual form al dhira'an, "the two paws," to the brightest and second brightest stars of Gemini because they stood 4 1/2 degrees apart. The astronomer al-Biruni says that the alpha or brightest star of Gemini is in the outstretched paw of Leo and that the second brightest or beta star is in the paw not stretched out. The ancient Arabs extended the figure far beyond the limits assigned to the constellation in modern astronomy.

The constellation Leo is ascending with its Aldiran when Cambyuskan rises from table, SqT 263-267. The sun has left its meridional angle or tenth house, so it is very much past noon. Leo begins to rise at noon and is fully risen about a quarter to three. [Cambyuskan: Leo]

The name occurs in final rhyming position, SqT 265.


al-Biruni, The Chronology of Ancient Nations, trans. C.E. Sachau, 345; Riverside Chaucer, ed. L. Benson, 893.
From CHAUCER NAME DICTIONARY
Copyright © 1988, 1996 Jacqueline de Weever
Published by Garland Publishing, Inc., New York and London.

Main Menu | List of entries | finished