(Questa immagine ha licenza CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). Moneta della collezione del British Museum. Si ringrazia il Museo per aver messo a disposizione l'immagine con licenza CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
La moneta mostra il simbolo zodiacale di Augusto, il capricorno, animale mezzo capra e mezzo pesce.
Vediamo che cosa dice una voce di Wikipedia
Despite its faintness, Capricornus has one of the oldest mythological associations, having been consistently represented as a hybrid of a goat and a fish since the Middle Bronze Age. First attested in depictions on a cylinder-seal from around the 21st century BC,[6] it was explicitly recorded in the Babylonian star catalogues as MULSUḪUR.MAŠ "The Goat-Fish" before 1000 BC. The constellation was a symbol of the god Ea and in the Early Bronze Age marked the winter solstice.[7]
Goat-Fish, animale mezzo capra e mezzo pesce
In Greek mythology, the constellation is sometimes identified as Amalthea, the goat that suckled the infant Zeus after his mother, Rhea, saved him from being devoured by his father, Cronos. The goat's broken horn was transformed into the cornucopia or horn of plenty.[8] According to some ancient Greek myths, it started with the sea-goat Pricus. He was the father of the race of sea-goats (half goats half fish), who were intelligent and honourable creatures. They lived in the sea near the shore. They could speak and think according to Greek legend. They were favoured by the gods. Pricus is tied to Chronos (Greek mythology), the god of time. Chronos created the immortal Pricus, who shares Chronos's ability to manipulate time.[9] He had lots of children who lived near the seashore, however, when they found themselves on the dry land they turned into normal goats, losing their special ability to think and speak in the process. In an effort to prevent this, Pricus turns back time, again and again; however, he eventually resigns himself to loneliness and misery, letting the little Sea Goats leave him. Learning he cannot control their fate and not wanting to be the only Sea Goat prompts him to ask Chronos to let him die. Because he is immortal instead, he must spend eternity in the sky as Capricorn.[10] Capricornus is also sometimes identified as Pan, the god with a goat's head, who saved himself from the monster Typhon by giving himself a fish's tail and diving into a river.[3]
Il Riferimento [8] è un libro.
Il riferimento [9] è una pagina web
https://web.archive.org/web/20190704101432/http://www.gods-and-monsters.com/capricorn-mythology.html che non fornisce riferimenti bibliografici ma dice le stesse cose di Wikipedia.
Il Riferimento [10] è un'altra pagina web
https://web.archive.org/web/20190704101639/http://starsignstyle.com/capricorn-the-goat/ e non fornisce riferimenti bibliografici e dice le stesse cose di Wikipedia.
Il Rif.3 è un libro.
Il testo di Wikipedia parla di "mitologia greca". Non sono riuscita a trovare un testo che sia precedente alla nascita di Wikipedia e che riporti la mitologia di Pricus, come mitologia greca o latina. Ho fatto una ricerca ngram di Google. Ho trovato solo un Pricus, ma re della guerra di Troia. Stesso risultato con una ricerca Google Books. Conclusione: non c'è un mito riguardante Pricus e i capricorni nella mitologia greca o latina.
Vediamo che cosa si trova in Latino.
GAIUS JULIUS HYGINUS, DE ASTRONOMIA LIBER SECVNDVS
XXVIII. CAPRICORNUS. Huius effigies similis est Aegipani. Quem Iuppiter, quod cum eo erat nutritus, in sideribus esse voluit, ut capram nutricem, de qua ante diximus. Hic etiam dicitur, cum Iuppiter Titanas obpugnaret, primus obiecisse hostibus timorem, qui panikos appellatur, ut ait Eratosthenes. Hac etiam de causa eius inferiorem partem piscis esse formationem, et quod muricibus hostes sit iaculatus pro lapidum iactatione. Aegyptii autem sacerdotes et nonnulli poetae dicunt, cum complures dii in Aegyptum convenissent, repente pervenisse eodem Typhona, acerrimum giganta et maxime deorum hostem. Quo timore permotos in alias figuras se convertisse; Mercurium factum esse ibim, Apollinem autem, quae Threicia avis vocatur, Dianam aeluro similatam. Quibus de causis Aegyptios ea genera violari non sinere demonstrant, quod deorum imagines dicantur. Eodem tempore Pana dicunt in flumen se deiecisse et posteriorem partem corporis effigiem piscis, alteram autem hirci fecisse et ita a Typhone profugisse. Cuius cogitatum Iovem admiratum, inter sidera effigiem eius fixisse.
In Greek mythology, the constellation was sometimes identified as Amalthea, the goat that suckled Zeus after Rhea saved him from Cronos. The goat’s broken horn was transformed into the cornucopia or horn of plenty, and ancient sources claim that this derives from the sun “taking nourishment” while in the constellation, in preparation for its climb back northward.
However, the constellation is often depicted as a sea-goat (i.e. a goat with a fish’s tail). One myth that deals with this says that when the goat-god Pan was attacked by the monster Typhon, he dived into the Nile. The parts of him that were above the water remained a goat, but those under the water transformed into a fish.
