ИСТИНА

This report is devoted to cuneiform sources shedding light on history of Mesopotamian constellations muluz3 (“The Goat”) located in the area of modern Lyra, mul dGula, a goddess connected with muluz3, and mulur.gi7 (“The Dog”), located in Hercules. These constellations in the eyes of the ancient Mesopotamians were bound by complex relationships that were changing in course of time. Gula was a goddess of the Goat constellation, and the dog was a sacred animal of Gula. In the Neo-Assyrian period Gula’s anthropomorphic image was considered as a figure of the Goat, contrary to what was accepted in Mesopotamia in connection with other constellations with animal names, in which the constellation's figure always corresponded to its name. It is shown in the article that originally (at the end of the third and the beginning of the second millennium BC) there were only two constellations (muluz3 and mulur.gi7) of three mentioned above pictured in the Mesopotamian sky. Gula acquired an astral significance only in the second half of the second millennium BC.