The sea-goat
Capricorn is a goat with a fish’s tail. In Greek myth it is Pan, who leapt into the Nile to escape the monster Typhon and came out half fish.
In the tradition
When Typhon attacked the gods, Hyginus says, they fled in animal shapes. Pan threw himself into a river, and the part of him under water turned to fish. Zeus admired the trick and set the shape in the sky.
The figure is far older than the story. MUL.APIN, the Babylonian star catalogue, already lists the goat-fish.
In the cards
The Golden Dawn gave the Devil to Capricorn, and the card’s horned figure is a goat in Lévi’s drawing.
Sources
- Hyginus, De Astronomia (1st century BCE or later). The Latin handbook of constellation myths, often giving several versions side by side.
- Babylonian astronomers, MUL.APIN (compiled by about 1000 BCE). The Babylonian star catalogue that already lists the goat-fish and the bull of heaven.
- Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Book T: The Tarot (1890s, published by Israel Regardie in The Golden Dawn (1937 to 1940)). The source of the planetary, zodiac and elemental attributions of the cards.
Updated October 9, 2026.
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