Astronomical identity
Antares is the IAU proper name for Alpha Scorpii A (HR 6134), in Scorpius. IAU’s table makes the component assignment explicit.
The named target is adequate for the calculator’s event search only with its declared astrometric model and observer conventions.
Name and historical record
Antares is one of the names the IAU says survived from Greek antiquity. Etymonline analyses it as contracted anti-Ares, ‘rival of Mars’, in reference to its red appearance.
The conventional ‘heart of the Scorpion’ preserves where Ptolemy places it: the middle of three bright stars in Scorpio’s body.
IAU: Naming Stars ↗Etymonline: Antares ↗Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos I.9 ↗
Ptolemy’s named comparison
Ptolemy calls the middle of three bright body stars in Scorpio Antares and compares it with Mars and, to some degree, Jupiter. The name and comparison occur together in I.9.
This is a precisely sourced historical comparison. It is not an authorization to infer obsession, violence, or any other modern keyphrase from an event match.
Use in a modern paran result
For Antares, select a row and read the angle pair in order, such as Antares setting with a partner’s upper transit. The angle names and the measured separation are the reproducible part of the comparison.
Brady’s accessible article supplies a modern symbolic frame of angle-based blending. Ptolemy’s Mars/Jupiter likeness remains a separately named historical lens, so it can be compared without being confused with the timing calculation.
Bernadette Brady, Fixed Stars, other voices in our astrology ↗
Word origin · etymology
Ancient Greek Antares.
Etymonline analyses the name as contracted anti-Ares, ‘rival of Mars’, in reference to its red appearance. This is name history, not a calculation rule.
How we know · epistemology
Astronomical identification; historical and interpretive records kept separate.
The IAU table identifies Antares with Alpha Scorpii A. Ptolemy’s Mars-with-lesser-Jupiter likeness is a historical, source-specific lens; modern parans only establish paired local angles.
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Connected concepts
Read alongside this entry
Terms used in this explanation
These links connect subjects and terminology. They do not establish a shared historical origin.
Sources & provenance
Use the citations beside each section to distinguish a calculation convention, a historical teaching and an editorial example.