Astronomical identity
Regulus is the IAU proper name for Alpha Leonis A (HR 3982), in Leo. The component letter is part of the official name-table identification.
An Atlas calculation should select this astronomical target, rather than infer identity from a translated phrase such as ‘lion’s heart’.
Name and historical record
Regulus is Modern Latin for ‘little king’, a diminutive of rex. The IAU also lists Regulus among names preserved from Greek antiquity, while explaining that many modern star names passed through translation and transmission.
The royal wording is etymological and historical. It is not a warrant for assigning rank, career, or character to a person whose chart contains a calculated event.
Ptolemy’s named comparison
Ptolemy identifies the bright star on Leo’s heart as Regulus and compares it to Mars and Jupiter in I.9. The wording is unusually explicit and so can be retained without guessing the identity.
Its historical status remains limited: it is Ptolemy’s reported planetary-likeness tradition, not a tested causal explanation or a modern timing method.
Use in a modern paran result
Use the timeline to identify which Regulus angle occurred: rise, upper transit, set, or lower transit. Then read its partner event and minute separation before comparing dates or locations.
Brady’s modern angle-based frame can sit beside this record. The separately labelled Mars/Jupiter comparison is useful for studying Ptolemy’s vocabulary; it does not replace the tool’s actual event facts.
Bernadette Brady, Fixed Stars, other voices in our astrology ↗
Word origin · etymology
Modern Latin regulus.
The name means ‘little king’, a diminutive of Latin rex; this lexical fact does not prove a doctrine of kingship.
How we know · epistemology
Astronomical identification; historical and interpretive records kept separate.
Regulus A is a named stellar component in the IAU table. Ptolemy’s Mars-and-Jupiter comparison concerns the star at Leo’s heart in his own framework, not a modern paran recipe.
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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.