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Planetary symbols

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Planetary symbols are used in astrology and traditionally in astronomy to represent a classical planet (which includes the Sun and the Moon) or one of the modern planets. The classical symbols were also used in alchemy for the seven metals known to the ancients, which were associated with the planets, and in calendars for the seven days of the week associated with the seven planets. The original symbols date to Greco-Roman astronomy; their modern forms developed in the 16th century, and additional symbols would be created later for newly discovered planets.

The seven classical planets, their symbols, days and most commonly associated planetary metals are:

Planet MoonMercuryVenusSunMarsJupiterSaturn
Symbol ☾☿♀☉♂♃♄
Unicode U+263E
☾		 U+263F
☿		 U+2640
♀		 U+2609
☉		 U+2642
♂		 U+2643
♃		 U+2644
♄
Day MondayWednesdayFridaySundayTuesdayThursdaySaturday
Metal SilverQuicksilver (Mercury)CopperGoldIronTinLead

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) discourages the use of these symbols in modern journal articles, and their style manual proposes one- and two-letter abbreviations for the names of the planets for cases where planetary symbols might be used, such as in the headings of tables.[1] The modern planets with their traditional symbols and IAU abbreviations are:

Planet MercuryVenusEarthMarsJupiterSaturnUranusNeptune
Symbol ☿♀🜨♂♃♄⛢♆
Unicode U+263F
☿		 U+2640
♀		 U+1F728
🜨		 U+2642
♂		 U+2643
♃		 U+2644
♄		 U+26E2
⛢		 U+2646
♆
Initial (IAU) Me,
H[a]		VEMa,
M[a]		JSUN

The symbols of Venus and Mars are used to represent female and male in biology, following a convention introduced by Carl Linnaeus in the 1750s.

History

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Classical planets

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The origins of the planetary symbols can be found in the attributes given to classical deities. The Roman planisphere of Bianchini (2nd century, currently in the Louvre, inv. Ma 540)[2] shows the seven planets represented by portraits of the seven corresponding gods, each a bust with a halo and an iconic object or dress, as follows: Mercury has a caduceus and a winged cap; Venus has a necklace and a shining mirror; Mars has a war-helmet and a spear; Jupiter has a laurel crown and a staff; Saturn has a conical headdress and a scythe; the Sun has rays emanating from his head; and the Moon has a crescent atop her head.

The written symbols for Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn have been traced to forms found in late Greek papyri.[3][b]

Early forms are also found in medieval Byzantine codices which preserve horoscopes.[4]

A diagram in the astronomical compendium by Johannes Kamateros (12th century) closely resembles the 11th-century forms shown above, with the Sun represented by a circle with a single ray, Jupiter by the letter zeta (the initial of Zeus, Jupiter's counterpart in Greek mythology), Mars by a round shield in front of a diagonal spear, and the remaining classical planets by symbols resembling the modern ones, though without the crosses seen in modern versions of Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn.[citation needed] These crosses first appear in the late 15th or early 16th century. According to Maunder, the addition of crosses appears to be "an attempt to give a savour of Christianity to the symbols of the old pagan gods."[5] The modern forms of the classical planetary symbols are found in a woodcut of the seven planets in a Latin translation of Abu Ma'shar al-Balkhi's De Magnis Coniunctionibus printed at Venice in 1506, represented as the corresponding gods riding chariots.[6]

Earth symbol

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Four-quarters-of-the-world symbol for Earth
Globus cruciger symbol for Earth

Earth is not one of the classical planets, as "planets" by definition were "wandering stars" as seen from Earth's surface. Earth's status as planet is a consequence of heliocentrism in the 16th century. Nonetheless, there is a pre-heliocentric symbol for the world, now used as a planetary symbol for the Earth. This is a circle crossed by two lines, horizontal and vertical, representing the world divided by four rivers into the four quarters of the world (often translated as the four "corners" of the world): 🜨. A variant, now obsolete, had only the horizontal line: 🜔.[7]

A medieval European symbol for the world – the globus cruciger, ♁ (the globe surmounted by a Christian cross) – is also used as a planetary symbol; it resembles an inverted symbol for Venus.

The planetary symbols for Earth are encoded in Unicode at U+1F728 🜨 ALCHEMICAL SYMBOL FOR VERDIGRIS and U+2641 ♁ EARTH.

Classical planets

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Moon

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Decrescent symbol for the Moon
Encrescent symbol for the Moon

The crescent shape has been used to represent the Moon since antiquity. In classical antiquity, it is worn by lunar deities (Selene/Luna, Artemis/Diana, Men, etc.) either on the head or behind the shoulders, with its horns pointing upward. The representation of the moon as a simple crescent with the horns pointing to the side (as a heraldic crescent increscent or crescent decrescent) is attested from late Classical times.

The same symbol can be used in a different context not for the Moon itself but for a lunar phase, as part of a sequence of four symbols for "new moon" (U+1F311 🌑︎), "waxing" (U+263D ☽︎), "full moon" (U+1F315 🌕︎) and "waning" (U+263E ☾︎).

Mercury

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Crossed caduceus symbol for Mercury

The symbol ☿ for Mercury is a caduceus (a staff entwined with two serpents), a symbol associated with Mercury / Hermes throughout antiquity. Some time after the 11th century, a cross was added to the bottom of the staff to Christianize the symbol.[3]

The symbol ☿ was once the designated symbol for hermaphroditic or 'perfect' flowers,[8] but botanists now use ⚥ for these.[9] A related usage is for the 'worker' or 'neuter' sex among social insects that is neither male nor (due to its lack of reproductive capacity) fully female, such as worker bees.[10] More recently, it has been used to indicate intersex, transgender, or non-binary gender.[11]

The Unicode codepoint is U+263F ☿ MERCURY.

Venus

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Crossed copper symbol for Venus

The Venus symbol, ♀, consists of a circle with a small cross below it. It is conjectured to be a depiction of the hand-mirror of the goddess, which may also explain Venus's association with the planetary metal copper, as mirrors in antiquity were made of polished copper,[12] though this is not certain.[3] The addition of the cross is relatively recent – in the Greek Oxyrhynchus Papyri 235, the symbols for Venus and Mercury did not have the cross on the bottom stem,[3] and Venus appears without the cross (⚲) in Johannes Kamateros' 12th-century Compendium of Astrology.[13]

In botany and biology, the symbol for Venus is used to represent the female sex, alongside the symbol for Mars representing the male sex,[14] following a convention introduced by Linnaeus in the 1750s.[8][d]

Unicode encodes the symbol as U+2640 ♀ FEMALE SIGN, in the Miscellaneous Symbols block.[e]

Sun

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Modern astronomical symbol for the Sun

The modern astronomical symbol for the Sun, the circumpunct (U+2609 ☉ SUN), was first used in the Renaissance. It possibly represents Apollo's golden shield with a boss.

Bianchini's planisphere, produced in the 2nd century, shows a circlet with rays radiating from it.[5][2] In late Classical times, the Sun is attested as a circle with a single ray. A diagram in Johannes Kamateros' 12th century Compendium of Astrology shows the same symbol.[17] This older symbol is encoded by Unicode as U+1F71A 🜚 ALCHEMICAL SYMBOL FOR GOLD in the Alchemical Symbols block. Both symbols have been used alchemically for gold, as have more elaborate symbols showing a disk with multiple rays or even a face.

Mars

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Spear and shield symbol for Mars

The Mars symbol, ♂, is a depiction of a shield and a spear, indicating the god of war.[18][19] It is also the old and obsolete symbol for iron in alchemy. In zoology and botany, it is used to represent the male sex (alongside the astrological symbol for Venus representing the female sex),[14] following a convention introduced by Linnaeus in the 1750s.[8]

The symbol dates from at latest the 11th century, at which time it was an arrow across or through a circle, thought to represent the shield and spear of the god Mars; in the medieval form, for example in the 12th-century Compendium of Astrology by Johannes Kamateros, the spear is drawn across the shield.[17] The Greek Oxyrhynchus Papyri show a different symbol,[3] perhaps simply a spear.[2]

Its Unicode codepoint is U+2642 ♂ MALE SIGN (♂).

Jupiter

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Zeus initial for Jupiter

The symbol for Jupiter, ♃, was originally a Greek zeta, Ζ, with a stroke indicating that it is an abbreviation (for Zeus, the Greek equivalent of Roman Jupiter).

Its Unicode codepoint is U+2643 ♃ JUPITER.

Saturn

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