File:Illustration-zodiac-cancer.jpg

English: An illustration from the Tripartite Mahzor. The fantastic representation of Cancer, perhaps betraying Oriental influence, is remarkable: “a hybrid animal composed of a wolf’s body and head, a griffon's paws and a fish for a tail” – this type of representation is unique to our manuscript, it cannot be found anywhere else. Next to it we see a man digging the soil as the labour of the month of Tammuz – while the representation of Scorpion as a tortoise should not surprise us, because an illuminator living in the vicinity of Lake Constance at the beginning of the 14th century may not have had the faintest idea what a real scorpion looked like – the labour of the month of Marheshwan is the vine harvest. It may be noted in this context that the representation of Scorpion as a tortoise among the signs of the Zodiac was common in contemporary Christian art, too.