My understanding is that a zodiac is a celestial region (in a sense, a "band" in the sky) that includes the conventional designations for named constellations associated with the ecliptic.
It never occurred to me that it mattered whether they were drawn in a circle, written as a list, or drawn as a series, since pictorial and written references all refer to the same area of the sky where certain stars are visible. A circle is a good way to depict them since they cycle, but if you strung them out, they still refer to the same region and same constellations of the zodiac (our view of this band in the sky).
There are actually 13 constellations in the zodiac (the region of the sky), but one got dropped because 12 is so much easier to work with mathematically when drawng a circle or computing things (and possibly also because the concept of God was associated with the number 12).
It never occurred to me that it mattered whether they were drawn in a circle, written as a list, or drawn as a series, since pictorial and written references all refer to the same area of the sky where certain stars are visible. A circle is a good way to depict them since they cycle, but if you strung them out, they still refer to the same region and same constellations of the zodiac (our view of this band in the sky).
There are actually 13 constellations in the zodiac (the region of the sky), but one got dropped because 12 is so much easier to work with mathematically when drawng a circle or computing things (and possibly also because the concept of God was associated with the number 12).
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