Cancer symbol (♋)
♋ is the glyph of Cancer, the Crab, the fourth sign of the Western zodiac. Astrologers give its dates as 22 June to 22 July, and in their tradition it is a water sign ruled by the Moon.
Meaning
♋ is Unicode character U+264B CANCER: two curled strokes, one above the other, facing opposite ways. Richard Hinckley Allen (1899) says it is probably “the remains of the representation” of a crab, though it has also been read as the two Asses of Greek myth, which were given a resting place in the sky on either side of the Manger. The crab reading is the likelier of the two in Allen’s view; neither is documented. Cancer is Latin for crab; in Greek the constellation is Καρκίνος (Karkínos), the name Aratos, Hipparchos and Ptolemy used. The glyph is the sign’s shorthand in Western astrology.
Origin and history
Where the twelve sign glyphs came from is not known. Encyclopaedia Britannica says their history is unknown and that they first appear in Greek manuscripts of the late Middle Ages. Allen cites Clerke, who found them in manuscripts of about the 10th century but in carvings only from the 15th or 16th, and Brown, who quotes the antiquary C. W. King: King found the glyphs on no antique work and suspected “Arab sages” had devised them, a view Brown did not share.
Ptolemy calls Cancer a solstitial sign, the first 30° from the summer solstice: when the Sun reaches it the Sun turns, and summer begins. His Greek word for these signs means “having to do with turning”, and the same idea names the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.
The crab that pinched Hercules
Allen calls Cancer the most inconspicuous figure in the zodiac, and says Greek myth apologizes for its being there with a story. When Hercules fought the Hydra in the marsh of Lerna, the crab pinched his toes; Hercules crushed it, and Juno raised it to the sky.
What astrologers say Cancer means
In Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos, Cancer and Leo are the most northern signs, nearest the zenith and the most productive of heat, and so were given to the two luminaries as their houses: Cancer, being feminine, to the Moon. Cancer is Jupiter’s exaltation and Mars’s depression. It heads the fourth triangle, Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces, which Ptolemy gives to Mars, with the Moon by night and Venus by day as co-rulers. Astrology today, as Britannica describes it, makes Cancer a water sign and a cardinal one, and lists “loyal, protective, moody” as the traits traditionally attached to it. Britannica adds that astrology is not supported by science: no correlation has been found between birth dates and personality.
See also
Capricorn symbol (♑), Leo symbol (♌), Aries symbol (♈), Taurus symbol (♉), Gemini symbol (♊), Virgo symbol (♍).
Sources
- Miscellaneous Symbols, Range: 2600–26FF (code chart), The Unicode Standard, Unicode Consortium, U+264B
- Star-Names and Their Meanings: Cancer, Richard Hinckley Allen, 1899 (reprinted by Dover as Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning), LacusCurtius (Bill Thayer, University of Chicago), Cancer
- Star-Names and Their Meanings: Aquarius, Richard Hinckley Allen, 1899 (reprinted by Dover as Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning), LacusCurtius (Bill Thayer, University of Chicago), Aquarius (on the zodiac signs’ symbols)
- Tetrabiblos, Book I, Claudius Ptolemy, 2nd century AD; translated by F. E. Robbins (Loeb Classical Library, 1940), LacusCurtius (Bill Thayer, University of Chicago), I.11, I.17, I.18, I.19; note 70
- Zodiac, The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica; last revised by Rick Livingston, Encyclopaedia Britannica (Wayback Machine copy, 11 September 2026), Signs and dates; Astrology
Browse symbols formed from circles or curves and waves.
Last reviewed September 30, 2026 by Rory Hansen. How we research