Ancient Greek
Star Lore
Part 1
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Ancient Greek
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Andromeda
The Greek legend of Perseus and Andromeda inspired hundreds of plays, poems, novels,
operas, songs and paintings. It is believed to be the origin of the legend of
Saint George and the Dragon and it unites no less than seven classic Greek
constellations: Andromeda,
Perseus,
Cassiopeia,
Cepheus,
Pisces,
Cetus and
Pegasus
(eight including the now obsolete Caput Medusae).
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Two other constellations are also related to the story of Andromeda and Perseus.
Pisces, the fishes are sometimes seen as a symbol for Dictys, the brave and kind fisherman who recused princess Danaë and her infant son Perseus, after Danaë's father, king Acrisius of Argos abandoned them at sea in a wooden box. Pegasus, the winged horse was born from the stump of Medusa's neck after Perseus had decapitated her. Together, these eight constellations form the most complex celestial illustration of any Greek myth. The image to the right shows a section of Albrecht Dürer's engraving of the Northern Skies, displaying seven of the constellations. (Cetus is depicted in the engraving of the Southern Skies). Sources: Wikipedia, Ian Ridpath
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Part of Albrecht Dürer's engraving of the Northern SkiesNuremberg, 1515; Source: Ian Ridpath |
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The Nereids
In Greek mythology, the Nereids were female spirits of sea waters, called
Nymphs.
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Six of Neptune's other moons are named after Nereids:
Galatea was discovered in 1989 on photographs taken by the
Voyager 2 probe.
Halimede,
Laomedeia,
Neso,
Psamathe and
Sao were discovered between 2002 and 2007, using large telescopes on Earth.
Galatea also gave her name to asteroid 74 Galatea, discovered in 1862 and the first object named after a Nereid. Other asteroids named after Nereids are 185 Eunike and 427 Galene. The Nereids' parents can also be found in the Asteroid Belt as 4660 Nereus and 48 Doris. In 2006, Actaea a small natural satellite of Dwarf Planet candidate Salacia became the first Kuiper Belt object named after a Nereid. |
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Aquarius
The Greek picked up the concept of the flood maker, calling the constellation Hydrochoös (Ὑδροχόος), the Water-carrier, which later was Latinized as
Aquarius.
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In a legend similar to the Biblical flood, Zeus detested the human race which, after Prometheus had given given them the fire of the Gods had grown too powerful and disrespect for the gods. When Zeus planned to send a flood to wipe out humanity, Prometheus warned Deucalion, who, together with his wife Pyrrha built a ship and sailed the flood for nine days before washing ashore on Mount Parnassus. However, after the flood, Zeus recognized that Deucalion and his wife were just and loving people and thus decided to help them repopulate the Earth. He told them, to throw the bones of their mother over their shoulders.
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Deucalion and Pyrrha by Virgil Solis, 1481Source: Wikipedia
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Deucalion and Pyrrha solved the riddle acknowledging Mother Earth as their mother. They
threw stones over their shoulders and humans, as strong as stone sprang up where the stones fell.
The gods rewarded Deucalion by placing him among the stars, where, as the Water Poorer, he urges the people to respect the gods or the floods might come again. Sources: Wikipedia, Tom Burns
In another legend, Aquarius is identified with beautiful Ganymede, a youth in Greek
mythology and the son of Trojan king Tros,
who was taken to Mount Olympus by
Zeus to act as cup-carrier to the gods.
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Some versions of the myth indicate that the eagle was in fact Zeus transformed. An alternative version of the tale recounts Ganymede's kidnapping
by the goddess of the dawn, Eos, motivated by her affection for young men; Zeus then stole him from
Eos and employed him as cup-bearer.
Yet another figure associated with the water bearer is Cecrops I, a king of Athens who sacrificed water instead of wine to the gods. An old Meyer's Encyclopedia actually depicts Cecrops I with a fish or snake tail. Source: Wikipedia |
Cecrops I; Wikipedia
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Ian Ridpath adds, that "... star maps show Aquarius as a young man pouring water from a
jar or amphora, although Ovid, in his
Fasti, says the liquid is a mixture of water and nectar, the drink of the gods."
Source: Ian Ridpath |
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The water jar is marked by a Y-shaped asterism consisting of γ,
π, η and
ζ Aquarii.
The jar's grommet is λ Aquarii, which bears the traditional (unapproved by the IAU) name Hydor (Ὕδωρ), meaning Water; a name given to the star by 5th century Greek philosopher Proclus Lycius. Another ancient Greek name for the star was Ekkhysis (εκχυσις) meaning "outpouring." The jar pours water into a stream of more than 20 stars terminating with Fomalhaut (α PsA), main star of the Piscis Austrinus, the Southern Fish. Sources: Wikipedia, R.H. Allen |
Aquarius in the 1753 edition of Atlas CoelestisSource: Atlas Coelestis
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The water bearer's head is represented by faint 25 Aquarii while his left shoulder is
Sadalsuud (β Aqu); his right shoulder and forearm are represented by
Sadalmelik (α Aqu) and
Sadachbia (γ Aqu), respectively.
Sources: Wikipedia, R.H. Allen |
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Aquila
In Greek, The constellation’s name was Ἀετός (Aetos), meaning eagle.
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In another Greek story, ... "Zeus fell in love with the goddess Nemesis but, when she resisted
his advances, he turned himself into a swan and had Aphrodite pretend to pursue him in the form
of an eagle. Nemesis gave refuge to the escaping swan, only to find herself in the embrace of Zeus. To commemorate this successful trick, Zeus placed
the images of swan and eagle in the sky as the constellations Cygnus and Aquila."
Source:Ian Ridpath
In 132, Roman Emperor Hadrian created a separate constellation
Antinous out of the southern stars of Aquila.
Ptolemy adopted the concept and the now-obsolete constellation was visualized on some maps as a
young man being held in the eagle’s claws. With the definition of the 88
IAU constellations, Aquila and Antinous were re-merged.
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Aquila and AntinousUrania's Mirror, 1825 Source: Wikipedia
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Ara
The first Greek astronomer to recognize Ara as a constellation was Aratus in
270 BC. Aratus called the constellation Thyterion (θυτήριον), which is short for Thymiaterion (θυμιατήριον) and means censer or
incense burner.
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Aratus reported that ancient Greek sailors used the constellation to predict storms at sea. If the altar was visible while other stars were
covered by cloud, sailors expected southerly gales.
Sources: Ian Ridpath |
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Argo Navis
In Greek mythology, the constellation represented the
argo, the ship that took Jason and the
Argonauts to Colchis at the
eastern shores of the Black Sea in search of the Golden Fleece.
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The crew was under special protection by the
goddess Hera who Jason once helped when she appeared to him in the disguise of an old woman.
When Jason and the Argonauts arrived in Colchis, Medea fell in love with Jason and helped him steel the Golden Fleece using her witchcraft. (In Greek astronomy, the Golden Fleece is represented by the constellation Aries). After the Argonauts returned to Iolcus, the ship was dedicated to the Gods, who transferred it into the sky. Before Jason returned the Golden Fleece to temple of Zeus at Orchomenus, he and Medea used it to cover their wedding bed. Their love story, however did not have a happy ending. Jason abandoned Medea for Glauce, the daughter of the King of Corinth. Medea later poisoned Glauce and according to Euripides, Jason was killed by a beam from the top of the Argo, that fell from the sky and hit him in his sleep. Sources: Wikipedia, Ian Ridpath, BBC History, greeklegendsandmyths.com, mythencyclopedia.com |
The Argopainting by Konstantinos Volonakis Source: greeklegendsandmyths.com |
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The Argo's missing Prow
The original constellation consisted of three easily distinguishable part, the hull (or the keel), the poop deck and the sails. The front part of
the ship disappears in the mist of the Milky Way.
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Argo without prowErhard Ratdolt, 1482 |
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Aries
In Greek, the constellation is called Krios (Κριός)
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| In a later myth, this Golden Fleece was stolen by Jason and the Argonauts. Ian Ridpath tell us the story: |
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"After Phrixus died, his cousin Pelias seized the throne of Iolcus in Thessaly. The true successor
to the throne was Jason. Pelias promised to give up the throne to Jason if he brought home the golden fleece from Colchis. This was the challenge
that led to the epic voyage of Jason and the Argonauts.
When he reached Colchis, Jason first asked King Aeëtes politely for the fleece, but he was rejected. The king’s daughter, Medea, fell in love with Jason and offered to help him steal the fleece. At night the two crept into the wood where the golden fleece hung, shining like a cloud lit by the rising Sun. Medea bewitched the serpent so that it slept while Jason snatched the fleece. According to Apollonius Rhodius, the fleece was as large as the hide of a young cow, and when Jason slung it over his shoulder it reached his feet. The ground shone from its glittering golden wool as Jason and Medea escaped with it. Once free of the pursuing forces of King Aeëtes, Jason and Medea used the fleece to cover their wedding bed. The final resting place of the fleece was in the temple of Zeus at Orchomenus, where Jason hung it on his return to Greece. Source: Ian Ridpath |
Jason returns with the Golden FleeceApulian calyx crater, ca. 340 BC, Louvre, Paris Source: Wikipedia |
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Julius D. W. Staal added another interpretation to the constellation, seeing Aries as the ram Odysseus
used to escape the cave of cyclops Polyphemus.
On their way home from the Trojan War, Odysseus and his shipmates were captured by Polyphemus and held in a cave with the Cyclops' sheep. They escaped by blinding Polyphemus and hiding under the bellies of his sheep, when they flocked out of the cave in the morning. Staal writes, "That Odysseus was brought by a ram from the dark cave to the light symbolizes that when the Sun is in Aries, the long, dark Winter months are over and Spring has begun." Source: Julius D. W. Staal: New Patterns in the Sky |
Odysseus underneath the ramSource: The J. Paul Getty Museum |
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Boötes
According to Ian Ridpath, the name Boötes (Greek: Βοώτης) |
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Another early Greek myth, later retold by Hyginus in his
Poeticon Astronomicon, identifies the constellation as
Icarius of Athens.
In this tale, Dionysus had taught Icarius how to make wine. Icarius gave his wine to some shepherds, who rapidly became drunk. Not knowing what had happened to them, the suspected Icarius of poisoning them and killed him. When Icarius' daughter Erigone and his dog Maera (see Canis Minor) discovered the slain Icarius, they both took their own lives where Icarius lay. Zeus places Icarius, Maera and Erigone in the stars as the constellations Boötes, Canis Minor and Virgo. Sources: Wikipedia, Ian Ridpath Greek poet Aratus, in his poem Phenomena called the constellation Ἀρκτοφύλαξ (Arctophylax) and described it as a man driving the bear around the pole. |
Boötes in the Poeticon Astronomicon
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| Arctophylax translates to Bear Watcher, Bear Keeper, or Bear Guard, a name that was later adopted for the constellation's main star Arcturus, the brightest star in the northern celestial hemisphere. |
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Other interpretations of the word Boötes are the ancient Greek meanings Ox-driver, referring to Ursa Major being sometimes visualized as a cart
pulled by oxen or cows - Greek boûs (βοῦς) and Plowman, referring to Ursa Major being seen as a plow.
The website The Manuchihr Globe translates the Greek word Βοώτης (see above) simply as "The Plowman." Julius D.W. Staal writes that it was said that Boötes actually invented the plough and as such enabled nomadic humans to settle down as farmers, which pleased Demeter, the Goddess of Agriculture, so much that she asked Zeus to honor Boötes by placing him amongst the stars. Sources: Wikipedia, Ian Ridpath, Constellation of Words, The Manuchihr Globe |
Boötes in the Leiden Aratea
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Greek Star Names
Arcturus (α Boo) took its name from Ἀρκτοφύλαξ
(Arctophylax), the name given by Aratus to the entire constellation.
The name Alkalurops for μ1 Boötis is derived from the Greek
καλαύροψ (kalaurops), meaning a herdsman's crook or staff, with the Arabic prefix attached.
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