Ancient Greek Star Lore Part 8

Taurus Ian Ridpath tells us that Taurus, the Bull was "...was said to represent Zeus in the disguise he adopted for another of his extramarital affairs, this time as the bull that carried away Europa, daughter of King Agenor of Phoenicia. Europa liked to play on the beach with the other girls of Tyre. Zeus instructed his son Hermes to drive the king’s cattle from their pastures on the mountain slopes towards the shore where the girls were playing. Adopting the shape of a bull, Zeus surreptitiously mingled with the lowing herd, awaiting his chance to abduct Europa. There was no mistaking who was the most handsome bull. His hide was white as fresh snow and his horns shone like polished metal. Europa was entranced by this beautiful yet placid creature. She adorned his horns with flowers and stroked his flanks, admiring the muscles on his neck and the folds of skin on his flanks. The bull kissed her hands, while inwardly Zeus could hardly contain himself in anticipation of the final conquest. The bull lay on the golden sands and Europa ventured to sit on his back. At first, she feared nothing when the bull rose and began to paddle in the surf. But she became alarmed when it began to swim strongly out to sea. Europa looked around in dismay at the receding shoreline and clung tightly to the bull’s horns as waves washed over the bull’s back. Craftily, Zeus the bull dipped more deeply into the water to make her hold him more tightly still. By now, Europa had realized that this was no ordinary bull. Eventually, the bull waded ashore at Crete, where Zeus revealed his true identity and seduced Europa. He gave her presents that included a dog that later became the constellation Canis Major. The offspring of Zeus and Europa included Minos, king of Crete, who established the famous palace at Knossos where bull games were held. Source:Ian Ridpath

The Abduction of Europa (partial) Noël-Nicolas Coypel, 1727 Source: Philadelphia Museum of Art Bull Fresco at the Minoan Temple in Knossos, Crete Source: Margaret Derrick

Wikipedia tells us, that "...In illustrations of Greek mythology, only the front portion of this constellation is depicted; this was sometimes explained as Taurus being partly submerged as he carried Europa out to sea. A second Greek myth portrays Taurus as Io, a mistress of Zeus. To hide his lover from his wife Hera, Zeus changed Io into the form of a heifer. Greek mythographer Acusilaus marks the bull Taurus as the same that formed the myth of the Cretan Bull, one of the Twelve Labors of Heracles." Source:Wikipedia

Taurus in Urania's Mirror, 1824 Source: Wikipedia

The Hyades The face of Taurus is marked by the V-shaped group of stars called the Hyades. The Hyades are a star cluster consisting of a roughly spherical group of hundreds of stars in a radius of ten light years. Source:Wikipedia and Ian Ridpath.

Map based on map provided by Sea & Sky

In Greek mythology the Hyades were a group of Nymphs, daughters of Atlas, which made then sisters to the Pleiades, the and Hyas. According to legend, when Hyas was killed, the Hyades wept from their grief and were changed into a cluster of stars. The ancient Greek word Ὑάδες translates to rain-makers" or "the rainy ones." In many cultures from Greece to China, the rising of the Hyades at certain times of year was seen as a sign of rain. A similar sounding Greek word, ὗςhys, which means "swine" let to the Romans calling the asterism "piglets." Source:Wikipedia

Bathing Nymphs, Palma Vecchio, 1528 Source: Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ursa Major Ian Ridpath describes the different interpretations of the constellation in ancient Greece: Undoubtedly the most familiar star pattern in the entire sky is the seven stars that make up the shape popularly termed the Plough or Big Dipper, part of the third-largest constellation, Ursa Major, the Great Bear. The seven stars form the rump and tail of the bear, while the rest of the animal is comprised of fainter stars. Its Greek name in the Almagest was Ἄρκτος Μεγάλη (Arktos Megale); Ursa Major is the Latin equivalent. Aratus called the constellation Ἑλίκη (Helike), meaning ‘twister’, apparently from its circling of the pole, and said that the ancient Greeks steered their ships by reference to it. In the Odyssey, for example, we read that Odysseus kept the great bear to his left as he sailed eastwards. The Phoenicians, on the other hand, used the Little Bear (Ursa Minor) which Aratus termed Κυνόσουρα (Kynosoura, or Cynosura in Latin transliteration). Aratus tells us that the bears were also called wagons or wains, and in one place he referred to the figure of Ursa Major as the ‘wagon-bear’ to underline its dual identity. Homer in the Odyssey referred to ‘the Great Bear that men call the Wain, that circles opposite Orion, and never bathes in the sea’, the last phrase being a reference to its circumpolar (non-setting) nature. The adjacent constellation Boötes was imagined as either the herdsman of the bear or the wagon driver." Roman mythology added a third interpretation, a plow (see "Ancient Rome" below). [Continuing quoting Ian Ridpath] "On a diagram of the north polar sky from 1524 the German astronomer Peter Apian (1495–1552) showed Ursa Major as a team of three horses pulling a four-wheeled cart, which he called Plaustrum, harking back to the Roman tradition. The word septentrional was commonly used in Latin as a synonym for ‘north’. In mythology, the Great Bear is identified with two separate characters: Callisto, a paramour of Zeus; and Adrasteia, one of the ash-tree nymphs who nursed the infant Zeus. To complicate matters, there are several different versions of each story, particularly the one involving Callisto." Source: Ian Ridpath

The constellation shown as a wagon (above) and as a bear (below) by Peter Apian Source: Cosmographicus liber Ursa Major in a modern day poster, © Lantern Press

The Greek myth of Callisto (As told by Ian Ridpath) Callisto is usually said to have been the daughter of Lycaon, king of Arcadia in the central Peloponnese. ... Callisto joined the retinue of Artemis, goddess of hunting. She dressed in the same way as Artemis, tying her hair with a white ribbon and pinning together her tunic with a brooch, and she soon became the favorite hunting partner of Artemis, to whom she swore a vow of chastity. One afternoon, as Callisto laid down her bow and rested in a shady forest grove, Zeus caught sight of her and was entranced. What happened next is described fully by Ovid in Book II of his Metamorphoses. Cunningly assuming the appearance of Artemis, Zeus entered the grove to be greeted warmly by the unsuspecting Callisto. He lay beside her and embraced her. Before the startled girl could react, Zeus revealed his true self and, despite Callisto’s struggles, had his way with her. Zeus returned to Olympus, leaving the shame-filled Callisto scarcely able to face Artemis and the other nymphs. On a hot afternoon some months later, the hunting party came to a cool river and decided to bathe. Artemis stripped off and led them in, but Callisto hung back. As she reluctantly undressed, her advancing pregnancy was finally revealed. She had broken her vow of chastity! Artemis, scandalized, banished Callisto from her sight. Worse was to come when Callisto gave birth to a son, Arcas. Hera, the wife of Zeus, had not been slow to realize her husband’s infidelity and was now determined to take revenge on her rival. Hurling insults, Hera grabbed Callisto by her hair and pulled her to the ground. As Callisto lay spreadeagled, dark hairs began to sprout from her arms and legs, her hands and feet turned into claws and her beautiful mouth which Zeus had kissed turned into gaping jaws that uttered growls. For 15 years Callisto roamed the woods in the shape of a bear, but still with a human mind. Once a huntress herself, she was now pursued by hunters. One day she came face to face with her son Arcas. Callisto recognized Arcas and tried to approach him, but he backed off in fear. He would have speared the bear, not knowing it was really his mother, had not Zeus intervened by sending a whirlwind that carried them up into heaven, where Zeus transformed Callisto into the constellation Ursa Major and Arcas into Boötes. Hera was now even more enraged to find her rival glorified among the stars, so she consulted her foster parents Tethys and Oceanus, gods of the sea, and persuaded them never to let the bear bathe in the northern waters. Hence, as seen from mid-northern latitudes, the bear never sets below the horizon. Source: Ian Ridpath

Jupiter (Zeus) in the Guise of Diana, and Callisto; François Boucher, 1759 Source: Wikipedia Arcas Preparing to Kill his Mother, Changed into a Bear; François Boucher, 1590 Source: Wikimedia Ursa Major in Atlas Coelestis, 1753 Ursa Major in Urania's Mirror, 1824

The Greek myth of Adrasteia (As told by Ian Ridpath) Aratus makes a completely different identification of Ursa Major. He says that the bear represents one of the nymphs who raised Zeus in the cave of Dicte on Crete. That cave, incidentally, is a real place where local people still proudly point out the supposed place of Zeus’s birth. Rhea, his mother, had smuggled Zeus to Crete to escape Cronus, his father. Cronus had swallowed all his previous children at birth for fear that one day they would overthrow him – as Zeus eventually did. Apollodorus names the nurses of Zeus as Adrasteia and Ida, although other sources give different names. Ida is represented by the neighboring constellation of Ursa Minor, the Little Bear. These nymphs looked after Zeus for a year, while armed Cretan warriors called the Curetes guarded the cave, clashing their spears against their shields to drown the baby’s cries from the ears of Cronus. Adrasteia laid the infant Zeus in a cradle of gold and made for him a golden ball that left a fiery trail like a meteor when thrown into the air. Zeus drank the milk of the she-goat Amaltheia with his foster-brother Pan. Zeus later placed Amaltheia in the sky as the star Capella, while Adrasteia became the Great Bear – although why Zeus turned her into a bear is not explained. Source: Ian Ridpath

Zeus raised by Adrasthea; Jacob Jordaens, ca. 1640 Source: Wikipedia The goat Amalthea nurturing Zeus and Pan Jacob Jordaens, ca. 1640 Source: Wikipedia

Ursa Minor The ancient Greek name of the constellation is Κυνοσούρα, latinized Cynosura, the "dog's tail". The origin of this name is unclear (Ursa Minor being a "dog's tail" would imply that another constellation nearby is "the dog", but no such constellation is known). However, in most artistic renderings the bears representing Ursa Major and Ursa Minor are often presented with unusual long tails, which bears don't have. In the Catasterismi, a 1st century BC Alexandrian prose retelling of the mythic origins of stars and constellations, Cynosura is the name of an Oread nymph described as a nurse of Zeus. Aratus, also using the term Cynosura, picks up on the tail of the nymphs nursing the infant Zeus. In his version, the nymphs were Adrasteia and Ida. Zeus placed them the sky as Ursa Major (Adrasteia) and Ursa Minor (Ida). In the Almagest, the constellation appears under the Greek name Arktos Mikra (Ἄρκτος Μικρά), meaning "Little Bear." Source:Ian Ridpath

Ursa Minor in Urania's Mirror, 1824 Source: Wikipedia Ursa Minor by Kornelius Reissig Source: atlascoelestis.com

Virgo Early in Greek mythology, the constellation was associated with Demeter, the Greek goddess of harvest and agriculture, similar to the Babylonian interpretation. There was also an association with the "star-maiden" Astraea, the virgin goddess of justice, innocence, purity and precision. In this interpretation, she is shown holding the scales of justice. (In other early Greek interpretations, the same "scales" were seen as the claws of the scorpion. Eventually they became a separate constellation, Libra.) Another early Greek myth, later retold by Hyginus identifies the constellation as Erigone, the daughter of Icarius of Athens.

Virgo with palm frond and scales Aberystwyth Folios; Souce: Wikipedia

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 Icarius. When Erigone and Icarius' 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. Perhaps the most common depiction of this constellation was that of Dike, goddess of justice and the spirit of moral order, often referred to as Dike Astraea. In Greek mythology, Astraea, the "Star-Maiden" was the last of the immortals to live with humans during the first two Ages of Man. Greek poet Ovid divided history into four Ages and Dike Astraea's story is directly related to these ages. Ian Ridpath tells the story, using the name Dike:

Erigone by Charles André van Loo (1747); Source: Wikipedia

"Dike was supposed to have lived on Earth in the Golden Age of mankind, when Cronus ruled Olympus. It was a time of peace and happiness, a season of perennial spring when food grew without cultivation and humans never grew old. Men lived like the gods, not knowing work, sorrow, crime, or war. Dike moved among them, dispensing wisdom and justice. Then, when Zeus overthrew his father Cronus on Olympus, the Silver Age began, inferior to the age that had just passed. In the Silver Age, Zeus shortened springtime and introduced the yearly cycle of seasons. Humans in this age became quarrelsome and ceased to honor the gods. Dike longed for the idyllic days gone by. She assembled the human race and spoke sternly to them for forsaking the ideals of their ancestors. ‘Worse is to come’, she warned them. Then she spread her wings and took refuge in the mountains, turning her back on mankind.

Virgo in Sky of Salamanca 15th century Fresco by Fernando Gallego Souce: Wikipedia

Finally came the Ages of Bronze and Iron, when humans descended into violence, theft, and war. Unable to endure the sins of humanity any longer, Dike abandoned the Earth and flew up to heaven, where she sits to this day next to the constellation of Libra, which some see as the scales of justice." [End of quote]. Sources: Ian Ridpath, Wikipedia

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