Star Lore around the World Mythology

This is the mythology section of the Star Lore Around the World project. Click here to get the the introduction. Welcome to the most important page of this project. Star Lore is folklore based upon stars and star patterns. This site tries to create a collection of mythical stories about stars and constellations from all over the world. This is by no means a scientific paper on astronomy, history or mythology, but merely an illustrated collection of highlights of that mythology, along with some links to what I think are reliable sources on the subject. I invite you to dive into stories written into the skies by different cultures from all over the world. You will find, that sometimes a constellation can be seen very differently in different cultures; that for example, a Big Dipper can be a wagon or a plow and the constellation we know as the Southern Cross can be a giraffe or an eagle. On the other hand, some star formations are interpreted the same in several parts of the world. The Pleiades were seven sisters not only to the ancient Greek, but also in Indonesia, Australia and in the plains of North America. As said in the introduction, I did not try to compete with any of the great book written on the subject. In fact, I wrote very little myself. My goal was not to write a new book, but to collect as many sources as possible and build a kind of database of star lore. The source of every story and every illustration is properly quoted, I honestly believe that I have only used material from public domains. If you hold a copyright to any of the material used and want it to be removed from this site, please contact me at judy-volker@judy-volker.com. There are two ways you can search the entire collection: by constellation or region/time period. Links to both options are provided below.

Star Lore sorted by constellation or asterism

This is still a work in progress. so far, the collection covers only the 35 constellations and formations shown by icons below. More will be added shortly.

Andromeda

Antlia

Apus

Aquarius

Aquila

Ara

Aries

Cancer

Canis Major

Canis Minor

Capricornus

Cassiopeia

Centaurus

Coalsack Nebula

Crux

Delphinus

Eridanus

Gemini

Hydra

Leo

Libra

Lyra

Magellanic Clouds

Mensa

Milky Way

Orion

Pisces

Pleiades

Sagittarius

Scorpius

Taurus

Ursa Major

UrsaMinor

Virgo

Winter Hexagon & Winter Triangle

Star Lore sorted by Region and/or time period

Prehistoric star lore

Ancient Mesopotamia

Ancient Egypt

Ancient Greece

Ancient Rome

Ancient Europe

Viking and Germanic

Abrahamic Religions

Middle East

India

China

East Asia

Pacific

Australia

Africa

South and Central America

North America

National Symbols

Modern Fiction

Modern Technology

New Star Lore Objects

The last four sections above build a bridge between ancient stories and today's life. National Symbols, Modern Fiction and Modern Technology show how much stars and constellations are part of daily life, while New Star Lore Objects shows a number of relations between objects only visible through a large telescope and myths and legends, both classical and modern.

And then, there is the star lore of the future, presented by a 2017 proposal for a number of New Constellations, including a space shuttle, Serena William's tennis racket and Harry Potter's glasses. There are certainly a lot of different opinions about this idea, but it represents one irrefutable fact: Star lore is not something frozen in time and based on age-old mysteries. Every generation creates its own legends.

New Constellations

I hope you enjoy this journey through space and time!

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