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Aquila is a constellation on the celestial equator. Its name is Latin for 'eagle' and it represents the bird that carried Zeus/Jupiter's thunderbolts in Greek-Roman mythology. Its brightest star, Altair, is one vertex of the Summer Triangle asterism. The constellation is best seen in the northern summer, as it is located along the Milky Way.
Eagles were considered the most prominent of birds in classical antiquity.Several legends attested to their unique qualities, such as Aristotle's claim that the sea eagle only raised the young who could look at the sun directly without their eyes watering, or Pliny the Elder's claim that they were immune to being struck by lightning, while the Geoponica claimed that they protected from hail. [1]
Johann Bayer's Uranometria showing the constellation Orion. Orion the Hunter is star lore created by the ancient Greeks. Star lore or starlore is the creating and cherishing of mythical stories about the stars and star patterns (constellations and asterisms); that is, folklore based upon the stars and star patterns.
In Greek mythology, Ganymede is the son of Tros of Dardania, [6] [7] [8] from whose name "Troy" is supposedly derived, either by his wife Callirrhoe, daughter of the river god Scamander, [9] [10] or Acallaris, daughter of Eumedes. [11] Depending on the author, he is the brother of either Ilus, Assaracus, Cleopatra, or Cleomestra. [12]
Legends warn Inuit against wrongdoing and taboo acts by telling the stories of people being transformed into stars after committing transgressions. MacDonald notes, "The best known of such narratives is the ubiquitous Inuit epic in which greed, murder, incest, and retribution account for the creation of the sun, moon, and the first stars."
Delphinus is associated with two stories from Greek mythology. According to myth, the first Greek god Poseidon wanted to marry Amphitrite, a beautiful nereid. However, wanting to protect her virginity, she fled to the Atlas mountains. Her suitor then sent out several searchers, among them a certain Delphinus.
The Catasterismi or Catasterisms (Greek Καταστερισμοί Katasterismoi, "Constellations" or "Placings Among the Stars" [1]) is a lost work by Eratosthenes of Cyrene. It was a comprehensive compendium of astral mythology including origin myths of the stars and constellations.
The Perseus Family includes several constellations associated with the Perseus myth: Cassiopeia, Cepheus, Andromeda, Perseus, Pegasus, and Cetus (representing the monster sent to devour Andromeda). Menzel also included a few neighboring constellations: Auriga, Lacerta, and Triangulum. Except for Cetus, these constellations all lie north of the ...