Ancient Stories Of Constellations, Stars, And Planets

[Desmond_T]

Went to an astronomy talk hosted by Gary today. He showed us a clip that featured an enchanting ancient Chinese folk tale of these two stars, Altair and Vega from the Aquila constellation and Lyra constellation respectively. I found it to be very good for me especially when I want to better remember constellations and stars in the sky. These interesting stories help boost my memory of them. I will post more of such stories here in the future so that everyone can enjoy reading them.

The Cow Herder And The Weaving Girl.

Once upon a time, there was a great sky river that separated Heaven and Earth. On Earth, there lived a man who was a herder, and he had a celestial cow that could speak in human tongue. In Heaven, there lived the youngest daughter of the Celestial Queen Mother. She liked weaving things, and she wove everything that was beautiful in the sky.

The cow herder had a disadvantaged life. His parents died when he was a boy and he was chased out of his home by his relatives soon after. So he left with only his cow and soon found greener pastures of his own. He tilled the land and built his own home. Although it was a tough life for him, he had a companion to listen to his woes - his cow.

One day in Heaven, the weaving girl heard someone playing the flute and asked a bird that was resting on a tree, "Who is playing that lovely melody?"

"It's a herder from Earth. He is quite handsome and he's single, you know?" said the bird. She blushed at the thought of it, and the skies turned a little redder that day.

Back on Earth, the herder was telling his cow about how lonely he was and that he yarns to find a wife and get married. The cow suggested to him that he should hide and wait by the riverbank, where there were celestial fairies that gathered in this magical river to bathe themselves at night. He must then steal an article of clothing from one of the fairies. That way, the fairy cannot go back to the Heavens.

He did as he was told and stole the weaving girl's clothes. The rest of the fairies quickly don on their clothes and went back to heaven in panic, leaving the weaving girl stranded on Earth.

Realising his mistake and feeling sorry for her, he admitted that he wanted her to be his wife and then returned the clothes to her and said that she can return to Heaven if she wanted to. The weaving girl liked his honesty and agreed to be his wife.

They soon got married and had two children, a boy and a girl.

Not long after, the herder's cow spoke to him solemnly. The cow was dying and it offered him a final advice. "Take my hide after I am gone, you will need it to go to the Heavens." It said. With its last breath, it died. The herder was devastated but again did what he was told. He flayed his companion, took its hide, and buried the cow.

When the Celestial Queen Mother learnt of the forbidden marriage, she got very furious. She sent guards to get her daughter back from Earth, to separate them forever.

The herder and the weaving girl were heartbroken and upset. However, the herder recalled what his cow had said to him. So he gathered his son and his daughter and wore the cow's hide. They magically flew to the heavens but was stopped by the massive sky river in-between. Having no other way to cross it, the three of them started scooping water out with their hands to no end.

When the other celestial beings saw what the herder and his children were doing, they were touched and they helped to plead for mercy from the Queen Mother.

Reaching a compromise, the Queen Mother allowed them to see each other for only once a year - on every 7th day of the 7th month, a bridge will be formed by birds for the lovers to cross, and for the children to reunite with their mother.

And there you have it, the star, Vega refers to the weaving girl and the star Altair refers to the cow herder. Beside Altair, there are 2 dimmer stars, Tarazed and Alshain, their children. Vega and Altair are separated by the spiral arm of the Milky Way Galaxy, the great sky river.


So sorry, the below clip is in Chinese. To all my non-Chinese friends here, I took some time to write it in English form above, it's more or less the same. Cheers!

[Desmond_T]

The Pleiades





The Seven Sisters

In Greek mythology, the Pleiades were seven sisters: Maia, Electra, Alcyone, Taygete, Asterope, Celaeno and Merope. Their parents were Atlas, a Titan who held up the sky, and the oceanid Pleione, the protectress of sailing.

After a chance meeting with the hunter Orion, the Pleiades and their mother became the object of his pursuit. Enamoured with the young women he pursued them over the face of the Earth. In pity for their plight, Zeus changed them into a flock of doves, which he set in the heavens. Thus the Olympian added the penalty of the absence of his wife and family to the Titan's original punishment of eternally supporting the heavens from the Earth.

Only six stars are distinctly visible to the naked eye. The ancient Greeks explained the sudden disappearance of the seventh star in various narratives. According to one, all the Pleiades were consorts to gods, with the exception of Merope. She deserted her sisters in shame, having taken a mortal husband, Sisyphus, the King of Corinth. Another explanation for the 'lost' star related to the myth of the Electra, an ancestress of the royal house of Troy. After the destruction of Troy, the grief stricken Electra abandoned her sisters and was transformed into a comet – ever after to be a sign of impending doom.

The Greek legends of the disappearing star are echoed in Jewish, Hindu and Mongolian folklore: their basis in an actual event seems to be corroborated by astronomical evidence that a clearly visible star in the cluster became extinct towards the end of the second millennium BC.

In an alternative myth, the Pleiades were the virgin companions of Artemis, to the ancient Greeks, the goddess of hunting and the Moon. Whilst stalking a hind, the great hunter Orion crept into a sunlit glade, disturbing the innocent play of the sisters. They fled in alarm. His immoderate passions enflamed by their beauty and grace, he pursued them relentlessly, as was fitting for the greatest mortal hunter. In frustration, Artemis pleaded with Zeus to for his intervention. With characteristic Olympian sarcasm, he did. As the hunter closed in on his prey, Zeus transformed the sisters into a flock of doves. They flew into the heavens, beyond the reach of their pursuer, but also removed from earthly companionship with the goddess!

Artemis, enraged by these twofold masculine affronts, revenged herself on Orion. Apollo, her brother, having been affronted by the mortal hunter's prowess, was persuaded to set a monstrous scorpion to attack Orion. Not to be outdone in this, in another characteristic display of mordant wit, Zeus set the dead hunter in the heavens in a vain pursuit of the Pleiades through the night sky for eternity, with the constellation Scorpio ever chasing after Orion. Even so the Olympian had some compassion for his daughter: the path of the Moon in the heavens passes close to the Pleiades, and thus Artemis – as the goddess of the Moon – had the solace of their frequent reunions.





Pictures from Wiki and Starwalk
Info from http://www.pleiade.org/pleiades_02.html

[Hardwarezone]

Good thread !

[Gary]

[Desmond_T]

Orion Constellation





The Hunter

In Greek mythology, the hunter Orion was the most handsome of men. He was the son of the sea god Poseidon and Euryale, the daughter of King Minos of Crete. In Homer’s Odyssey, Orion is described as exceptionally tall and armed with an unbreakable bronze club.

In one myth, Orion fell in love with the Pleiades, the seven sisters, daughters of Atlas and Pleione. He started pursuing them and Zeus scooped them up and placed them in the sky. The Pleiades are represented by the famous star cluster of the same name, located in the constellation Taurus. Orion can still be seen chasing the sisters across the sky at night.

In another story, Orion fell in love with Merope, the beautiful daughter of King Oenopion who didn’t return his affections. One night, he had too much to drink and tried to force himself on her. The king, enraged, put out Orion’s eyes and banished him from his land, the island of Chios. Hephaestus felt sorry for the blind, wandering Orion and offered one of his assistants to guide the hunter and act as his eyes. Orion eventually encountered an oracle that told him if he went east toward the sunrise, his sight would be restored. Orion did so and his eyes were miraculously healed.

The constellation Orion has its origins in Sumerian mythology, specifically in the myth of Gilgamesh. Sumerians associated it with the story of their hero fighting the bull of heaven, represented by Taurus. They called Orion URU AN-NA, which means “the light of heaven.” Their name for the constellation Taurus was GUD AN-NA, or “the bull of heaven.”

Orion is often shown as facing the attack of a bull, yet there are no myths in Greek mythology telling any such tale. When describing the constellation, the Greek astronomer Ptolemy describes the hero with a club and lion’s pelt, both of which are usually associated with Heracles, but there is no evidence in mythology books of a direct relation between the constellation and Heracles. However, since Heracles, the most famous of Greek heros, is represented by the much less conspicuous constellation Hercules, and since one of his tasks was to catch the Cretan bull, there are at least hints of a possible connection between the two.

Most myths about Orion’s death involve a scorpion, but the stories differ from one mythographer to another. In one tale, Orion boasted to the goddess Artemis and her mother Leto that he could kill any beast on earth. The Earth Goddess heard him and sent a scorpion, which stung the giant to death. In another story, he tried to force himself on Artemis and she was the one who sent the scorpion. In yet another account of his death, Orion was stung while trying to save Leto from the scorpion. All myths of Orion’s death share the same outcome: Orion and the scorpion were placed on opposite sides of the sky, so that when the constellation Scorpius rises in the sky, Orion sets below the horizon in the west, fleeing from the scorpion.

There is one myth, however, that does not involve a scorpion: Artemis, the goddess of hunting, fell in love with the hunter and, to stop her from giving up her vows of chastity, her brother Apollo dared her to hit a small target in the distance with her bow and arrow. Not knowing that the target was Orion, who was enjoying a swim, she hit it in a single shot, killing her would-be lover. Devastated by his death, she placed Orion among the stars.

Orion is a well-known constellation in many cultures. In Australia, the stars forming Orion’s belt and sword are sometimes called the Pot or the Saucepan. In South Africa, the three stars of Orion’s Belt are known as Drie Konings (the three kings) or Drie Susters (the three sisters). In Spain and Latin America, the stars are called Las Tres Marías, or The Three Marys.

Babylonians knew Orion as MUL.SIPA.ZI.AN.NA or The Heavenly Shepherd (The True Shepherd of Anu) in the Late Bronze Age and associated the constellation with Anu, the god of the heavenly realms. Egyptians associated it with Osiris, the god of death, afterlife and rebirth. Orion was also identified with Unas, the last Pharaoh of the Fifth Dynasty, who was said to have eaten the flesh of his enemies and devoured the gods themselves to become great and bring inheritance of his power. According to myth, Unas travels through the sky to become the star Sabu, or Orion.

Because pharaohs were believed to be transformed into Osiris after death, some of the greatest pyramids – the ones at Giza – were built to mirror the pattern of the stars in the constellation. To make the transformation easier, the air shaft in the King’s Chamber in the Great Pyramid was aligned with the star Alnitak, Zeta Orionis, the easternmost star in Orion’s Belt.

The Aztecs called the stars of Orion’s Belt and sword the Fire Drill; their rising in the sky signalled the beginning of the New Fire ceremony, a ritual Aztecs performed to postpone the end of the world.

In Hungarian mythology, Orion is identified with Nimrod, a famous hunter and father of Hunor and Magor, the two twins also known as Hun ad Hungarian. In Scandinavian tradition, the constellation is associated with the goddess Freya and called Frigg’s Distaff (Friggerock), after the tool she used for spinning. The Chinese knew the constellation as Shen, a great hunter or warrior.

Another ancient legend dates back to the second millennium BC. The Hittites (a Bronze Age people of Anatolia, the region comprising most of present-day Turkey) associated the constellation with Aqhat, a famous mythical hunter. The war goddess Anat fell in love with him, but after he refused to lend her his bow, she tried to steal it. However, the man she sent to get the bow messed up the assignment pretty badly, killing Aqhat and dropping the bow into the sea. This is why, according to the myth, the constellation drops below the horizon for two months in the spring.





In ancient Egypt, the constellation of Orion was known to represent Osiris, who, after being killed by his evil brother Set, was revived by his wife Isis to live immortal among the stars.

In China, Orion was one of the 28 lunar mansions Sieu (Xiu) （宿）. It is known as Shen （參）, literally meaning "three", for the stars of Orion's Belt. (See Chinese constellations)

The Chinese character 參 (pinyin shēn) originally meant the constellation Orion (Chinese: 參宿; pinyin: shēnxiù); its Shang dynasty version, over three millennia old, contains at the top a representation of the three stars of Orion's belt atop a man's head (the bottom portion representing the sound of the word was added later).

Pictures from Wiki.
Info from Wiki and http://www.constellation-guide.com/cons ... tellation/

[Desmond_T]

The Sun





Every human being that has ever lived on Earth has seen the Sun. So naturally, there are many myths around the Sun from many different cultures. I will pick some that are more popular.

Greek/Roman Sun Myth



Helios is the Greek Sun god, whom the Romans called Sol. Most often, people viewed or portrayed Helios as a mighty charioteer, driving his flaming chariot (or gleaming horses) from east to west across the sky each day.

At night, according to the legend, Helios crossed back to the east by floating in a golden cup on the stream of Ocean, the mythical river thought to encircle the flat earth.

Because Helios was in the sky all day looking down on the earth, people assumed he saw and heard everything that went on in that domain; thus, both gods and humans called on him as a witness to various events or oaths sworn.

Helios was usually depicted as a beardless and very handsome man in purplish robes, crowned with a golden aureole, which accented his role as the Sun God. The characteristic chariot was drawn by four winged horses.

Who was the god of the Sun? Helios or Apollo:

There is a confusion in Greek Mythology regarding the identity of the god of the Sun. There are historians and followers of the Greek mythology that denote the role of god Apollo, as God of the Sun, although it is evident that Greeks believed in a separate Sun God.

Helios is mentioned in numerous philosophic texts and poetic or fictional texts; for instance, Homer is the one who refers to Helios as the Sun God, claiming that he was the God who could hear and understand everything that was happening on Earth.

Greek myths about Helios:

There are many Greek myths about Helios, the Sun God. For example, the goddess Demeter consulted him after her daughter, Persephone, disappeared; Helios told her that Hades, ruler of the Underworld, had abducted the girl.

The most famous myth in which Helios takes part is that of his mortal son, Phaethon. The boy demanded that his father Helios allow him to drive his gleaming chariot across the sky for a day. However, Phaethon was unable to control his father’s horses, and the chariot ran wild through the heavens until Zeus intervened and struck the young man dead.

http://www.greekmyths-greekmythology.co ... s-sun-god/

Mayan Sun Myth





Kinich Ahau (K'inich Ajaw) is the 16th-century Yucatec name of the Maya sun god, designated as god G when referring to the codices. In the Classic period, god G is depicted as a middle-aged man with an aquiline nose, large square eyes, cross-eyed, and a filed incisor in the upper row of teeth. Usually, there is a k'in 'sun'-infix, sometimes in the very eyes. Among the southern Lacandons, Kinich Ahau continued to play a role in narrative well into the second half of the twentieth century.

Recent Maya mythology is mainly concerned with Sun's childhood and the conflicts leading up to his actual solar transformation. Although specific imagery is used for the path of the sun (for example, the sun being carried through the underworld on the shoulders of its lord),[10] there are hardly any histories concerning the mature sun deity, save for the southern Lacandons. According to them, Kinich Ahau - the elder brother of the upper god - will put an end to this world by descending from the sky and have his jaguars devour mankind.[11] Little is also known about specific solar rituals, although it is noteworthy that Kinich Ahau regularly occurs in the Dresden Codex, which is largely concerned with ritual matters.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinich_Ahau

Egyptian Sun Myth





From very early times Ra was a sun god. He took on many of the attributes and even the names of other gods as Egyptian myths evolved. A good example of this is the god Ra and Amun merging to become Amun-Ra or Ra and Horus combining to become Ra-Harakhte. Since Ra was a god of great antiquity, there are far to many stories connected with him to relate them all.

One legend states that each day, Ra was born and began a journey across the sky. Ra was believed to travel in the Manjet-boat. or the 'Barque of Millions of Years'. He was joined on this daily journey by a crew of many gods . The Manjet-boat would sail through the twelve provinces, representing the twelve hours of daylight. At the end of each day Ra was thought to die and embarked on his night voyage. For this journey he was called Auf, which means 'corpse'. Ra sailed in a boat called the Mesektet-boat or night-barque on his journey through the twelve hours of darkness.

It was not always smooth sailing on these ships. During the day Ra had to defeat his chief enemy, a serpent or snake named Apep. A great battle was faught between Ra and Apep, and Ra was usually victorious, however on stormy days or during an eclipse the Egyptians believed that Apep had been victorious and swallowed the sun.

Because no wind blows in the Underworld, Auf (Ra) had to rely on various unfriendly spirits and demons to help tow his barque along the river in the underworld. Auf's main job in the Underworld was to bring light to the souls of the dead as he passed through their realm. After his departure these souls fell back into a lonely darkness. The Underworld of these early solar myths was a very different place then the fields of peace that we find in the Osiris cults of the later periods.

http://www.egyptartsite.com/ra.html

Indian Sun Myth





Surya (Devanagari: सूर्य Sūrya, "the Supreme Light"[2]) Suraya or Phra Athit is the chief solar deity in Hinduism. The term Surya also refers to the Sun, in general.

Surya is the chief of the Navagraha, Indian "Classical planets" and important elements of Hindu astrology. He is often depicted riding a chariot harnessed by seven horses or one horse with seven heads,[1] which represent the seven colours of the rainbow or the seven chakras. He also presides over Sunday. Surya is regarded as the Supreme Deity by Saura sect, which is now a very small following. Smartas worship him as one of the five primary forms of God.

Surya as the Sun is worshipped at dawn by most Hindus and has many temples dedicated to him across India. He also enjoys worship as a part of the Navagraha. He is especially worshipped in the Hindu festivals of Ratha Saptami, Makar Sankranti, Chhath and Samba Dashami.

Surya is worshiped in various forms throughout India. One of the most important epithet (form) of 'Surya' is 'Arka'. The "Arka" form is worshiped mostly in North India and Eastern parts of India. The temples dedicated to 'Arka' form of Surya are Konarka Temple in Orissa, Uttararka and Lolarka in Uttar Pradesh, Balarka in Rajasthan. There was an old sun-temple in (Bahraich, Uttar Pradesh) named Balarka Surya Mandir, built by King Tilokchand Arkawanshi in early 10th century AD. The temple was destroyed in the 14th century during Turkish invasions.

The grandest Surya temple is Konark surya temples built by Ganga Vamsi king Narasimha Dev of Orissa.

The Sun Temple, Modhera, at Modhera in Gujarat, is a temple dedicated to the Hindu Sun-God, Surya. It was built in 1026 AD by King Bhimdev of the Solanki dynasty.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surya

Chinese Sun Myth





According to legend, Chang'e and her husband Houyi were immortals living in heaven. One day, the ten sons of the Jade Emperor transformed into ten suns, causing the earth to scorch. Having failed to order his sons to stop ruining the earth, the Jade Emperor summoned Houyi for help. Houyi, using his legendary archery skills, shot down nine of the sons, but spared one son to be the sun. The Jade Emperor was obviously not pleased with Houyi's solution to save the earth: nine of his sons were dead. As punishment, the Jade Emperor banished Houyi and Chang'e to live as mere mortals on earth.

Seeing that Chang'e felt extremely miserable over her loss of immortality, Houyi decided to journey on a long, perilous quest to find the pill of immortality so that the couple could be immortals again. At the end of his quest he met the Queen Mother of the West who agreed to give him the pill, but warned him that each person would only need half the pill to become immortal.

Houyi brought the pill home and stored it in a case. He warned Chang'e not to open the case and then left home for a while. Like Pandora in Greek mythology, Chang'e became too curious: she opened up the case and found the pill just as Houyi was returning home. Nervous that Houyi would catch her discovering the contents of the case, she accidentally swallowed the entire pill. She started to float into the sky because of the overdose. Although Houyi wanted to shoot her down in order to prevent her from floating further, he could not bear to aim the arrow at her. Chang'e kept on floating until she landed on the moon.

While she became lonely on the moon without her husband, she did have company. A jade rabbit, who manufactured elixirs, as well as the woodcutter Wu Gang, also lived on the moon.

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Chinese_St ... _Chang%27e

[Desmond_T]

Scorpius Constellation





The Great Scorpion

The Scorpius constellation has intrigued people for centuries, not only for its distinctive shape, but also because it is one of the brightest constellations in the sky.

The name is Latin for scorpion, or literally translated as the creature with the burning sting. However, Scorpius is not a scorpion to everyone. The Javanese people of Indonesia call this constellation Banyakangrem, meaning "the brooded swan" or Kalapa Doyong, meaning "leaning coconut tree." In Hawaii, it is known as the demigod Maui's Fishhook. In Chinese mythology, the constellation was part of the Azure Dragon.

Scorpius used to be larger. The ancient Greeks considered the Libra constellation to be the claws of the scorpion.

Scorpius and Orion are often intertwined in Greek mythology. According to one myth, Orion boasted that he would kill every animal on the earth. The goddess-hunter Artemis and her mother, Leto, dispatched a scorpion to kill Orion. Zeus put the scorpion in the heavens after it won the battle. In another myth, the god Apollo, Artemis's twin brother, grew angry and sent a scorpion to attack Orion because he claimed to be a better hunter than Artemis. Zeus put Orion and Scorpius in the sky, but they are visible at different times of the year.

http://www.space.com/16947-scorpius-constellation.html

Another version:

According to one story, Orion wanted to kill all the earth's wild animals.

However, the earth goddess Gaia was not pleased with Orion's intention. So, she sent a giant scorpion to attack Orion. No matter how hard he tried, Orion could not defeat the scorpion. When he tried to escape, the scorpion stung him to death with its poisonous tail.

As a reward for its service, Gaia placed the scorpion's image in the nighttime sky. To this day, it looks as if the scorpion is always chasing after Orion in the nighttime sky.

http://www.windows2universe.org/mythology/scorpius.html

[Vincent_WF]

Interesting thread!

Wonderful ways to correlate the celestial objects with these folklores; makes knowing the sky very interesting and wonderfully connecting.

[Airconvent]

Interesting read! Thanks for sharing..