Constellations

What Is a Constellation

A constellation is a group of stars that form pictures in the sky such as animals and people. Most constellations come with their own stories.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQPFoDkGFrU

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXeEAQtC75g

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weZhziEcx90

Greek Mythology

Here are some stories from Greek Mythology. See how they imagined and invented these fantastic stories! Look for other myths from different cultures too & maybe you can invent your own stories around the stars…!

Ursa Minor

• Ursa Minor (small dipper) is the home of the North Star. Ursa Minor is said to have been introduced by the Greek philosopher Thales around 600 BC. For as long as ships have sailed the seas Polaris has been an essential guiding star.

Ursa Minor

Ursa MajorThe two stars on the end of the handle of the big dipper are robins. Sparrow and Crow are their names. The two birds were hungry and didn't save any food for the winter. Then Crow said to Sparrow, "we should go into a bear cave and kill a bear while it is hibernating." So Sparrow and Crow went off to find a bear. They found a bear cave and saw the bear Ursa Major. When they were about to kill it the bear woke up. Ursa Major was scared. Sparrow and Crow chased the bear for one year until they were tired of running. Then Crow threw an arrow and killed the bear. Blood splattered all over the bird's bodies and made their chests red. That is the myth of why robins have red chests.r in the sky, think of the story of Sparrow, Crow, and Ursa Major.

Ursa Major

Orion

• One story from this culture gives an interesting account of Orion's death. Here he is called Aqhat, and was a handsome and famous hunter. The Battle-Goddess Anat fell in love with Aqhat, but when he refused to lend her his bow, she sent another man to steal it. This chap bungled the job, and wound up killing Aqhat and dropping the bow into the sea. This is said to explain the astronomical fact that Orion and the Bow (an older version of the constellation) drops below the horizon for two months every spring.

Orion

Ursa Minor

Lyra• Lyra (Lyre)Orpheus, the musician, famously

played his lyre and even the beasts would be charmed and listen to his beautiful music. When he died (killed by a mad woman!), his lyre was put in the sky by Zeus.

Lyra

Cygnas

Cygnus (The Swan)Orpheus, after his death, was transformed into a swan and placed next to his lyre. In other stories, this is Zeus who disguised himself as a swan to seduce a lady called Leda.

Cygnus

Aquila

• Aquila (The Eagle)Zeus had an eagle who carried his thunderbolts. This is the eagle abducting the shepherd boy Ganymede to Mount Olympus by the order of Zeus, who did many mischievous things.

Aquila

Pegasus

• PegasusPegasus is the famous winged horse. The Greek hero Bellerophon captured him and rode to defeat a monster. However he fell off Pegasus one day and Zeus picked him up and transformed him into the constellation Pegasus. You can see the horse shape is upside down as if falling from the sky.

Pegasus

Hercules

• HerculesHercules is one of the most famous heros of Greek mythology. He was the son of Zeus and extremely strong. (He is also upside-down in the sky!)

Hercules

Cassiopeia• Cassiopeia was the wife of Cepheus, the Ethiopian king of Joppa (now

known as Jaffa, in Israel), and the mother of Andromeda. The queen was both beautiful and vain, and the story of how her vanity caused great distress is told in relation to the constellation Andromeda.

• After promising her daughter in marriage to Perseus, Cassiopeia had second thoughts. She convinced one of Poseidon's sons, Agenor, to disrupt the ceremony by claiming Andromeda for himself. Agenor arrived with an entire army, and a fierce struggle ensued.

• In the battle Cassiopeia is said to have cried "Perseus must die". At any rate it was Perseus who was victorious, with the help of the Gorgon's head.

• Perseus had recently slain Medusa, the Gorgon, and had put its head in a bed of coral. He retrieved the head and waved it in midst of the warring wedding party, instantly turning them all to stone. In the group was both Cepheus and Cassiopeia.Cassiopeia constellation is located in the northern sky. It was named after Cassiopeia, the vain and boastful queen in Greek mythology.

Cassiopeia

Scorpius

• Scorpius is one of the oldest constellations known - possibly even one of the original six signs of the zodiac. The constellation was once much larger, but the western portion representing the claws of the scorpion was given to Libra.

Scorpius