Today’s life is influenced by ancient Greece in many ways, from fraternities and sororities, such as Kappa Alpha Psi and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., respectively, to the constellations in the night sky. While the modern concept of fraternities and sororities may seem alien to the ancient Greeks, the constellations studied in astronomy today are still recognizable to them.
The earliest mention of constellations was in Homer’s work, specifically The Iliad, around the 7th century BCE. At that time, constellations were only representations of objects, such as a lyre or a scorpion. Eventually, the Greeks associated the night sky with the heavens, and gods and goddesses correlated with the patterns they drew in the stars. By the 5th century BCE, the mythology of those constellations had been established. The myths often featured the worst aspects of human nature, including anger, jealousy, and violence. Gods and goddesses epitomized pettiness and the need for vindication at any cost, and humans were subject to their passing whims.
Although the Greeks did write about their constellations, most of the surviving texts on stars were from the Romans; therefore, the Latin names are used today. In addition, because the Greeks lived in the Northern Hemisphere, only northern constellations were named.
Major Constellations and their Myths:
- Andromeda
- Aries
- Cancer: The crab. It pinched Hercules’s foot while he was battling the Hydra. Hera was pleased and rewarded him by placing him in the sky.
- Cassiopeia
- Cepheus
- Cetus: The sea monster. She gave birth to Phorcids, who also gave birth to many other monsters, including Cerberus, the three-headed dog guardian of Hades, the Hydra, the Chimera, and many others.
- Corona Borealis
- Cygnus
- Draco: The dragon. It guarded the golden apples of Hesperides and the Golden Fleece in the Garden of Ares.
- Eridanus
- Gemini
- Hercules
- Hydra: The multi-headed monster. Hercules burned each head after severing it to keep the Hydra from replacing it with two each time; when there was one last head left, it turned out to be immortal, so he buried it under a rock.
- Leo: The lion. Created by Hera’s demand, it killed people and cattle in the valley of the Nemean Mountains. Hercules killed the lion by strangling it as one of his tasks and wore the skin as a trophy.
- Lyra
- Orion
- Perseus
- Pisces
- Sagittarius
- Scorpius: The scorpion. Gaia sent the scorpion to battle Orion, the hunter, because she thought he was killing too many animals. When the scorpion and Orion killed each other, Zeus placed them both in the sky but apart in order to maintain peace. Orion is in the sky in the winter, while Scorpius is in the sky in the winter.
- Taurus: The bull. It commemorates when Zeus turned himself into a bull, kidnapped Europa, hid her on the island of Crete, and impregnated her several times; one of the resulting children was King Minos.
- Ursa Major
- Ursa Minor: The lesser bear. Arcas was about to kill his mother, Callisto, when his mother was transformed into a bear by Hera. Zeus then transformed Arcas into a bear and placed mother and son in the sky.
- Virgo
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