Hyginus, Astronomica

ToposText · Hyginus · 127 sections

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§ 2.31.1 SEA-MONSTER OR WHALE: Whale. With regard to the Sea-Monster, they say that it was sent by Neptune to kill Andromeda, about whom we have already spoken. But because it was killed by Perseus, on account of its huge size and his valour it was placed amongst the constellations.
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§ 2.32.1 ERIDANUS OR RIVER: Some call this the Nile, though many call it Ocean. Those who advocate the Nile point out that it is correctly so called on account of the great length and usefulness of that River, and especially because below the sign is a certain star, shining more brightly than the rest, called Canopus. Canopus is an island washed by the river Nile.
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§ 2.33.1 HARE: The hare is said to be fleeing the dog of the hunter Orion, for when, as was proper, they represented Orion as a hunter, they wanted to indicate what he was hunting, and so they put the fleeing hare at his feet. Some say that it was put there by Mercury, and that it had been given the faculty, beyond other kinds of quadrapeds, of being pregnant with new offspring when giving birth to others. Those who disagree with this reason say that so noble and great a hunter as Orion (we spoke about him in the discussion of Scorpio ) shouldn't be represented hunting hares. Callimachus, too, is blamed, because, when he was singing the praises of Diana, he said she delighted in the flesh of hares and hunted them. So they have represented Orion fighting the Bull.
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§ 2.33.4 The following story of the hare has been recorded. There were no hares on the island of Leros, and a certain young man of the state, led by a liking for the breed, brought in from another country a pregnant female, and watched over her very carefully as she bore her young. When she had borne them, many of the citizens developed an interest, and by acquiring some for money, some as gifts, they all began to raise hares. In no long time such a multitude of hares was produced that the whole island was swarming with them. When men gave them nothing to eat, they made inroads on the grain fields and devoured everything. The inhabitants, faced with disaster because of this, since they were reduced to hunger, by co-operation of the whole state were said at length to have driven them from the island, through with difficulty. So afterwards they put the image of a hare in the stars, that men should remember that there was nothing so desirable in life but that later they might experience more grief than pleasure from it.
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§ 2.34.1 ORION: Hesiod calls him the son of Neptune by Euryale, daughter of Minos. He had the ability of running over the waves as if on land, just as it is said that Iphiclus could run over standing grain and not bruise it.
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§ 2.34.2 Aristomachus says that there lived a certain Hyrieus at Thebes — Pindar puts him on the island of Chios — who asked from Jove and Mercury when they visited him that he might have a child. To gain his request more readily he sacrificed an ox and put it before them for a feast. When he had done this, Jove and Mercury asked him to remove the hide from the ox; then they urinated in it, and bade him bury the hide in the ground. From this, later on, a child was born whom Hyrieus called Urion from the happening, though on account of his charm and affability he came to be called Orion.
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§ 2.34.3 He is said to have come from Thebes to Chios, and when his passions were excited by wine, he attacked Merope, the daughter of Oinopion. For this he was blinded by Oinopion and cast out of the island. But he came to Lemnos and Vulcan, and received from him a guide named Cedalion. Carrying him on his shoulders, he came to Sol, and when Sol healed him returned to Chios to take vengeance on Oinopion. The citizens however, guarded Oinopion underground. Despairing of finding Oinopion, Orion came to Crete, and there began to hunt with Diana. He made the boast to her we have mentioned before, and thus came to the stars. Some say that Orion lived with Oinopion in too close intimacy, and wanting to prove to him his zeal in hunting, boasted to Diana, too, what we spoke of above, and so was killed. Others, along with Callimachus, say that when he wished to offer violence to Diana, he was transfixed by her arrows and fashioned for the stars because of their similar zeal in hunting.
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§ 2.34.4 Istros, however, says that Diana loved Orion and came near marrying him. Apollo took this hard, and when scolding her brought no results, on seeing the head of Orion who was swimming a long way off, he wagered her that she couldn't hit with her arrows the black object in the sea. Since she wished to be called an expert in that skill, she shot an arrow and pierced the head of Orion. The waves brought his slain body to the shore, and Diana, grieving greatly that she had struck him, and mourning his death with many tears, put him among the constellations. But what Diana did after his death, we shall tell in the stories about her.
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§ 2.35.1 DOG: He is said to have been given by Jove as a guardian for Europa, and later to have come to Minos. When Minos was ill, Procris, wife of Cephalus, is said to have cured him, and received the dog as a reward for her services, as she was very fond of hunting and the dog was so swift that no beast could escape. After her death the dog came to Cephalus her husband, who brought it to Thebes with him when he came. There was a fox there which was said to be so swift that it could outrun all dogs. So when the two animals met, Jupiter, in a dilemma, as Istros says, changed them both to stone.
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§ 2.35.2 Some have said that this is the dog of Orion, and because Orion was devoted to hunting, the dog was put with him among the stars. Others have called it the dog of Icarus. These many suggestions have their own advocates.
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§ 2.35.5 The Dog has one star on his tongue which itself is called Dog, and on its head another which Isis is thought to have put there under her own name, and to have called it Sirius on account of the brilliance of the flame because it seems to shine more than the rest. So, in order for men to recognize it more easily, she called it Sirius.
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§ 2.36.1 PROCYON: Procyon seems to rise before the greater Dog; for this reason it is called the Fore-dog. By some it is thought to be Orion's dog, and it is put in all the same tales in which the greater Dog is numbered.
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§ 2.37.1 ARGO: Some have said this ship was called Argo in Greek on account of her speed, others because Argus was her inventor. Many have said she was the first ship on the sea, and for this reason especially was pictured in the stars. Pindar says she was built in the town of Magnesia called Demetrias — Callimachus in that district near the temple of Actian Apollo which the Argonauts are thought to have founded on their departure. The place is called Pagasae, in Greek pagasai, because the Argo was first fitted together there. Homer says that this same place was in the district of Thessaly. Aeschylus and some others say that in the same place a speaking beam was added by Minerva. The entire form of the ship does not appear in the stars; it is divided from stern to mast, signifying that men should not be in despair when their ships are wrecked.
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§ 2.38.1 CENTAUR: He is said to be Chiron, son of Saturn and Philyra, who surpassed not only the other Centaurs but also men in justice, and is thought to have reared Aesculapius and Achilles. By his conscientiousness and diligence, therefore, he won inclusion among the stars.
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§ 2.38.2 When Hercules was once visiting Chiron, and while sitting with him was examining his arrows, one of them is said to have fallen on the foot of Chiron, and thus brought about his death. Others say that when the Centaur wondered at his being able to kill such huge creatures as Centaurs with such slight arrows, he himself tried to draw the bow, and the arrow, slipping from his hand, fell on his foot. For this reason Jupiter, pitying him, put him among the constellations with a victim which he seems to hold above the altar for sacrifice.
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§ 2.38.3 Others have said that he is Pholus the Centaurus, who was more skilled in augury that the rest. Consequently, by the will of Jove, he was represented coming to the altar with a victim.
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§ 2.39.1 ALTAR: On this altar the gods are thought to have first made offerings and formed an alliance when they were about to oppose the Titans. The Cyclopes made it. From this observance men established the custom that when they plan to do something, they make sacrifices before beginning the undertaking.
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§ 2.40.1 WATER-SNAKE: This is the sign on which the Crow sits and over which the Bowl is placed. The following reason has been handed down: When Apollo was sacrificing, the crow, who was under his guardianship, was sent to a spring to get some pure water. Seeing several trees with their figs not yet ripe, he perched on one of them waiting for them to ripen. After some days when the figs had ripened and the crow had eaten some, Apollo, who was waiting, saw him come flying in haste with the bowl full of water. For this fault of tardiness Apollo, who had had to use other water because of the crow's delay, punished him in this way. As long as the figs are ripening, the crow cannot drink, because on those days he has a sore [?] throat,. So when the god wished to illustrate the thirst of the crow, he put the bowl among the constellations, and placed the water- snake underneath to delay the thirsty crow. For the crow seems to peck at the end of its tail to be allowed to go over to the bowl.
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§ 2.40.2 Istros and several others have said that the Crow was Coronis, daughter of Phlegyas. She bore Aesculapius to Apollo, but after Ischys, son of Elatus, had lain with her, the crow, which had noted it, reported it to Apollo. For his unpleasant news Apollo changed him to black instead of his former white color, and transfixed Ischys with his arrows.
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§ 2.40.3 About the Bowl Phylarchus writes this tale: In the Chersonnese near Troy where many have said the tomb of Protesilaus is located, there is a city, Elaeusa by name. When a certain Demophon was ruling there, a sudden plague fell on the land with a strange death-rate among the citizens. Demophon, greatly disturbed by this, sent to the oracle of Apollo seeking a remedy, and was told that every year one girl of noble rank should be sacrificed to their household gods. Demophon, passing over his own daughters, would choose by lot one of the daughters of the nobles, and kept doing this until his scheme offended a certain man of highest rank. He said he wouldn't allow his daughter to be entered in the drawing unless the daughters of the king were included. The king, angered by this, killed the noble's daughter without drawing of lots. This deed Mastusius, father of the girl, for a time out of patriotism pretended he did not resent, for the girl might have perished if the lots had been taken. Little by little, time led the king to forget. When the girl's father had shown himself to be on most friendly terms with the king, he said he was going to make a solemn sacrifice and invited the king and his daughters to join the celebration. The king, suspecting nothing, sent his daughters ahead; since he was busy with a state affair, he would come later. When this happened as Mastusius wished, he killed the king's daughters, and mixing their blood with wine in a bowl, bade it be given as a drink to the king on his arrival. The king asked for his daughters, and when he learned what had happened, he ordered Mastusius and the bowl to be thrown into the sea. The cape where he was thrown, to memorialize him is called Mastusian; the harbour still is called the Bowl. Astronomers of old pictured it in the stars, so that men might remember that no one can profit from an evil deed with impunity, nor can hostilities often be forgotten. Some, with Eratosthenes, say that it is the bowl Icarus used when he showed wine to men; others the jar into which Mars was thrown by Otus and Ephialtes.
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§ 2.41.1 FISH: This is the Fish that is called Southern. He seems to take water in his mouth from the sign of Aquarius. Once, when Isis was in labor, he is thought to have saved her, and as a reward for this kindness she placed the fish and its young, about whom we have spoken before, among the stars. As a result the Syrians generally do not eat fish, and worship their gilded likenesses as household gods. Ctesias, too, writes about this.
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§ 2.42.1 PLANETS: It remains for us to speak of the five stars which many have called “wandering,” and which the Greeks called planets. One of them is the star of Jove, Phaenon by name, a youth whom Prometheus made excelling all others in beauty, when he was making man, as Heraclides Ponticus says. When he intended to keep him back, without presenting him to Jove as he did the others, Cupid reported this to Jove, whereupon Mercury was sent to Phaenon and persuaded him to come to Jove and become immortal. Therefore he is placed among the stars.
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§ 2.42.2 The second star is that of Sol; others say of Saturn. Eratosthenes claims that it is called Phaethon, from the son of Sol. Many have written about him — how he foolishly drove his father's chariot and set fire to the earth. Because of this he was struck with a thunderbolt by Jove, and fell into the river Eridanus, and was conveyed by Sol to the constellations.
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§ 2.42.3 The third star is that of Mars, though others say it belongs to Hercules. The star of Mars follows that of Venus, as Eratosthenes says, for the following reason: When Vulcan had married Venus, and on account of his careful watch, Mars had no opportunity to see her, Mars obtained nothing from Venus except that his star should follow hers. Since she inflamed him violently with love, she called the star Pyroeis, indicating this fact.
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§ 2.42.4 The fourth star is that of Venus, Lucifer by name. Some say it is Juno's. In many tales it is recorded that it is Hesperus, too. It seems to be the largest of all stars. Some have said it represents the son of Aurora and Cephalus, who surpassed many in beauty, so that he even vied with Venus, and, as Eratosthenes says, for this reason it is called the star of Venus. It is visible both at dawn and sunset, and so properly has been called both Lucifer and Hesperus.
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§ 2.42.5 The fifth star is Mercury's, named Stilbon. It is small and bright. It is attributed to Mercury because he first established the months and perceived the courses of the constellations. Euhemerus says that Venus first established the constellations and taught Mercury.
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§ 2.43.1 MILKY WAY: There is a certain circular figure among the constellations, white in color, which some have called the Milky Way. Eratosthenes says that Juno, without realizing it, gave milk to the infant Mercury, but when she learned that he was the son of Maia, she thrust him away, and the whiteness of the flowing milk appears among the constellations. Others have said that Hercules was given to Juno to nurse when she slept. When she awoke, it happened as described above. Others, again, say that Hercules was so greedy that he couldn't hold in his mouth all the milk he had sucked, and the Milky Way spilled over from his mouth. Still others say that at the time Ops brought to Saturn the stone, pretending it was a child, he bade her offer milk to it; when she pressed her breast, the milk that was caused to flow formed the circle which we mentioned above.

Via ToposText (topostext.org), a project of the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation created by Brady Kiesling. Translated by Mary Amelia Grant (1890-1987). Composed ca. 151 CE. Licence: public domain. Source.