To understand the history of the northern stars, it helps to know a bit of Greek mythology.
Layers of Greek Mythology
The stories of ancient Greece evolved over a period of roughly 1500 years.
Today, we tend to collect all these stories under the aegis of Greek Mythology®.
We believe that it’s important to try to place these myths within their appropriate cultural and historical context. We start with an overview of the strata of Greek myth
Preliterate Storytelling
Many of the stories of Greek myth predate the alphabet.
Here, we consider the nature of storytelling and history
in preliterate cultures
Following, some notes on the stories behind particular constellations
Orion
A grand, imposing figure in the sky;
Yet we know very little of this guy
The Rescue of Andromeda
Five constellations, we propose
are not separate figures, but a single tableau
Perseus
The savior of Andromeda
The slayer of Medusa
Antinoös
A figure decreed by an emperor
Ignored by the astronomers
Hercules
A hero of the age of Rome
sought out some stars to call his home
Let us know in the comments what other stories you’d like to see here.
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