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Star Lore
Star lore or starlore is the creating and cherishing of mythical stories about the stars and star patterns (constellations and asterisms); that is, folklore based upon the stars and star patterns. Using the stars to explain religious doctrines or actual events in history is also defined as star lore. Star lore has a very long history; it has been practiced by nearly every culture recorded in history, dating as far back as 5,500 years ago. It was practiced by prehistoric cultures of the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods as well. Orion and Scorpius One example of star lore is the inventing of the story of Orion the Hunter and the Scorpius the Scorpion by the ancient Greeks. This ancient culture saw a very startling pattern of bright stars in the winter sky that, from their point of view, resembled a mighty hunter, which they named Orion. During the summer, they saw another startling pattern of bright stars that resembled a scorpion. They noticed that the constellations of Orion an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Uranometria Orion
is a star atlas produced by Johann Bayer. It was published in Augsburg in 1603 by Christoph Mang (''Christophorus Mangus'') under the full title (from Latin: ''Uranometria, containing charts of all the constellations, drawn by a new method and engraved on copper plates''). The word "uranometria", , literally translates to "measuring the heavens". It was the first atlas to cover the entire celestial sphere. Charts ''Uranometria'' contains 51 star charts, engraved on copper plates by Alexander Mair ( 1562–1617). The first 48 charts illustrate each of the 48 Ptolemaic constellations. The 49th chart introduces 12 new constellations in the deep southern sky, which was unknown to Ptolemy. The final two charts are planispheres labeled "''Synopsis coeli superioris borea''" and "''Synopsis coeli inferioris austrina''", or (roughly), "Overview of the northern celestial hemisphere" and "Overview of the southern celestial hemisphere". Each plate includes a grid for accurately deter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phenomenon
A phenomenon ( phenomena), sometimes spelled phaenomenon, is an observable Event (philosophy), event. The term came into its modern Philosophy, philosophical usage through Immanuel Kant, who contrasted it with the noumenon, which ''cannot'' be directly observed. Kant was heavily influenced by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in this part of his philosophy, in which phenomenon and noumenon serve as interrelated technical terms. Far predating this, the Ancient Greek Philosophy, ancient Greek Pyrrhonism, Pyrrhonist philosopher Sextus Empiricus also used ''phenomenon'' and ''noumenon'' as interrelated technical terms. Common usage In popular usage, a ''phenomenon'' often refers to an extraordinary, unusual or notable event. According to the ''Dictionary of Visual Discourse'':In ordinary language 'phenomenon/phenomena' refer to any occurrence worthy of note and investigation, typically an untoward or unusual event, person or fact that is of special significance or otherwise notable. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ladon (mythology)
Ladon (; Ancient Greek: Λάδων; gen.: Λάδωνος ''Ladonos'') was a dragon in Greek mythology, who guarded the golden apples in the Garden of the Hesperides. Family According to Hesiod's ''Theogony'', Ladon was the last of the progeny of Phorcys and Ceto. A scholion on Apollonius of Rhodes' ''Argonautica'', however, cites Hesiod as calling him the son of Typhon, and the same scholion on Apollonius of Rhodes claims that one "Peisandros" called Ladon born of the earth. The mythographer Apollodorus calls Ladon the offspring of the monstrous Typhon and Echidna, a parentage repeated by Hyginus and Pherecydes; similarly, Ladon is called the son of Typhon in Tzetzes' '' Chiliades''. According to Ptolemy Hephaestion's ''New History'', as recorded by Photius in his '' Bibliotheca'', Ladon was the brother of the Nemean lion. Mythology Ladon was the serpent-like dragon that twined and twisted around the tree in the Garden of the Hesperides and guarded the golden apples. I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Draco (constellation)
Draco is a constellation in the far northern sky. Its name is Latin for dragon. It was one of the 48 Lists of constellations, constellations listed by the 2nd century Greek astronomer Ptolemy, and remains one of the 88 modern constellations today. The north pole of the ecliptic is in Draco. Draco is circumpolar star, circumpolar from northern latitudes, meaning that it never sets and can be seen at any time of year. Features Stars Thuban (α Draconis) was the northern pole star from 3942 BC, when it moved farther north than Theta Boötis, until 1793 BC. The Egyptian Pyramids were designed to have one side facing north, with an entrance passage geometrically aligned so that Thuban would be visible at night. Due to the effects of Axial precession (astronomy), precession, it will again be the pole star around the year AD 21000. It is a blue-white giant star of magnitude 3.7, 309 light-years from Earth. The traditional name of Alpha Draconis, Thuban, means "head of the serpe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ovid
Publius Ovidius Naso (; 20 March 43 BC – AD 17/18), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a younger contemporary of Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the three Western canon, canonical poets of Latin literature. The Roman Empire, Imperial scholar Quintilian considered him the last of the Latin love elegy, elegists.Quint. ''Inst.'' 10.1.93 Although Ovid enjoyed enormous popularity during his lifetime, the emperor Augustus Exile of Ovid, exiled him to Constanța, Tomis, the capital of the newly-organised province of Moesia, on the Black Sea, where he remained for the last nine or ten years of his life. Ovid himself attributed his banishment to a "poem and a mistake", but his reluctance to disclose specifics has resulted in much speculation among scholars. Ovid is most famous for the ''Metamorphoses'', a continuous mythological narrative in fifteen books written in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Medusa
In Greek mythology, Medusa (; ), also called Gorgo () or the Gorgon, was one of the three Gorgons. Medusa is generally described as a woman with living snakes in place of hair; her appearance was so hideous that anyone who looked upon her was Petrifaction in mythology and fiction, turned to stone. Medusa and her Gorgon sisters Euryale and Stheno were usually described as daughters of Phorcys and Ceto; of the three, only Medusa was mortal. Medusa was beheaded by the Greek hero Perseus, who then used her head, which retained its ability to turn onlookers to stone, as a weapon until he gave it to the goddess Athena to place on her Aegis, shield. In classical antiquity, the image of the head of Medusa appeared in the apotropaic magic, evil-averting device known as the ''Gorgoneion''. According to Hesiod and Aeschylus, she lived and died on Sarpedon, somewhere near Cisthene (Mysia), Cisthene. The 2nd-century BC novelist Dionysios Skytobrachion puts her somewhere in Ancient Libya, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gorgon
The Gorgons ( ; ), in Greek mythology, are three monstrous sisters, Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa, said to be the daughters of Phorcys and Ceto. They lived near their sisters the Graeae, and were able to turn anyone who looked at them to stone. Euryale and Stheno were immortal, but Medusa was not and was slain by the hero Perseus. Gorgons were dread monsters with terrifying eyes. A Gorgon head was displayed on Athena's aegis, giving it the power both to protect her from any weapon, and instill great fear in any enemy. Gorgon blood was said to have both the power to heal and harm. Representations of full-bodied Gorgons and the Gorgon face, called a gorgoneion (pl. gorgoneia), were popular subjects in Ancient Greek, Etruscan and Roman iconography. While Archaic Gorgons and gorgoneia are universally depicted as hideously ugly, over time they came to be portrayed as beautiful young women. Etymology The name 'Gorgon' is associated with the Ancient Greek adjective (), which, of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Perseus
In Greek mythology, Perseus (, ; Greek language, Greek: Περσεύς, Romanization of Greek, translit. Perseús) is the legendary founder of the Perseid dynasty. He was, alongside Cadmus and Bellerophon, the greatest Greek hero and slayer of monsters before the days of Heracles. He beheaded the Gorgon Medusa for Polydectes and saved Andromeda (mythology), Andromeda from the sea monster Cetus (mythology), Cetus. He was the son of Zeus and the mortal Danaë, as well as the half-brother and great-grandfather of Heracles (as they were both children of Zeus, and Heracles's mother was Perseus' granddaughter). Etymology Because of the obscurity of the name "Perseus" and the legendary character of its bearer, most etymologists presume that it might be pre-Greek; however, the name of Perseus's native city was Greek and so were the names of his wife and relatives. There is some idea that it descended into Greek from the Proto-Indo-European language. In that regard Robert Graves, Grave ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Poseidon
Poseidon (; ) is one of the twelve Olympians in ancient Greek religion and mythology, presiding over the sea, storms, earthquakes and horses.Burkert 1985pp. 136–139 He was the protector of seafarers and the guardian of many Hellenic cities and colonies. In pre-Olympian Bronze Age Greece, Poseidon was venerated as a chief deity at Pylos and Thebes, with the cult title "earth shaker"; in the myths of isolated Arcadia, he is related to Demeter and Persephone and was venerated as a horse, and as a god of the waters.Seneca quaest. Nat. VI 6 :Nilsson Vol I p.450 Poseidon maintained both associations among most Greeks: he was regarded as the tamer or father of horses, who, with a strike of his trident, created springs (the terms for horses and springs are related in the Greek language).Nilsson Vol I p.450 His Roman equivalent is Neptune. Homer and Hesiod suggest that Poseidon became lord of the sea when, following the overthrow of his father Cronus, the world was divided ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nereids
In Greek mythology, the Nereids or Nereides ( ; ; , also Νημερτές) are sea nymphs (female spirits of sea waters), the 50 daughters of the 'Old Man of the Sea' Nereus and the Oceanids, Oceanid Doris (Oceanid), Doris, sisters to their brother Nerites (mythology), Nerites. They often accompany Poseidon, the god of the sea, and can be friendly and helpful to sailors (such as the Argonauts in their search for the Golden Fleece). Name It is not known whether the name Nereus was known to Homer or not, but the name of the Nereids is attested before it, and can be found in the ''Iliad''.; ; Since Nereus only has relevance as the father of the Nereids, it has been suggested that his name could actually be derived from that of his daughters; while the derivation of the Nereids from Nereus, as a patronymic, has also been suggested. According to Martin Litchfield West (1966), Nereus is much less important than his daughters, mentioning that Herodotus offered "the Nereids, not Nereu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cassiopeia (Queen Of Aethiopia)
Cassiopeia (; Ancient Greek: Κασσιόπεια ''Kassiópeia,'' Modern Greek: ''Kassiópē'') or Cassiepeia (Κασσιέπεια ''Kassiépeia''), a figure in Greek mythology, was Queen of Aethiopia and wife of King Cepheus of Ethiopia. She was arrogant and vain, characteristics that led to her downfall. Family Her origins are obscure. Nonnus calls her a nymph, while according to Stephanus, she was called Iope, the daughter of Aeolus, from whom the town of Joppa (Jaffa) derived its name. Mythology Cassiopeia boasted that she (or her daughter Andromeda), was more beautiful than all the Nereids, the nymph-daughters of the sea god Nereus. This brought the wrath of Poseidon, ruling god of the sea, upon the kingdom of Aethiopia. Accounts differ as to whether Poseidon decided to flood the whole country or direct the sea monster Cetus to destroy it. In either case, trying to save their kingdom, Cepheus and Cassiopeia consulted a wise oracle, who told them that the only way ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cepheus, King Of Aethiopia
In Greek mythology, Cepheus (; Ancient Greek: Κηφεύς ''Kepheús'') was the king of Aethiopia and the father of Andromeda, the princess who is saved by the hero Perseus. Family Cepheus was the son of either Belus, Agenor or Phoenix. When Belus is described as his father, Achiroe, daughter of Nilus, is given as his mother, and Danaus, Aegyptus, and Phineus as his brothers. He was called Iasid Cepheus, pertaining to his Argive ancestry through King Iasus of Argus, father of Io. Mythology Cepheus is prominently featured in the Perseus legend as the husband of Cassiopeia, father of Princess Andromeda, and brother of Phineus, who expects to marry Andromeda. Various sources describe his kingdom to be "Aethiopia" or later, the city of Joppa (Jaffa) in Phoenicia, which was named after the elder Cepheus's wife, Iope, daughter of Aeolus. Cassiopeia boasts that Andromeda is more beautiful than the Nereids, angering both the sea nymphs and Poseidon. In response, Poseidon sen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
