Part 33 (2/2)

ORION, the hunter.--A constellation of the southern hemisphere with respect to the ecliptic, but half southern and half northern with respect to the equinoctial. It is placed near the feet of the bull, and is composed of seventeen stars in the form of a sword, which has given occasion to the poets to speak of Orion's sword. He was described by the Greeks as a ”mighty hunter,” who for his exploits was placed in the heavens by Jupiter, between the Canis and the Lepus. He is believed by many to have been the ”mighty hunter” spoken of in the bible, under the name of Nimrod. (See Gen. x: 8, 9; 1 Chron. i: 10; Micha v: 6, Job ix, 9; Amos v, 8.)

PERSEUS.--This constellation is named from Perseus, the son of Jupiter by Danae, who was translated into the heavens by the a.s.sistance of Minerva, for having released Andromeda from her confinement on the rock to which she was chained. He is represented in the preceding ill.u.s.tration holding a drawn sword in his right hand and in his left the head of Medusa, the Gorgon, whose terrifying appearance changed all who beheld her into stone, and whom he had destroyed with the a.s.sistance of the wings he had borrowed from Mercury, the helmet from Pluto, the sword from Vulcan, and the s.h.i.+eld from Minerva.

JOSEPH'S STABLE; AURIGA, the Wagoner:--A northern constellation between Perseus and Gemini, represented by the figure of an old man supporting a goat. He is said to have been taken to heaven by Jupiter after the invention of wagons.

URSA MAJOR, the Bear.--One of the prominent northern constellations, situated near the north pole. It contains the stars called the Dipper.

Ursa Minor contains the pole-star, which is shown in the extremity of the tail of the bear.

ANDROMEDA.--A northern constellation, represented by a woman chained; as, according to Grecian fable, Andromeda, the daughter of Ca.s.siopia, was bound to a rock by the Nereides, and afterwards released by Perseus.

Minerva changed her into a constellation after her death, and placed her in the heavens.

DRACO OR DRAGON.--A northern constellation, supposed to represent the Dragon that guarded the Hesperian fruit, and was killed by Hercules.

It is said that Juno took it up to heaven and placed it among the constellations.

BOOTIS, the Ox driver: so called because this constellation seems to follow the Great Bear as the driver follows his oxen. Bootis is represented as grasping in his right hand a sickle and in his left a club, and is fabled to have been Icarius, who was transported to heaven because he was a great cultivator of the vine; for when Bootes rises the works of ploughing and cultivation go forward.

CORONA BOREALIS. Northern Crown.--One of the old northern constellations, between Hercules and Bootes.

CORONA AUSTRALIS--Southern Crown.--One of the old constellations in the southern hemisphere, between Sagittarius and Scorpio. The Corona were fabled to be Menippe and Metioche, two daughters of Orion, who sacrificed themselves at the suggestion of an oracle, to protect Boeotia, their native country, from the ravages of a pestilence: it being the belief of idolatrous nations that an angry G.o.d could be propitiated by human sacrifices, and that the death of the innocent might atone for the sins of the guilty. The deities of Hades were astonished, it is said, at the patriotism and devotion of these Grecian maidens, who had so generously and uselessly sacrificed their lives.

After their death two stars were seen to issue from the altars that still smoked with their blood, and these stars were placed in the heavens in the form of a crown or coronet.

CEPHEUS AND Ca.s.sIOPIA.--One of the old asterism in the northern hemisphere, near the pole. According to Grecian fables, Ca.s.siopia and her husband Cepheus, king of Etheopia, were placed among the constellations to witness the punishment inflicted on their daughter, Andromeda.

TRIANGULARIUM.--A name for both one of the old and new constellations in the northern hemisphere, between Andromeda and Aries.

SERPENTARIUS, called Ophiucus, is a constellation in the northern hemisphere, between Scorpio and Hercules.

HERCULES, one of the old northern constellations. In Grecian mythology it was taught and believed that Hercules, the Theban, was born of a human mother and an immortal father, like other so-called saviours of mankind. His mother, the fair Alcmena, wife of Amphitryon, having found favor in the eyes of the G.o.d Jupiter, soon fell an unwilling victim to his celestial wiles. The life of the infant Hercules, born of this unnatural union, was threatened by the jealous Juno, the same as the life of the infant Jesus was threatened by the tyrant Herod. Like Jesus, Hercules devoted his life to the benefit of the human race, and like Jesus he was also wors.h.i.+pped after his death as a G.o.d in heaven. He is shown in the astrological chart, enveloped in the skin of the lion he has slain, with his club upraised, and his foot placed threateningly above the head of the Dragon, as if about to fulfill the scriptural prophecy, that ”the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head.”

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