Constellation Myths

Constellation Myths

The constellations we regognize today were the first mapped by the ancient Greeks, who arranges the stars into patterns for that purpose. In the third century BC Erastothenes compiled a handbook of astral mythology in which the constellations were associated with figures from legend, and myths were provided to explain how each person, creature or object came to be placed in the sky.
This translation brings together later summaries of many of the tales from Eratosthenes' lost handbook with an anthology of constellation myths compiled by Hyginus, librarian to August. Together with Aratus' astronomical poem the Phaenomena, these texts provide a complete collection of Greek astral myths; imaginative and picturesque, they also offer an intriguing insight into ancient science and culture.

Erastosthenes and Hyginus

Oxford University Press

2015

Engels

GES1060

9780198716983