Canis Major - hound in the night sky
Constellation of Canis Major, one of the 88 modern constellations but also included in the 2nd-century astronomer Ptolemy's 48 constellations, can be seen from south-east of Orion. The most prominent star shinning in pale blue is the alpha star of Canis Major - the famous Sirius.Canis Major and the nearby constellation of Canis Minor were said to be hounds of the Orion.
Myth of origin
Let's talk about the myth behind this hound. Here is the brief of this legend.Long time ago, a woman Procris owned two treasures from the king of Crete: the hound Laelaps capable of capturing every prey aiming at, and the spear capable of killing everything facing. She gave both treasures to her husbands, Cephalus.
One day, Cephalus went to hunt for the fox attacking the village with the hound and the spear. When they found the fox, Laelaps immediately chased it while Cephalus threw the spear towards the fox. However, here come a contraction. The fox would be either killed by Laelaps or the spear. If it was killed by Laelaps, the spear can no longer killed the fox. If the spear killed it, the Laelaps could not capture the fox.
To solve this contraction, Zeus decided to make both the hound and spear to become constellations. The hound Laelaps - had become Canis Major.
From here, let’s talk about a more detailed version of the legend, the tale behind it.
The daughter of the Athenian king Erechtheus, Procris became the wife of Cephalus. One day, Eos, goddess of dawn seized Cephalus while he was hunting. Cephalus was reluctant to betray Procris, and Eos returned him to Procris.
However, Eos tried to show Cephalus how easily Procris could be seduced by someone else, and convinced Cephalus to return home in disguise of a completely different guy and gave a test for his wife, he seduced Procris with a huge amount of money. He disclosed his real identity as Cephalus when Procris agreed to sleep with a stranger for money.
Afterwards, Procris escaped to the place of King Minos. King Minos wanted sleeping with her but there is a problem.Wife of King of Minos, Pāsiphaë has cast a magic to her husband, causing all the women slept with him to give birth to snakes and scopions instead which will kill the women.
Procris obtained a miracle herb from the witch Circe, and the magic lost its effect. Procris slept with King Minos and in return, King Minos gave the miracle hound Laelaps and spear to her as gift. She returned to Cephalus, giving him both treasure items, and they reunited again. The part about how the hound became a constellation was same as in the brief version.
Another version of the legend
Here is an alternative version of the legend. The change was only related to the story between Procris and Cephalus. If you were looking for tale about the hound, you can skip it. In this version, Procris was more likely to be a victim.Cephalus had been married with Eos, goddess of dawn, but finally he decided to left her and returning to his motherland. Then, he married with Procris, daughter of the Athenian king Erechtheus. The later part of the story was more or less same as the original myth, except for the epilogue. After Procris left due to anger to Cephalus’s test, Cephalus was regretted for what he had done and went finding Procris who had escaped into the forests. He brought with him the mighty spear, and he mistaken his wife to be a beast in the forest. He threw out the spear and killed Procris by mistake.
