Origin and history of constellations

On the night sky in clear weather, thousands of stars of different brightness and colors can be observed flashing in the darkness. In ancient times, our ancestors would link the stars with various legends and myths, which eventually lead to establishing constellation in many civilizations such as Greek, Roman, Egypt, more and more.

History of constellations

As defined by the The International Astronomical Union：IAU in 1930, there are totally 88 constellations now as a common understandings in the world. Before that time, people of different civilizations have their own traditions of which stars will form which constellations and the understands vary among different people.
The concept of constellation was believed to be established in ancient Babylonian times, descriptions of constellations and stars were found in written records of different ancient ruins, and ancient people already believed stars and constellations to be related to certain legends.
Ancient Egypt along River Nile was another ancient civilization which was known to study a lot about stars. Due to practical reasons (an accurate calendar was needed for farming), Egyptian had paid lot of time in studying stars and their relation to weather and calendar. Egyptians also had legends of stars and constellations, and stars paid an important role to their kingdom. A good evidence is carvings of Sirius and several constellations had been found in tombs of Pharaohs.

Connection with myths

Ancient Greeks inherited knowledge of constellations from Babylonians, via Phoenicians who had engaged in tradings among Mediterranean Sea, which eventually lead to the myths of stars and constellations which we know today.
We could not find absolute proof of when ancient Greek mythology began. As many scholars agreed, it was probably initiated by epic poet Homer. Afterwards, Greek bards distributed many myths and legends about constellations allover Greece, and in nearby countries, including all the coming civilizations in Europe. With the increasing connection between myths and constellations, more constellations were organized under the Greek Mythology.

Ptolemy's 48 Constellations

The people actually put together these ancient knowledge of constellations was Ptolemy (AD90 - 168), a Greek scholar in astronomy. He had set up a system of 48 constellations - 12 from Zodiac belt, 21 from northern sky and 15 from southern sky.
His system of 48 constellations had been used for nearly 1,500 years, until the Age of Exploration when more and more constellations and stars were found when European voyagers travelled around the world.

More constellations from Age of Exploration

Fifteenth century was the beginning of the so called Age of Exploration, when European pioneer voyagers begin long journey to undiscovered waters, such as Africa and America, beginning trading with people in distant unknown lands. They also discovered many stars not previously discovered by either Greeks, Egyptians or even Chinese (European cultures also get information via the silk road). The newly found stars was unable to be seen in northern hemisphere. It was the time for adding supplementary information to Ptolemy's 48 constellations, which only consists of those visible in northern hemisphere.
There were many scholars putting together the newly discovered stars and constellations, such as Dutch explorers Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman in late 16th century, Johann Bayer in his star atlas Uranometria in 1603, and Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in his star catalogue in 1756.

Modern constellations

Many people would be confused when some constellations had several different names and belonging to different groups of constellations in different countries. Solving this confusion was one of the major reason of the establishment of unifying different understandings to be 88 constellations in 1930 by IAU.

Two easily neglected constellations of animals

Constellation of rabbit: Lepus

Being one of the 48 ancient constellations listed by Ptelemy, the constellation of Lepus is situated under the feet of Orion.
Lepus is not an eye-catching constellations and most people would tend to forget it comparing with other major ones. Lepus is believed to be the prey that the two hounds (Canis Major and Canis Minor) are chasing for, but no obvious legends or tales about its origin can be found, its origin was a mystery.
Different cultures have different description to Lepus. It was a wild rabbit to ancient Greece, a ship for one of the major gods Osiris to ancient Egypt, and the waist belt of the Giant (meaning the constellation of Orion) to ancient Arabia.

Constellation of piegon: Columba

It is situated under Lepus, consisting of stars in zig-zag line. It was part of the Canis Major until 17th century, when it became independent and separated in Germany.
As a new constellation for less then four centuries, there was no specific legends or myths in the past. Generally, some people linked it to the description about pigeon on Noah's Ark in Old testament bible:
Long, long time ago, when the God could not bear the ridiculous, bad man infested world, the God decided to destroy everything with huge flood, exceptfor Noah, the only good man left and chosen pairs of animals. Noah and the animals survived through the continuous storms and floods inside the Ark prepared. After the storm stopped, most of the world is already under water, Noah didn't know where the land was, and he let the pigeon fly and seek for the land. When the pigeon returned with a sprig of olive, meaning that the land was there.
Columbia is now said to be the "dove symbol of peace".

Canis Major – and the ancient Greek legend between Procris and Cephalus

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.