It has been remarked in the 13th definition (page 4), where some account of the origin of the twelve signs of the zodiac is geen, that the Chaldeans and Egyptians registered the events of their histories, &c. among the stars, by emblematical figures, and that this method was followed by the Greeks and the Romans; though the history of many of the constellations is involved in fable, an abstract of the most generally received opinions of their origin may not be uninteresting. 1. THE NORTHERN CONSTELLATIONS. MONS MENALUS. The mountain Mænalus in Arcadia was sacred to the god Pan, and frequented by shepherds it received its name from Mænalus, a son of Lycaon king of Arcadia. : SERPENS is also called Serpens Ophiuchi, being grasped by the hands of Ophiuchus. SERPENTARIUS, Ophiuchus, or Esculapius, is represented with a large beard, and holding in his two hands a serpent The serpent was the symbol of medicine, and of the gods who presided over it, as Apollo and Esculapius, because the ancient physicians used serpents in their prescriptions. TAURUS PONIATOWSKI was so called in honor of Count Poniato ski, a Polish officer of extraordinary merit, who saved the life of Charles XII. of Sweden, at the battle of Pultowa, a town near the Dnieper, about 150 miles south east of Kiow; and a second time at the island of Rugen, near the mouth of the river Oder. SCUTUM SOBIESKI was so named by Hevelius, in honor of John Sobieski, king of Poland. Hevelius was a celebrated astronomer, born at Dantzick: his catalogue of fixed stars was entitled Firmamentum Sobieskianum, and dedicated to the king of Poland. AQUILA is supposed to have been Merops, a king of the Island of Cos, one of the Cyclades; who, according to Ovid, was changed into an eagle, and placed among the constellations. ANTINOUS was a youth of Bythinia in Asia Minor, a great favorite of the emperor Adrian, who erected a temple to his memory, and placed him among the constellations.-Antinöus is generally reckoned a part of the constellation Aquila. EQUULUS, the little horse, or Equi Sectio, the horse's head, is supposed to be the brother of Pegasus. But this LEO MINOR was formed out of the Stelle Informes, or unformed stars of the ancients, and placed above LEO the zodiacal constellation. According to the Greek Fables, LEO was the celebrated Nemaan lion which had dropped from the moon, but being slain by Hercules, was elevated to the heavens by Jupiter, in commemoration of the dreadful conflict, and in honor of that hero. constellation was amongst the Egyptian hieroglyphics, long before the invention of the fables of Hercules. See the notes on definition 13th, page 4. Nemaa was a town of Argolis in Peloponnesus, and was infested by a lion which Hercules slew and clothed himself in his skin games were instituted to commemorate this great event. COMA BERENICES is composed of the unformed stars, between the Lion's tail and Böotes. Berenice was the wife of Evergètes, a surname signifying benefactor; when he went on a dangerous expedition, she vowed to dedicate her hair to the goddess Venus if he returned in safety. Some time after the victorious return of Evergetes, the locks which were in the temple of Venus disappear. ed; and Conon, an astronomer, publicly reported that Jupiter had carried them away, and made them a constellation. ASTERION ET CHARA, VEL CANES VENATICI, the two greyhounds, held in a string by Böotes; they were formed by Hevelius out of the Stelle Informes of the ancient catalogues. Böotes is supposed to be Arcas, a son of Jupiter, and Calisto: Juno, who was jealous of Jupiter, changed Calisto into a bear; she was near being killed by her son Arcas in hunting Jupiter, to prevent further injury from the huntsmen, made Calisto a constellation of heaven, and on the death of Arcas, conferred the same honor on him Böotes is represented as a man in a walking posture, grasping in his left hand a club, and having his right hand extended upwards, holding the cord of the two dogs Asterion and Chara, which seem to be barking at the great bear; hence, Böotes is sometimes called the bear-driver, and the office assigned him is to drive the two bears round about the pole. CORONA BOREALIS is a beautiful crown given by Bachus, the son of Jupiter, to Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, second king of Crete. Bachus is said to have married Ariadne after she was basely deserted by Theseus, king of Athens, and after her death the crown which Bachus had given her was made a constellation. HERCULES is represented on the celestial globe holding a club in his right hand, the three-headed dog Cerberus in his left, and the skin of the Nemean Lion thrown over his shoulders Hercules was the son of Jupiter and Aicmena, and reckoned the most famous hero in antiquity. CERBERUS was a dog belonging to Pluto, the god of the infernal regions this dog had fifty heads, according to Hesiod, and three according to other mythologists. He was stationed at the entrance of the infernal regions, as a watchful keeper, to prevent the living from entering, and the dead from escaping from their confinement. The last and most dangerous exploit of Hercules was to drag Cerberus from the infernal regions, and bring him before Eurystheus king of Argus. LYRA, the lyre or harp is included in Vultur Cadens. This con, stellation was at first a tortoise, afterwards a lyre, because the strings of the lyre were originally fixed to the shell of a tortoise it is as serted that this is the lyre which Apollo or Mercury gave to Orpheus, and with which he descended the infernal regions in search of his wife Eurydice. Orpheus, after death, received divine honors, the muses gave an honorable burial to his remains, and his lyre be came one of the constellations. VULPECULA ET ANSER, the Fox and the Goose, was made by Hevelius out of the unformed stars of the ancients. SAGITTA, the Ar ow. The Greeks say that this constellation owes its origin to one of the arrows of Hercules, with which he killed the eagle or vulture that perpetually gnawed the liver of Pro metheus, who was tied to a rock on Mount Caucasus, by order of Jupiter. DELPHINUS, the dolphin, was placed among the constellations by Neptune, because, by means of a dolphin Amphitrite became the wife of Neptune, though she had made a vow of perpetual ce, libacy. PEGASUS, the winged horse, according to the Greeks, sprung from the blood of the Gorgon Medusa, after Perseus, a son of Jupiter, had cut off her head. Pegasus fixed his residence on mount Helicon in Baotia, where, by striking the earth with his foot, he produc ed a fountain called Hippocrene. He became the favorite of the Muses, and being afterwards tamed by Neptune, or Minerva, he was given to Bellerophon to conquer the Chimæra, a hideous monster that continually vomited flames; the foreparts of its body were those of a lion, the middle was that of a goat, and the hinder parts were those of a dragon; it had three heads, viz. that of a lion, a goat, and a dragon. After the destruction of this monster, Bellerophon attempted to fly to heaven upon Pegasus, but Jupiter sent an insect which stung the horse, so that he threw down the rider.Bellerophon fell to the earth, and Pegasus continued his flight up to heaven, and was placed by Jupiter among the constellations. ANDROMEDA is represented on the celestial globe by the figure of a woman almost naked, having her arms extended, and chained by the wrist of her right arm to a rock. She was the daughter of Cepheus, king of Ethiopia, who, in order to preserve his kingdom, was obliged to tie her naked to a rock near Joppa, now Jaffa, in Syria, to be devoured by a sea monster; but she was rescued by Perseus, in his return from the conquest of the Gorgons, who turned the monster into a rock by shewing it the head of Medusa. Andromeda was made a constellation after her death, by Minerva. TRIANGULUM. A triangle is a well known figure in geometry.. It was placed in the heavens in honor of the most fertile part of Egypt, being called the delta of the Nile, from its resemblance to the Greek letter of that name A. The invention of geometry is usually ascribed to the Egyptians, and it is asserted, that the annual inundations of the Nile, which swept away the bounds and land-marks of estates, gave occasion to it, by obliging the Egyptians to consider the figure and quantity belonging to the several proprietors. URSA MAJOR is said to be Calisto, an attendant of Diana the goddess of hunting. Calisto was changed into a bear by Juno.-- See the constellation Bootes.-It is farther stated, that the ancients represented Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, each, under the form of a waggon, drawn by a team of horses. Ursa Major is well known to the country people at this day by the title of Charles's Wain or waggon; in some places it is called the Plough. There are two remarkable stars in Ursa Major, considered as the hindmost in the square of the wain, called the pointers, because an imaginary line drawn through these stars and extended upwards, will pass near the polestar in the tail of the Little Bear. COR CAROLI, or Charles's heart, in the neck of Chara, the southernmost of the two dogs held in a string by Böotes, was so denominated by Sir Charles Scarborough, physician to king Charles II in honor of king Charles I. DRACO. The Greeks give various accounts of this constellation; by some it is represented as the watchful dragon which guarded the golden apples in the garden of the Hesperides, near mount Atlas in Africa and was slain by Hercules: Juno, who presented these apples to Jupiter on the day of their nuptials, took Draco up to heaven, and made a constellation of it as a reward for its faithful services; others maintain, that in a war with the giants, this dragon was brought into combat, and opposed to Minerva, who seized it in her hands, and threw it, twisted as it was, into the heavens round the axis of the earth, before it had time to unwind its contortions. CYGNUS is fabled by the Greeks to be the swan under the form of which Jupiter deceived Leda, or Nemesis, the wife of Tyndarus, king of Laconia. Leda was the mother of Pollux and Helena, the most beautiful woman of the age; and also of Castor and Clytemnestra. The two former were deemed the offspring of Jupiter, and the others claimed Tyndarus as their father. LACERTA, the lizard, was added by Hevelius to the old constel tions. CASSIOPEIA was the wife of Cepheus, and mother of Androme. da. See these constellations, as also Cetus. CEPHEUS was a king of Ethiopia, and the father of Andromeda by Cassiopeia; Cepheus was one of the Argonauts who went with Jason to Colchis to fetch the golden flece. Per PERSEUS is represented on the globe with a sword in his right hand, the head of Medusa in his left, and wings at his ancles. seus was the son of Jupiter and Danäe. Pluto the god of the infernal regions, lent him his helmet which had the power sf rendering its bearer invisible; Minerva the goddess of wisdom furnished him with her buckler, which was resplendent as glass; and he received from Mercury wings and a dagger or sword; thus equipped, he cat off the head of Medusa, and from the blood which dropt from it in his passage through the air, sprang an innumerable quantity of serpents which ever after infested the sandy deserts of Lybia, Medusa was one of the three Gorgons who had the power to turn into stones all those on whom they fixed their eyes; Medusa was the only one subject to mortality: she was celebrated for the beauty of her locks, but having violated the sanctity of the temple of Minerva, that goddess changed her locks into serpents. See the constellation Andromeda CAMELEOPARDALUS was formed by Hevelius. The Cameleopard is remarkably tame and tractable; its natural properties resemble those of the camel, and its body is variegated with spots like the leopard. This animal is to be found in Ethiopia and other parts of Africa: its neck is about seven feet long, its fore and hind legs from the hoof to the second joint are nearly of the same length; but from the second joint of the legs to the body, the fore legs are so long in comparison with the hind ones, that the body seems to slope like the roof of a house. AURIGA is represented on the celestial globe by the figure of a man in a kneeling or sitting posture, with a goat and her kids in his left hand, and a bridle in his right. The Greeks give various accounts of this constellation: some suppose it to be Erichthanius, the fourth king of Athens, and son of Vulcan and Minerva; he was very deformed, and his legs resembled the tails of serpents; he is said to have invented chariots and the manner of harnessing horses to draw them. Others say that Auriga is Mirtilis a son of Mercury and Phaetusa; he was charioteer to Õenomaus. king of Pisa, in Elis, and so experienced in riding and the management of horses, that he rendered those of Oenomaus the swiftest in all Greece; his infidelity to his master proved at last fatal to him, but being a son of Mercury he was made a constellation after his death. But as nei ther of these fables seems to account for the goat and her kids, it has been supposed that they refer to Amalthæa, daughter of Melisus, king of Crete, who, in conjunction with her sister Melissa, fed Jupiter with goats' milk; it is moreover said that Amalthea was a goat called Olenia, from its residence at Olenus, a town of Peloponnesus, |