Constellations

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Ursa Major

Ursa Major, the Great Bear, is visible in the Northern Hemisphere all year long.

Ursa Major is the best known of the constellation and it appears in every reference known.

The story behind it:

Callisto was changed to a bear because of Zeus's jealousy and transferred her to the sky. This is improbable, as the constellation was already well established before this time. The drawings all show a bear with a long tail, again not likely correct since bears have no tails. The most likely explanation for the bears is the fact that Native Americans called the constellations the bear, but instead of the tail they depict the bear being chased around the pole by seven braves.

Cepheus

The story behind it:

Cepheus was the King of Ethiopia. He married Cassiopeia and they had a daughter Andromeda. Cassiopeia was incredibly beautiful but immensely vain. She was also proud of her daughter's beauty. In fact she continually boasted that the two of them were more beautiful than any of the fifty sea nymphs who attended Poseidon's court.

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These nymphs (the Nereids) complained to Poseidon, who felt he had to defend his own reputation. So he sent a flood to devastate Cepheus' kingdom. The oracles told Cepheus that in order to save his people he must sacrifice his daughter to a great sea monster: Andromeda was tied to a rock along the coastline, dressed only in her jewelry. The monster would be along in due time to take his prize.

At that moment Perseus came flying by. He had just killed the Gorgon Medusa and was carrying the severed head back to Athene. To make a long story short, he saved her then turned everyone into stone by showing them the severed head.

Poseidon then put the stone frozen Cepheus and Cassiopeia into the heavens, but with a twist: he made the vain Cassiopeia spin around on her chair, spending half the year upside down. As for Cepheus, Poseidon gave him a number of medium sized stars that go to make his square face with a pointed crown.

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Cepheus Circumpolar Constellation

Cepheus Circumpolar Constellation

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Cassiopeia
Cassiopeia

This constellation is at the edge of the Milky Way galaxy and has the shape of a "W".

The story behind it:

Cassiopeia had been the wife of Cepheus. Because she thought herself more beautiful than the daughters of Nereus, a god of the sea, she angered the god Poseidon. To punish her, her daughter was chained to a rock of the coast as a sacrifice for a sea monster. Andromeda was saved from death by Perseus. To learn humility Cassiopeia was banned to the sky hanging half of the time head downward.

Draco

Draco, the Dragon, used to hold special significance as the location of the pole star, but due to the Earth's precession, the pole has shifted to Polaris in Ursa Minor.

The story behind it:

The dragon is Ladon, the guardian of the 'golden apples' of immortality which grew in the garden of Hesperides, beyond the River of Time, in the land of death. It is Ladon which Hercules kills in his 11th labor to get the golden apples.

Orion

Orion is the master of the winter skies. He lords over the heavens from late fall to early spring, with his hunting dog Sirius trailing at his feet.

The story behind it: (Orion holding a bow)

Orion was a handsome and famous hunter. The Battle-Goddess Anat fell in love with him, but when he refused to lend her his bow, she sent another man to steal it. This chap bungled the job, and wound up killing Orion and dropping the bow into the sea. This is said to explain the astronomical fact that Orion and the Bow (an older version of the constellation) drops below the horizon for two months every spring.

Another story behind it: (Orion holding an animal)

On the left and in the middle: Andromeda

The Andromeda constellation is famous for containing the Andromeda Nebula, the closest galaxy to our Milky Way. Andromeda was chained up for a sea monster to devour her.

Andromeda is also the daughter of Cassiopeia & Cepheus

On the right: The Fishes, Pisces

In ancient Babylon, this constellation was viewed as the figure of a mermaid tied together with a swallow with a fish tail. The present figure appeared in a 3rd or 4th century B.C. Greek poem.