The music of the spheres : $b A nature lover's astronomyGrondal, Florence Armstrong
Science
The music of the spheres : $b A nature lover's astronomy
Grondal, Florence Armstrong
Astronomy
Not only did Jupiter punish the Titan by chaining him to a crag in the
Caucasus mountains at the eastern end of the earth, but he sent Pandora
to the Titan's brother Epimetheus, and Pandora, through her unrestrained
curiosity, opened a forbidden box and let out all the woes and sorrows
which now roam the world. Since, however, ungrateful mankind had
informed on Prometheus, he rewarded them with a remedy for old
age--which was slyly stolen by a snake as the gift was being conveyed
down the mountain. Thus snakes renew their youth by casting off their
skins while men suffer helplessly with all the evils that prey upon the
old. But Jupiter now felt such great pity for Chiron in his torture that
he somewhat forgot his indignation at Prometheus (and anyway
mortals had been using fire for many generations and it had spread to
such an extent that it was now past regaining), so the great god granted
Chiron's prayer that he might sacrifice his immortality for the release
of Prometheus.
[Figure 82: The Bow, the Scorpion and the Hydra's Tail.]
Hercules then made his way up the precipice where Prometheus was bound,
killed the vulture which was torturing him, struck off his chains and
set him free. The centaur was then made mortal, released from his
sufferings by the gentle balm of death, placed in the heavens and
beautified with stars.
This centaur, now called Sagittarius, the Archer, was given a
constellation near the southern horizon, indeed, he lies so far to the
south that he is partially hidden from view and only the head and bow
and arrow may be seen by most of us living in the United States. His
constellation may be easily located by first finding the Scorpion, which
has a large, well-defined anchor-shaped figure marked in the center by a
brilliantly red first magnitude star.
The Greeks imagined that the Arrow of the Archer was drawn and held
against the bow. Ovid says that the Archer "Thrusts the Scorpion with
his bended bow."
[Figure 83]
However, most of the people in these United States call the Bow and
Arrow a "Milk Dipper" because its stars seem to outline a little Dipper
embedded in the stream of the Milky Way.
[Figure 84]
Thus we have fancy adorned and plain fancy. The arrow, the stars in the
bow and two other stars form this little Dipper which is best seen
directly in the south, near the horizon, on September first at 8
P. M. Sagittarius is low in the south at the same time that Vega is on
the meridian.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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