Wonder Stories: The Best Myths for Boys and GirlsBailey, Carolyn Sherwin
General
Wonder Stories: The Best Myths for Boys and Girls
Bailey, Carolyn Sherwin
Mythology, Classical -- Juvenile literature
The gods had made a long road in the sky that led to the palace of the
Sun. Any one may see this road on a clear night, for it stretches across
the face of the sky and is known as the Milky Way. The palaces of the
illustrious gods stood on either side of the road and a little farther
back were placed the homes of the lesser deities.
At the very moment that Arcas, his spear raised, rushed upon Callisto,
two new comers appeared in the sky near the road of the gods. They had
the form of a Great Bear and a Little Bear, but their bodies were made
of brightly shining stars. The mighty Jupiter had transformed Callisto
and her son into these two constellations.
How enraged Juno was when she found it out! She descended to the sea and
told her troubles to Oceanus, a giant of the race of Titans who ruled
the waters at that time.
"Do you wonder, Oceanus," Juno cried, "why I, the queen of the gods,
have left the heavenly plains and seek your depths? It is because my
authority has been set aside. I shall be supplanted among my fellow
gods, for Callisto, the bear, has been taken up to the skies and given a
place among the stars. Who can deny but that she may not occupy my
throne next!"
"What would you have me do about it?" old Oceanus asked, a little
puzzled as to why Juno had consulted him.
"I forbade Callisto to keep her human form and my will has been unjustly
set aside," Juno replied. "Now that she has an abode on the road to
heaven she will be able to take any form she desires and may come to you
for help in her attempt to steal my throne. I command you to never allow
the stars of her constellation to touch the waters."
Oceanus called a council of the other powers of the waters and they
assented to Juno's decree. One after another the stars rose and set,
touching the sea in their courses, but the Great Bear and the Little
Bear moved ceaselessly round and round in the sky, never sinking to rest
as the other stars did beneath the ocean. Juno had thought that this
would be a punishment for them but as it turned out it was a kind of
reward.
Because the Great Bear and the Little Bear were always to be seen in
their changeless, shining course, people who were obliged to travel at
night, and particularly those who were at sea, grew to depend upon them
as a means of finding their way in the darkness. The last star in the
tail of the Little Bear indicated the north and was known after a while
as the Pole Star. The ancients called it also the Star of Arcadia, for
it helped so many mariners to find their way home across the perilous
waters.
It had happened to Juno, as it often happens to jealous people to-day,
that she had not hurt Callisto in the least but had brought her a great
deal of honor.
THE ADVENTURE OF GLAUCUS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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