Corona Australis was known to the Greeks
not as a crown but as a wreath, which is how it is depicted on
old star maps. Aratus did not name it as a separate
constellation but referred to it as a circlet of stars beneath
the forefeet of Sagittarius. Perhaps it has slipped off the
archer’s head.
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Corona Australis, at the forefeet of Sagittarius, in the Uranographia of Johann Bode.
None of its stars is brighter than fourth
magnitude and there seem to be no legends associated with it,
unless this is the crown placed in the sky by Dionysus after
retrieving his dead mother from the Underworld. Hyginus gives
this myth under the Northern Crown (Corona Borealis) but it
seems out of place there and he may have confused the two
constellations. If so, the wreath would be made of myrtle
leaves, for Dionysus left a gift of myrtle in Hades in return
for his mother, and the followers of Dionysus wore crowns of
myrtle.
© Ian Ridpath. All rights reserved
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