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.
Ptolemy listed 13 stars in Corona Australis, although one of them has since been
reassigned to the modern constellation Telescopium which adjoins it, as Alpha
Telescopii. 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.
Chinese astronomers saw the stars of Corona Borealis as forming a large turtle
with a strong shell, Bie.
© Ian Ridpath. All rights reserved
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