This is one of the 12 constellations introduced into the southern skies at the
end of the 16th century by the Dutch navigators Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and
Frederick de Houtman. Pavo probably represents not the common blue, or Indian,
peacock commonly seen in parks but its larger, more colourful, and more
aggressive cousin, the Java green peacock which Keyser and de Houtman would
have encountered in the East Indies. Pavo was first depicted in 1598 on a globe
by Petrus Plancius.
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Pavo flourishes a truncated tail in the Uranographia of Johann Bode (1801).
In mythology, the peacock was the sacred bird of Hera, who drove through the air
in a chariot drawn by peacocks. How the peacock came to have eyes on its tail
is the subject of a Greek myth that began one day when Zeus turned his illicit
love Io into a white cow to disguise her from his wife, Hera, who nearly caught
them together. Hera was suspicious and put the heifer under the guardianship of
Argus, who tethered the animal to an olive tree. Argus was ideally suited to
the task of watchman, since he had 100 eyes, of which only two were resting at
a time while the others kept a look out. Wherever Argus stood, he could always
keep several of his eyes on Io.
Zeus sent his son Hermes to release Io from her captivity. Hermes swooped down
to Earth and spent the day with Argus, telling him stories and playing his reed
pipes until, one by one, the eyes of Argus became sleepy and began to close.
When Argus was finally asleep, Hermes lopped off his head and released the
heifer. Hera placed the eyes of Argus on the tail of the peacock.
The constellation’s brightest star, second-magnitude Alpha Pavonis, is called Peacock, a name given in or around 1937 by the Nautical Almanac Office for use in The Air Almanac.
© Ian Ridpath. All rights reserved
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