Storytelling is
one of the most engaging of human arts, and what greater
inspiration to a storyteller’s imagination than the stars
of night. This book of star tales has its roots in a series of
skywatching guides that I produced in conjunction with the
great Dutch celestial cartographer Wil Tirion. As I came to
describe each constellation, I found myself wondering abut its
origin and the way in which ancient people had personified it
in mythology. Astronomy books did not contain satisfactory
answers; they either gave no mythology at all, or they
recounted stories that, I later discovered, were not true to
the Greek originals. In addition, many authors seemed unaware
of the true originators of several of the constellations
introduced since ancient Greek times. I decided, therefore, to
write my own book on the history and mythology of the
constellations, and a fascinating undertaking it proved to be.
My theme has been how Greek and Roman
literature has shaped our perception of the constellations as
we know them today – for, surprisingly enough, the
constellations recognized by 21st century science are primarily
those of the ancient Greeks, interspersed with modern
additions. To this end, I have gone back to original Greek and
Latin sources wherever possible; click here for a list of sources
and references. While I have
attempted to recount the main variants of each myth, and to
identify the writer concerned where appropriate, it should be
realized that there is no such thing as a ‘correct’
myth; for some stories, there are almost as many different
versions as there are mythologists.
I should also make it clear what this book
is not about: I have not tried to compare the Greek and Roman
constellations with the constellations that were imagined by
other cultures such as the Egyptian, Hindu or Chinese.
Fascinating though the differences are, such a diversion would,
I think, have taken me too far from my intended task. Neither
have I delved too far into the confusing morass of speculation
about the origin of the constellations; that is a job for the
historian, and indeed we may never be able to provide
convincing answers from the fragmentary information available.
Since ancient astronomers regarded each
constellation as embodying a picture of a mythological
character or an animal, rather than as simply an area of sky as
defined by today’s surveyor-astronomers, it seemed
natural to illustrate each constellation with a picture from an
old star map. These star maps are works of art in themselves,
and are among the most elegant treasures bequeathed to us by
astronomers of the past. The constellations give us a very real
link with the most ancient civilizations. It is a heritage that
we can share whenever we look at the night sky.
Ian Ridpath
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