- Star Tales - Aquarius (ianridpath.com)
Star maps show Aquarius as a young man pouring water from a jar or amphora, although Ovid, in his Fasti, says the liquid is a mixture of water and nectar, the drink of the gods. The water jar is marked by a Y-shaped asterism of four stars centred on 4th-magnitude Zeta Aquarii, and the stream ends in the mouth of the Southern Fish, Piscis Austrinus. Who is this young man commemorated as Aquarius?
- Star Tales - Delphinus (ianridpath.com)
Dolphins were a familiar sight to Greek sailors, so it is not surprising to find one of these friendly and intelligent creatures depicted in the sky. Two stories account for the presence of the celestial dolphin. According to Eratosthenes, this jaunty dolphin represents the messenger of the sea god Poseidon.
- Star Tales - Pegasus (ianridpath.com)
Pegasus was the winged horse best known for his association with the Greek hero Bellerophon. The manner of the horse’s birth was unusual, to say the least. Its mother was Medusa, the Gorgon, who in her youth was famed for her beauty, particularly her flowing hair. Many suitors approached her, but the one who took her virginity was Poseidon, who is both god of the sea and god of horses. Unfortunately, the seduction happened in the temple of Athene. Outraged by having her temple defiled, the goddess Athene changed Medusa into a snake-haired monster whose gaze could turn men to stone.
- This insignificant constellation, second-smallest in the sky, was one of the 48 constellations listed by the Greek astronomer Ptolemy in the second century AD. It was unknown to Aratus 400 years earlier, and its invention is often attributed to Ptolemy. In the Almagest he called it Ἵππου Προτομή (Hippou Protome), the forepart of a horse; Equuleus is a later Latin name.