- Eratosthenes and Hyginus both affirm that the lion was placed in the sky because it is the king of beasts. Mythologically speaking, this is reputed to be the lion of Nemea, slain by Heracles as the first of his 12 labours. Nemea is a town some way south-west of Corinth. There the lion lived in a cave with two mouths, emerging to carry off the local inhabitants, who were becoming scarce. The lion was an invulnerable beast of uncertain parentage; it was variously said to have been sired by the dog Orthrus, the monster Typhon, or even to be the offspring of Selene, the Moon goddess. Its skin was proof against all weapons, as Heracles found when he shot an arrow at the lion and saw that it simply bounced off.
passage through the ecliptic