constellation and mythology

the northern hemisphere that contains most of the constellation.

a page about the constellations, the maps, charts, mythology, legends and beliefs that were crafted out long ago in the ancients.

From the book, Universe Guide to Stars and Planets by Ian Ridpath, illustrated by Wil Tirion. information graphics that intrigues and I find inspiring and beautiful. These are images of the celestial sphere.

Page layout of the constellations

these images are scanned from the book, The Sky Order and Chaos, by Jean-Pierre Verdet, that says alot about mythologies, legends and beliefs concerning the sky, universe.

Here is a poem that was posted with the images of the book that I thought was quite interesting:

Whiter than the snow and salt crystals

The flora of the night opens its petals

And grows, filling the spaces of the sky

Where the azure horse neighs, kicks out and bolts

Towards fields covered with recent stars

Across harvests of stars and reflections

Of the fire of four horseshoes splashing the veils

He dives to the very depths of the milky darkness

Unfurling the ribbon of the abolished cycles,

The shortest one bending under the weight of the sunsets

Since, as suns whose light has grown pale, they had

Come too close to the redness of the Lyre and Hercules

But at this hour, the moon in her bridal dress

Drags at her white heels the nebula and white

White as the morning upon the petrified sea

The ram of dawn prepares to set out

The comet ha placed its sparks on his forehead

Beautiful black woman, oh moon, where are you going so slowly

To find your spouse with his plum-coloured eyes

Whose bed Venus warmed with a gallant body?

Champeign flow through the constellations

If wines are like liquid stars

Let me find you, Burgundy, the creation

Of the fabulous monsters of the ether and of the void

Pressing the grapes we shall conjure up

Mercury and Jupiter and Cancer and Ursa Minor

Despite the torches reflected in the wine

And the sun bathed in the coolness of its springs

You, fine after mid-night, escorted by legends

Drag one more couple into the walzes of desire

So that the wearied drinker may again ask you

To fill his glass with blood of memories

-Robert Desnos, The Fine After-Midnight

“THE UNIVERSE is a void, dotted with stars that often appear in immense concentrations called galaxies. Among the stars float clouds of gas and dust. More than five thousand million years ago, one of those great cosmic clouds gave birth to the sun and its planets –Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto –and their satellites, or moons, which together make up our solar system”

“THE SKY proper, that is, the vast space that encompass the universe ad in which the stars and planets exist, seemed to hold little fascination for peasants or sailors. The sun and other stars, the visible planets and Earth’s moon, comets and even meteors gave rise to a large amount of literature, much of it involving superstitions and diverse traditional customs. Yet poplular interest did not seem to extend to the celestial vault itself”

Here are pages of the book that I read but I’m lazy to type it all out so I’m uploading the pages for self-reading (: