Sunday, September 1, 2013

The myths above Bozeman...

The new moon out there makes for great stargazing... Go download a free Skymap and head out into the dark to find some constellations.

Some of the myths hanging above Bozeman currently:


 Corona Borealis, or the northern crown: The crown of Dionysus, which follows him through many myths, but perhaps most notably when he bestows it upon Ariadne.


Ophiuchus, or the serpent bearer: A title that Asclepius, son of Apollo and Coronis, would eventually come to earn. Raised and trained by the infamous centaur Chiron, he grew so skilled in the art of healing he was eventually able to raise the dead. Hades, aghast, complained to Zeus that he would have no more new inhabitants of his underworld if such acts continued. Zeus agreed, and smote Asclepius to death with a thunderbolt.
Apollo, enraged, rent apart the cyclops of Olympus, who made Zeus' thunderbolts in the forge of the gods. Zeus punished Apollo for this insolence by banishing him to serve the King of Thessaly for an entire year, but also had pity on both Apollo and his now-smote son by placing Asclepius in the night sky.

 
While not visible from Bozeman this time of year, the constellation Corvus, or the crow, is said to be either Asclepius' mother Coronis ('Koroné' meaning, as Calasso points out, 'the curved beak of the crow' or the watchful bird Apollo turned black in rage when it delivered the news of Coronis' unfaithfulness.

 
Hercules, the counterpart and idol to Theseus, resides not far away from Corona Borealis in the night sky.

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