The illustrations on this page have been compiled from a variety of sources. If advised that copyright has been infringed I will immediately remove the particular illustration(s).
G: Greek Constellations
13: Classical Greek constellations
Hemisphaerium Boreale
Hemisphaerium Australe
The celestial maps are from the edition of Aratus by Johann Buhle (Leipzig, 2 volumes, 1793-1801) who took them, with certain simplifying modifications, from Johann Schaubach's edition of the Catasterismi of Eratosthenes. The celestial maps are polar projections of the forty-eight classical constellations of Ptolemy.
The ancient Greeks are the main source of present-day Western star/constellation names. They named the most prominent stars and established the most obvious constellations by circa 800 BCE. The Greeks never thought of constellating the entire visible sky until circa the 5th-century BCE. By circa 400 BCE (likely under the influence of Babylonian uranography) the Greeks had, by borrowing and invention, established the majority of the 48 classical constellations. The Romans derived a considerable portion of their star lore and uranography from the Greeks.
The star names Sirius ("Scorcher") and Arcturus ("Bear Watcher") are mentioned by Homer and Hesiod in the 8th-century BCE. Homer and Hesiod were two of the earliest Greek poets. Hesiod, a poet and farmer in Boeotia, a region of central Greece, likely lived about the same time or shortly after Homer. The earliest constellation/astral myth of the Greeks appears in Homer's Iliad (and was likely ancient at this time). It is the myth of Orion becoming a constellation after his affair with Eos (Dawn). The astral myth of Orion was first told in full in Hesiod's (now lost) Astronomy. (Fragments of Hesiod's Astronomy were summarised in the Catasterismi by the pseudo-Eratosthenes.) The first Greek works which dealt with the constellations were books dealing with star/constellation myths. The most complete extent Greek works dealing with the mythical origins of the Greek constellations are the Catasterismi by the (conventionally called) pseudo-Eratosthenes (a Hellenistic writer) and De Munitionibus Castrorum by the (conventionally called) pseudo-Hyginus (an early Roman writer). Each of these authors drew extensively from the writings of older sources such as Homer and Hesiod, and their successors. They provide a clear overview of the stories that lay behind the present-day Western constellations we use.
In the Phainomena of Aratus (circa 275 BCE) 44 constellations are named. Within the poem the constellations are descriptively arranged into two main areas, the northern constellations (including all of the zodiacal constellations), and the southern constellations. (The goal of the Phainomena was to entertain and educate the literate upper class of Greek society. The contents, especially the brief sections on seasonal signs and weather signs, are too sophisticated for ordinary farmers and sailors.) The star names mentioned by Aratus are Sirius, Arcturus, Procyon ("Forerunner of the Dog"), Stachys ("Ear of Corn," now Spica), and Protrugater ("Herald of the Vintage").The poem of Aratus was was a product of the Hellenistic Greek culture centred not at Alexandria, where scientific activity flourished, but at Athens and the Macedonian court there. The Phainomena describes the constellation figures of the night sky that embodied the cultural history and traditions of the world of Aratus.
The constellation scheme described by Ptolemy (Almagest, circa 140 CE) consisted of 21 northern constellations, 12 zodiacal constellations, and 15 southern constellations.
Theories concerning the origin of the constellations remain largely speculative. Arguments for the origin of some constellations in the Palaeolithic Period remain very controversial. The extant evidence clearly indicates the significant role of Mesopotamian civilization in the origin of the constellations. (Likely dating to the Sumerians in the late 3rd millennium BCE.)
There is some evidence for the existence of constellations in the late 3rd millennium BCE in Sumeria (Ur III Period) and also in the Middle East in the city-states of Ebla and Mari. In his article "Further Notes on Birmingham Cuneiform Tablets volume I." (Acta Sumerologica, Volume 13, 1991, Pages 406-417) the Assyriologist Wayne Horowitz includes a brief discussion of possible evidence pointing to an Ur III origin of at least some constellation and star names. In her 2002 doctoral thesis "The moon and stars of the southern Levant at Gezer and Megiddo: Cultural astronomy in Chalcolithic/Early and Middle Bronze Ages." Sara Gardner identifies constellations, including a lion constellation (equated with Leo), existing during the Chalcolithic/Early Bronze Age (circa 4500-2200) in the Levant. (The drawings of animals in Cave 30:IV at Gezer are held to represent constellations.) In their article "The Geometry and Astronomy of Rujm el-Hiri, a Megalithic Site in the Southern Levant." (Journal of Field Archaeology, Volume 25, 1998, Pages 475-496) Anthony Aveni and Yonathan Mizrachi set out the astronomical sophistication of the construction phase of the Rujm el-Hiri complex. (The Greeks had only a few named constellations established by the time of Homer circa 800 BCE. There was no early intention by the Greeks to constellate the entire sky.) The appearance of elaborate constellation sets as reference systems covering most of the visible sky only originated with the development of complex societies. Complex constellation systems make their earliest appearances in the 2nd millennium BCE in the stable kingships of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and China. In these empires astronomy had become a state supported and state directed enterprise.
Circa 350 BCE the Chinese astronomer Shin Shen prepared what may be the earliest star catalogue. It contained about 800 stars. The oldest known complete sky star map is the Dunhuang star map which originated in China. It is now usually dated to circa 700 CE and is most likely a copy of an older star chart. Its style and content has been identified as being similar to the Yue Ling astronomical text dated circa 300 BCE.
Decanal "star clocks" decorated Egyptian coffin lids starting circa 2100 BCE (and ending circa 1800 BCE). They show that there was a system of 36 named equatorial stars rising within 10 days of each other (and were based on the civil calendar year). These Egyptian "star clocks" are the earliest detailed astronomical texts known. The decanal system can be identified as early as the Third Dynasty (circa 2800 BCE) and may even be earlier.
The development of a system of coordinates to enable the positions of individual stars to be located accurately was first achieved in Greece; but only after undergoing considerable evolvement. The fixed stars were first located only in very vague terms. In the Works and Days of Hesiod (circa 7th-century BCE) there exists only the most rudimentary system for identifying particular stars and where to find them in the sky. A first attempt at an exact coordinate system for locating particular stars was not to occur until some 500 years later with the star catalogue of Hipparchus. In the 2nd-century BCE Hipparchus originated a star catalogue in which also he tried to give some reasonably accurate locational coordinates for the stars he listed. However, the coordinate system he used to locate the positions of the stars on his list remains unknown.
The earliest Western star catalogue (as we understand the term) originated with the astronomer Ptolemy (circa 140 CE). The culmination of Greek establishment of constellation (and star) names was contained in (Book VII and Book VIII) of Ptolemy's Almagest written circa 140 CE. In it Ptolemy listed 1025 (fixed) stars. For his star catalogue Ptolemy used one system of coordinates (ecliptic longitudes and latitudes) for all the stars listed in it. (Interestingly, the Roman historian Pliny the Elder (1st-century CE) mentioned the existence of another star catalogue of 1600 stars existing some 75 years prior to Ptolemy's star catalogue.)
The term "early star catalogues" is also commonly applied to descriptions of Greek (and Babylonian) uranography prior to Ptolemy. With few exceptions these "early star catalogues", however, are distinctly different from what modern astronomers, from Ptolemy onwards, have meant by the term. With few exceptions, prior to Ptolemy star catalogues did not give the position of stars by any system of mathematical coordinates. They are instead qualitative descriptions of the constellations. They simply note the number of stars in each part of a constellation and the general location of the brighter stars within a constellation. (The type of description usually used is "near X is Y".) This cumbersome method of describing the location of stars in terms of their relative positions in a constellation was used by both the Babylonians and the Greeks. The pictorial arrangement of stars is not a star catalogue. A star catalogue proper gives accurate positions for each individual star regardless of the constellation it is grouped into. Also, the boundaries of the Greek constellations were subject to change up to the time of Ptolemy.
Early in the 3rd-century BCE the Greek philosophers Timocharis and Aristyllus, using a cross-staff, accurately catalogued the positions (i.e., declinations) of some of the brightest stars. Timocharis, between circa 290-270 BCE, observed the declinations of twelve fixed stars. Aristyllus, continuing the program of Timocharis, observed between circa 280-240 BCE, the declinations of six more fixed stars. This is the first known Greek compilation of measured stellar positions forming a star catalogue. (See: "Ancient Stellar Observations Timocharis, Aristyllos, Hipparchus, Ptolemy - the Dates and Accuracies." by Y. Maeyama (Centaurus, Volume 27, 1984, Pages 280-310.)) It can be deemed the first true star catalogue.
The first catalogue of stars over the entire sky probably originated with the Greek astronomer Hipparchus circa 130 BCE. One of the great achievements of Hipparchus was his (now lost) Catalogue of fixed stars. This star catalogue differed from the earlier and imprecise descriptions of the constellations. To compile his star catalogue Hipparchus apparently used an equatorial armillary sphere to measure the exact ecliptical coordinates (i.e., ecliptic latitude (angular distance from the ecliptic plane) and ecliptic longitude (angular distance from an arbitrary point i.e., the vernal equinox)) of approximately 850 stars. However, it is clear that at the time of Hipparchus a standardised system of spherical coordinates for denoting stellar positions did not exist. In the material that has survived Hipparchus does not use a single consistent coordinate system to denote stellar positions. He inconsistently uses several different coordinate systems, including an equatorial coordinate system (i.e., declinations) and an ecliptic coordinate system (i.e., latitudes and longitudes). (In his Commentary, obviously written before his discovery of precession, the positions of stars, when given, are in a mixed ecliptic-declination system.) In his Commentary on the Phaenomena of Aratus and Eudoxus Hipparchus largely chose to write at the same qualitative (i.e., descriptive) level as the two authors he critiqued. Only later, obviously after his discovery of precession, did he introduce a system of real ecliptic coordinates where the positions of stars are given in their latitude and longitude (and longitudes increase proportionally with time whilst latitudes remain unchanged).
In Greek astronomy the stars within the constellation figures were usually not given individual names. (There are only a few individual star names from Greece. The most prominent stars in the sky were usually nameless in Greek civilization. If there was a system of Greek star names then it has not come down to us and also would appear unknown to Ptolemy.) Greek constellations ("star catalogues") up to the time of Ptolemy are descriptive. The Western tradition of describing the constellations by means of describing the relative positions of the stars within the constellation figures was firmly established by Eratosthenes and Hipparchus. In their descriptions to the time of Ptolemy the constellations were defined by the Greeks by their juxtaposition (i.e., descriptive comparison of positional relationship to each other). Prior to Hipparchus (and Ptolemy) the general goal of the Greeks at least was not accurate astronomical observation but artistic and mythological education. The end result was a sort of geographical description of territorial position and limits.
Circa the 5th-century BCE many of the constellations recognised by the Greeks had become associated with myths. Both the star catalogue (constellation description) of Eudoxus (4-century BCE) and the star catalogue (constellation description) of Aratus (3rd-century BCE) adopted the vocabulary of myth. In his Castasterismi Eratosthenes (284-204 BCE) completed and standardised this process with each of the constellations being given a mythological significance.
The first complete description of the Greek constellations to survive is given by the Greek poet Aratus circa 270 BCE. With only a few exceptions no actual stars are described by Aratus - only constellation figures. This method was undoubtedly inherited from Eudoxus who produced a set of descriptions of constellations in which the relative positions of stars in each of the constellations was described. Eudoxus was likely the first Greek to summarise the Greek system of constellations. The purpose of the Phaenomena by Aratus was to describe the appearance and the organisation of the constellations in the sky with reference to each other.
Descriptions of constellations in Greece existed as early as Eudoxus, circa early 4th-century BCE). The Greek astronomer Eudoxus, circa 375 BCE, appears to have been the first person to develop a standardised map of the Greek constellations. A complete set of Greek constellations appears to have been first described by Eudoxus in two works called the Enoptron and the Phaenomena. (Eudoxus appears to have been the first person to have comprehensively arranged and described (i.e., consolidated) the Greek constellation set.) The early method of the Greek astronomer Eudoxus for determining the places of the stars was to divide the stars into named constellations and define the constellations partly by their juxtaposition, partly by their relation to the zodiac, and also by their relation to the tropical and arctic circles. The complete (and standardised) constellating of the Greek sky (with 48 constellations) was possibly first achieved by Eudoxus in his work Phaenomena.
Even earlier, the Babylonians gave single or short names to the constellations they originated. The Babylonian scheme of constellations, excepting for the development of the zodiacal scheme of 12 constellations, was mostly finalised by the late 2nd-millennium BCE (i.e., near the end of the Cassite Period circa 1160 BCE). The only significant change that took place in the early 1st-millennium BCE was the development of the 12-constellation zodiacal scheme (and the shift from the scheme of the "three ways" to the ecliptic as the primary celestial reference point). The Babylonian names for the stars forming a constellation are descriptive phrases that serve to identify their location within the constellation figure. In a section of the Mul.Apin astronomical compendium, due to the use of the horizon as reference point for a list of simultaneous risings and settings of constellations, these particular constellations are approximately identifiable. The earlier Babylonian "star calendars" (commonly misnamed "Astrolabes") do not provide any suitable information to enable the identification of the constellations. This is simply because we do not have any information regarding the principles of their categorizations. Tablet 1 of the Assyrian Mul.Apin compendium (circa 1000 BCE) contains a qualitative description of constellations and the star positions comprising such. The incomplete Neo-Assyrian text (VAT 9428, circa 400 BCE) from Assur originally contained a complete qualitative star by star description of the Babylonian constellations.
The final consolidation of the classical Greek star names and constellation figures was accomplished by the polymath Ptolemy circa 150 CE in his book The Great System of Astronomy. (Originally called the Syntaxis by Ptolemy and then called the Almagest by the later Arabic translators.). Ptolemy did not identify the stars in his catalogue with Greek letters, as is done by modern astronomers. Each of the 1025 stars listed was identified (1) descriptively by its position within one of the 48 constellation figures; then (2) by its ecliptic latitude and longitude; and then (3) its magnitude. It is this particular star catalogue method of Ptolemy that enables us to identify, with considerable exactness, the boundaries (i.e., shape) of the ancient Greek constellations.
An additional source of star/constellation names originated with the groups of nomadic desert Arabs of the (pre-Islamic) Arabic Peninsula. However, according to Paul Kunitzsch, the influence of earlier Babylonian nomenclature are sometimes discernable in this body (older group) of (non-standardised) star/asterism names. Paul Kunitzsch also holds that the main body (younger group) of indigenous (pre-Islamic) Arabic star/asterism names were probably formed in the period 500-700 CE.
Islamic star mapping mostly followed the Ptolemaic tradition. Ptolemy's star catalogue remained the standard star catalogue in both the Western and Islamic world for circa 1000 years. The dome of a bath house at Qusayr 'Amra, the only remaining building of an Arab palace in Jordan built circa CE 715, contains a unique hemispherical celestial map. The surviving fragments of the fresco show parts of 37 constellations and 400 stars. This celestial map furnishes a connecting link between the classical representations of the constellations and the later Islamic forms.
In pre-Islamic times the early Bedouin Arabic people (i.e., the nomadic desert dwelling tribes of the Arabic Peninsula) gave individual names to the numerous stars. (The folk tradition of Arabic star names was preserved as the lunar mansions.) This particular practice has ultimately influenced the naming of individual stars in Western constellations. Whilst our inherited constellation names are basically Greek our European inherited star names are largely due to the influence of medieval (Arabic) Islamic astronomy on medieval European astronomy. The influence of Arabic names on Western star names dates from around the 10th-century AD when Arab astronomy flourished. (The Arabs (correctly Arab-Islamic astronomers) increased the number of individual star names. Most individual star names were introduced by al-Sufi when he published his own version of Ptolemy's Almagest in the 10-century CE.) After the demise of the Roman Empire most Greek scientific works were translated into Arabic (including Ptolemy's Almagest). Eventually these texts were re-introduced back into Europe (and into Latin and Greek) through Arab Spain. With the Arabs the influence of the Greek language was not very strong in the names of stars and constellations. Modern star names are mostly derived from Arabic translations (or use) of Ptolemy's Almagest, chiefly Shiraz astronomer al-Sufi's 10th-century book Kitab suwar al-kawakib (Book of Constellation Figures), and also the introduction of hundreds of Arabic astrolabes into Europe. Al-Sufi's book Kitab suwar al-kawakib is our best authority for post-Islamic Arabic star-names and constellations. It also included the folk tradition of Arabic star names.
The Renaissance period was the catalyst for their being mixed together and passed down to present-day in Latin characters. The retransmitted Latin translation of Ptolemy's Almagest by Gherardo of Cremona (Lombardy) in the 12th-century was an Arabic-Latin version. This began the distorted use of Greek-Arabic-Latin words that appear in modern lists of star names. It was the only version known in Western Europe until the later discovery of copies of the original Greek texts and their translation into Latin texts in the 15th-century. Commonly used present-day individual star names include: Aldebaran, Algol, Altair, Antares, Arcturus, Betelgeuse, Canopus, Capella, Dened, Fomalhaut, Mira, Pollux, Procyon, Regulus, Rigel, Sirius, Spica, and Vega.
Present-day Western star and constellation names originated from a number of Near Eastern and Mediterranean cultures. The cuneiform evidence recovered since the mid 1800s indicates that Greek uranography borrowed from the earlier Babylonian uranography, established circa late 2nd-millennium BCE. Some late Egyptian influence is also indicated. The Renaissance period saw the appearance of philological studies into the history of stellar nomenclature. The focus of these philological studies was the Arabic and Latin names of the medieval period but also included classical Greek and Roman names from a few recovered classical texts. During the Renaissance period (broadly the 200 years between 1400 and 1600), and also the post-Renaissance period (particularly the heyday of celestial mapping in the 17th- and 18th-centuries), European astronomers also searched through the philological studies for new individual star names to apply to the star charts and celestial globes they developed. One such philological work was A learned treatise of globes by the English scholar John Chilmead (Latin edition 1594; English translation 1638). Wilhelm Schickard, the astronomer and professor of Oriental languages at Tübingen, supplied the Arabic letters and star and constellation names for Coelum stellatum Christianum by Julius Schiller (1627). Julius Schiller's Christianised star atlas was a part of the Counter-Reformation attempt to de-paganise the heavens and substitute Judeo-Christian imagery.
The Italian Theatine monk, mathematician, and astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi (1746-1826) introduced nearly 100 new star names (mostly "Arabic") in his Palermo Catalogue published in 1814 (his 2nd star catalogue). These star names were derived by Giuseppe Piazzi from the philological study Tabulae longitudinum et latitudinum stellarum fixarum ex observatione principis Ulugh Beighi (1665) by the English Orientalist Thomas Hyde (1636-1703). The German historian, chronologist, and astronomer Ludewig Ideler (1766-1846) made an important and long-standing (but flawed) contribution to the philological study and historical explanation of Arabic star names. His Untersuchungen über den Ursprung und die Bedeutung der Sternnamen (1809) was used as a basic reference source for over 150 years. The basis of the book was Ideler's translation of the original 13th-century Arabic text Description of the Constellations by the Persian astronomer Al Kazwini, with Ideler's additions and annotations from classical and other sources. Due to the author's additional use of numerous unreliable and mostly secondary Arabic sources the book unavoidably contains numerous errors.
The constellation scheme established in Ptolemy's Almagest remained virtually unchanged until the European era of celestial mapping in the 17th- and 18th-centuries. During this period astronomers added their own constellation inventions to the remaining gaps left in the sky. (One celestial atlas had 99 constellations.) Constellation schemes and boundaries remained unregulated until the early 20th-century. In 1922, at its first General Assembly, the newly formed International Astronomical Union (established 1909) officially adopted and regularised 88 official constellations, and in 1929 defined their boundaries. This made the use of traditional constellation figures obsolete. (Acting for the International Astronomical Union the Belgian astronomer Eugène Delporte (1882-1955) then proceeded to draw up the definitive modern boundaries for these 88 constellations. His work on the demarcation of the constellations was published in his book Délimitation scientifique des constellations, cartes (1930). The boundaries between the constellations were fixed along lines of right ascension and declination for the epoch 1875.) The 88 official constellations selected by the International Astronomical Union were all of European origin simply because the wide use of these constellations was already well established.
Copyright © 2001-2008 by Gary D. Thompson
This Web Page was last updated on: Monday, December 24, 2007, 10:30 pm.
This Web Page was created using Arachnophilia 4.0 and FrontPage 2003.
You can reach me here by email: 