Star Daze

Imagine watching the night sky for hours just to see a few Perseid showers.

During most of the evening of August 13 and into the dawn they sputtered and dripped without much shower activity.  Listening to tunes via earplugs, my eyes wandered the night sky in search of  gems and treasures.

I wondered what early humans thought when gazing upward at the jeweler's sprawl of diamonds on a velvet tray? Did questions arise concerning where the dark escaped as dawn took over?

Over 6000 years years ago, cuneiform texts and artifacts existed in the Euphrates River Valley. This information indicates that individuals observing the night sky saw the lion, the bull, and the scorpion in the stars.  Mythology of the ancient Greeks and Romans elaborates on the constellations. In Homer's Iliad,, (7th century B.C.) he describes Achilleus's shield by the craftsman god Hephaistos:

On it he made the earth, and sky, and sea, the weariless sun and the moon waxing full, and all the constellations that crown the heavens, Pleiades and Hyades, the mighty Orion and the Bear, which men also call by the name of Wain: she wheels round in the same place and watches for Orion, and is the only one not to bathe in Ocean (Iliad XVIII 486-490).

At the time of Homer, the constellations did not connect to myths or gods. They were known as the objects or the animals they represented, such as the Lyre or the Ram. By the 5th century B.C. the constellations became associated with myths, and the Catasterismi of Eratosthenes completed the mythologization of the stars.

Roman Ptolemy of Alexandria created a star catalogue. He grouped 1022 stars into 48 constellations during the 2nd century A.D. It forms the basis for the modern list of 88 constellations officially designated by the International Astronomical Union.

Perseus, son of Jupiter and Danae, was sent to kill the Gorgon Medusa. Looking into her face turned the viewer to stone so he had quite a task.  Aided by Pluto, Mercury and Minerva, Perseus accomplished the feat. Pluto lent him a helmet of invisibility, Mercury provided his winged sandals, and Minerva gave him her shield. With the aid of the helmet and the sandals, Perseus reached striking distance without being detected by Medusa or the two immortal Gorgons. He used the reflection on the shield to guide his killing blow.

Perseus was immortalized as a constellation, found near Andromeda, Cepheus and Cassiopeia, in the northern sky. He holds a sword in one hand and the head of Medusa in the other. The eye of Medusa is the star Algol. Algol means "Demon Star" in Arabic.

Creative Write:  If you wrote a story about the stars, where would you begin?