CONSTELLATION, in astronomy the name given to certain groupings of stars (from the Lat. constellatus, studded with stars; con, with, and stella, a, star).
From the earliest times the star-groups known as constellations, the smaller groups (parts of constellations) known as asterisms, and also individual stars, have received names connoting some meteorological phenomena, or symbolizing religious or mythologi cal beliefs. At one time it was held that the constellation names and myths were of Greek origin ; this view has now been disproved, and an examination of the Hellenic myths associated with the stars and star-groups in the light of the records revealed by the decipherment of Euphratean cuneiforms leads to the conclusion that in many, if not all, cases the Greek myth has a Euphratean parallel, and so renders it probable that the Greek constellation system and the cognate legends are primarily of Semitic or even pre-Semitic origin.
The Sumerians and Accadians, the non-Semitic inhabitants of the Euphrates valley prior to the Babylonians, described the stars collectively as a "heavenly flock"; the sun was the "old sheep"; the seven planets were the "old-sheep stars"; the whole of the stars had certain "shepherds," and Sibzianna (which, according to Sayce and Bosanquet, is the modern Arcturus, the brightest star in the northern sky) was the "star of the shepherds of the heavenly herds." The Accadians bequeathed their system to the Babylon ians, and cuneiform tablets and cylinders, boundary stones, and Euphratean art generally point to the existence of a well-defined system of star names in their early history. From a detailed study of such records, in their nature of rather speculative value, R. Brown, junr. (Primitive Constellations, 1899) has compiled a Euphratean planisphere, which he regards as the mother of all others. The tablets examined range in date from 3000-500 B.C., and hence the system must be anterior to the earlier date. Of great importance is the Creation Legend, a cuneiform compiled f rom older records during the reign of Assur-bani-pal, c. 65o B.C., in which there occurs a passage interpretable as pointing to the ac ceptance of 36 constellations : 12 northern, 12 zodiacal, and 12 southern.
The Phoenicians—a race dominated by the spirit of commercial enterprise—appear to have studied the stars more especially with respect to their service to navigators ; according to Homer "the stars were sent by Zeus as portents for mariners." But all their truly astronomical writings are lost, and only by a somewhat spec ulative piecing together of scattered evidences can an estimate of their knowledge be formed. The inter-relations of the Phoenicians with the early Hellenes were frequent and far-reaching, and in the Greek presentation of the legends concerning constellations a dis tinct Phoenician, and in turn Euphratean, element appears. One of the earliest examples of Greek literature extant, the Tiieogonic of Hesiod (c. 800 B.C.), appears to be a curious blending of Hel lenic and Phoenician thought. Although not an astronomical work, several constellation subjects are introduced. In the same author's Works and Days, a treatise which is a sort of shepherd's calendar, there are distinct references to the Pleiades, Hyades, Orion, Sirius, and Arcturus. It cannot be argued, however, that these were the only stars and constellations named in his time; the omission proves nothing.
The same is true of the Homeric epics wherein the Pleiades, Hyades, Ursa major, Orion, and Bootes are mentioned, and also of the stars and constellations mentioned in Job. Further support is given to the view that, in the main, the constellations were trans mitted to the Greeks by the Phoenicians from Euphratean sources in the fact that Thales, the earliest Greek astronomer of any note, was of Phoenician descent. According to Callimachus he taught the Greeks to steer by Ursa minor instead of Ursa major; and other astronomical observations are assigned to him. But his writings are lost, as is also the case with those of Phocus the Sam ian and the history of astronomy by Eudemus, the pupil of Aris totle ; hence the paucity of our knowledge of Thales's astronomical learning.
From the 6th century B.C. onwards, legends concerning the constellation subjects were frequently treated by the historians and poets. Aglaosthenes or Agaosthenes, an early writer, knew Ursa minor as Kvvoaovpa, Cynosura, and recorded the translation of Aquila; Epimenides the Cretan (c. 600 B.C.) recorded the trans lation of Capricornus and the star Capella ; Pherecydes of Athens (c. 5oo-45o B.c.) recorded the legend of Orion and stated the astronomical fact that when Orion sets Scorpio rises; Aeschylus B.c.) and Hellanicus of Mytilene (c. B.c.) nar rate the legend of the seven Pleiades.
In the 5th century B.C. the Athenian astronomer Euctemon, according to Geminus of Rhodes, compiled a weather calendar in which Aquarius, Aquila, Canis major, Corona, Cygnus, Delphinus, Lyra, Orion, Pegasus, Sagitta, and the asterisms Hyades and Pleiades are mentioned, always, however, in relation to weather changes. The earliest Greek work which purported to treat the constellations qua constellations, of which we have certain knowledge, is the Iatvoµeva of Eudoxus of Cnidus (c. B.C.). The original is lost, but a versification by Aratus (c. 270 B.C.), a poet at the court of Antigonus Gonatas, king of Macedonia, and an 'E yyriaes or commentary by Hipparchus are extant.
In the (Pawl)lova of Aratus 44 constellations are enumerated, viz., northern : Ursa major, Ursa minor, Bootes, Draco, Cepheus, Cassiopeia, Andromeda, Perseus, Triangulum, Pegasus, Delphinus, Auriga, Hercules, Lyra, Cygnus, Aquila, Sagitta, Corona and Serpentarius ; 13 central or zodiacal; Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capri cornus, Aquarius, Pisces and the Pleiades; and 12 southern: Orion, Canis, Lepus, Argo, Cetus, Eridanus, Piscis australis, Ara, Centaurus, Hydra, Crater and Corvus. In this enumeration Serpens is included in Serpentarius and Lupus in Centaurus; these two constellations were separated by Hipparchus and, later, by Ptolemy. On the other hand, Aratus kept the Pleiades distinct from Taurus, but Hipparchus reduced these stars to an asterism. Aratus was no astronomer, while Hipparchus was; and from the fact that the latter adopted, with but trifling exceptions, the con stellation system portrayed by Aratus, it may be concluded that the system was already familiar in Greek thought.
Three hundred years after Hipparchus, the Alexandrian astron omer, Ptolemy, adopted a very similar scheme in his uranometria, which appears in the seventh and eighth books of his Almagest, the catalogue being styled the "EKOects xavoyLKil or "accepted version." The names and orientation of the 48 constellations therein adopted are, with but few exceptions, identical with those used at the present day; and as it cannot be doubted that Ptolemy made only very few modifications in the system of Hipparchus, the names were adopted at least three centuries before the Almagest was compiled.
A later innovator of moment was Johann Bayer, a German astronomer, who published a Uranometria in 1603, in which 12 constellations, all in the southern hemisphere, were added to Ptolemy's 48, viz., Apis (or Musca) (Bee), Avis Indica (Bird of Paradise), Chameleon, Dorado (Sword-fish), Grus (Crane), Hydrus (Water-snake), Indus (Indian), Pavo (Peacock), Phoenix, Piscis volans (Flying fish), Toucan, Triangulum australe. Accord ing to W. Lynn (Observatory, 1886, p. 255), Bayer adapted this part of his catalogue from the observations of the Dutch navi gator Petrus Theodori (or Pieter Dirchsz Keyser), who died in 1596 off Java.
The Coelum stePatum Christianum of Julius Schiller (1627) is noteworthy for the attempt made to replace the names connoting mythological and pagah ideas by the names of apostles, saints, popes, bishops, and other dignitaries of the Church, etc. Aries became St. Peter; Taurus, St. Andrew; Andromeda, the Holy Sepulchre; Lyra, the Manger; Canis major, David; and so on. This innovation (with which the introduction of the 12 apostles into the solar zodiac by the Venerable Bede may be compared) was shortlived. A similar confusion was attempted by E. Weige lius, who sought to introduce a Coelum heraldicum, in which the constellations were figured as the arms or insignia of European dynasties, and by symbols of commerce.
In Edmund Halley's southern catalogue (Catalogus stellarum australium), published in 1679 and incorporated in Flamsteed's Historia coelestis (1725), the following constellations are named : Piscis australis, Columba Noachi, Argo navis, Robur Caroli, Ara, Corona australis, Grus, Phoenix, Pavo, Apus or Avis Indica, Musca apis, Chameleon, Triangulum australe, Piscis volans, Dorado or Xiphias, Toucan or Anser Americanus, and Hydrus. Flamsteed's maps also contained Mons Menelai. This list contains nothing new except Robur Caroli, since Columba Noachi (Noah's dove) had been raised to the skies by Bartschius in 1624.
In 1690 two posthumous works of Johann Hevelius (16r i--87), the Firmamentum sobiescianum and Prodromus astronomiae, added several new constellations to the list, viz., Canes venatici (the Greyhounds), Lacerta (the Lizard), Leo minor (Little Lion), Lynx, Sextans Uraniae, Scutum Sobieskii (the shield of Sobieski), Vulpecula et Anser (Fox and Goose), Cerberus, Camelopardus (Giraffe), and Monoceros (Unicorn) ; the last two were original ly due to Jacobus Bartschius. In 1679 Augustine Royer intro duced the most interesting of the constellations of the southern hemisphere, the Crux australis or Southern Cross.
Nicolas Louis de Lacaille, who made extended observations of the southern stars in 1751 and in the following years, and whose results were embodied in his posthumous Coelum australe stelli ferum (1763), introduced the following new constellations: Apparatus sculptoris (Sculptor's workshop), Fornax chemica (Chemical furnace), Horologium (Clock), Reticulus rhomboidalis (Rhomboidal net), Caela sculptoris (Sculptor's chisels), Equuleus pictoris (Painter's easel), Pyxis nautica (Mariner's compass), Antlia pneumatica (Air pump), Octans (Octant), Circinus (Compasses), Norma alias Quadra Euclidis (Square), Telescopium (Telescope), Microscopium (Microscope), and Mons Mensae (Table Mountain). Attempts have been made to introduce new constellations since that date, but none of these is now accepted. The large Ptolemaic constellation of Argo is, however, subdivided into Vela (Sails), Puppis (Stern), and Carina (Keel).
The question of an authoritative definition of the precise boundaries of the constellations, which is of some importance in the nomenclature of variable stars, etc., was in 1928 under con sideration by the committee of the International Astronomical Union.
The following list contains the constellations now used. The Ptolemaic constellations are printed in small capitals. Those marked with an asterisk are the subject of separate articles.
