Happy February! This month, to celebrate the release of my book Gallery of Myth under the penname TA Page, all our Fun Fact Fridays will be about constellations. In previous weeks we covered Orion and Cassiopeia; today we’re looking at Cygnus, Lyra, and Aquila.
Like Cassiopeia and her entourage, these constellations are often grouped together. However, their myths aren’t related: instead, the primary star in each constellation — Vega, Altair, and Deneb — is a point in what’s come to be called The Summer Triangle. Visible in the Northern Hemisphere during the summer along the Milky Way, this trio of constellations is bright and easily recognizable.
First up, Cygnus, home to the star Deneb. Cygnus is also called “the Northern Cross,” because its shape is cross-like. It’s usually depicted as a soaring swan. There are several different Greek myths with swans in them, all traced to this constellation; in the story Gallery of Myth, I wrote this as the constellation essentially having different personalities.
Next is Lyra, the lyre, home to Vega. Vega is the fifth brightest star in the sky, and Lyra is a small, simple trapezoid, making it easy to spot. The constellation is usually said to represent Orpheus, famous for playing music on his lyre that was so sad that the gods gave him a chance to rescue his lost love, Eurydice. It’s also associated with the god Apollo.
And lastly, Aquila, home to Altair. Like Cygnus, Aquila is a cross-like constellation right on the Milky Way. And it is also associated with a bird — the eagle, symbol and messenger of the god Zeus. In Gallery of Myth, Aquila is the goal the characters are trying to reach, and the last constellation they meet.
Next week, we’ll have one more bonus constellation!
Selected Sources
All info this week came from my own experience and from Antonin Rukl’s Constellation Guidebook, published 1996.
