- 2 weeks ago
Mythology expert and Professor of classics Peter Meineck deep dives into all 48 of the constellations the ancient Greeks used in the night sky. From maritime navigation to agriculture and timekeeping, Meineck explains how eight main groupings of constellations were tracked in the night sky—and how they translate to today’s mythological storytelling.Credits:Director: Joe PickardDirector of Photography: Charlie JordanEditor: Brady JacksonTalent: Peter MeineckCreative Producer: Christie GarciaLine Producer: Jen SantosAssociate Producer: Indigo George; Sara RossProduction Manager: Evie RoopCasting Producer: Nick SawyerCamera Operator: Jeremy HarrisGaffer: Niklas MollerAudio Engineer: Sean PaulsenProduction Assistant: Erica PalmieriFact-Checker: Paul GulyasPost Production Supervisor: Christina MankellowPost Production Coordinator: Erica DeLeoSupervising Editor: Eduardo AraujoAssistant Editor: Billy WardSpecial Thanks: Stellarium
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TechTranscript
00:00:00Today, it's generally accepted that there are 88 constellations.
00:00:04The ancient Greeks knew of 48.
00:00:06They used the stars to navigate, to plant and sow their crops,
00:00:11to arrange their festivals, and perhaps most importantly,
00:00:15to come together and tell their myths and their stories.
00:00:18The stars were incredibly important to the ancient Greeks.
00:00:25Of the 48 constellations, the Greeks told their stories
00:00:29based around eight main groupings.
00:00:31For example, Orion, the great hunter,
00:00:36is gathered around a series of animals,
00:00:38and as they gazed up into the sky,
00:00:40they thought about Orion hunting those animals and told stories about them.
00:00:44Or we see Hercules, the great hero and son of Zeus,
00:00:49associated with some of his famous 12 labors.
00:00:52The other group that was very important to the Greeks
00:00:54was the story of Andromeda, the African princess,
00:00:58who was rescued by Perseus.
00:01:00And we see the family of Andromeda projected into the sky.
00:01:04Today, most of us know the zodiac, the way of animals.
00:01:07The Babylonians divided the circumference of the heavens
00:01:11around a 360-degree arc,
00:01:14divided into 30-degree sections.
00:01:17Each 30-degree section had an animal presiding over it.
00:01:20And each animal represented the time of year
00:01:23that the zodiac stood for.
00:01:25The zodiac became an incredibly important way
00:01:28that the Greeks organized their time.
00:01:32One of the earliest references to the stars
00:01:35that we find in Greek literature
00:01:36is right there in Homer's Odyssey.
00:01:39Odysseus leaves the island of Calypso
00:01:42and travels on the open sea to his next stop,
00:01:47actually the last place he's going to go until he returns home.
00:01:50He navigates by the stars in the sky.
00:01:53And we hear about the Big Dipper, or the plough.
00:01:58And also the star Sirius.
00:02:00Scholars have argued for centuries
00:02:02over exactly where Odysseus is going.
00:02:04And the truth is, we really don't know.
00:02:07But what we have here is a picture
00:02:08of ancient seafaring and navigation.
00:02:11You had to navigate by the stars.
00:02:14What we're looking at today is a view from ancient Greece.
00:02:17Many of these constellations we can still see in the sky today,
00:02:20depending on where you find yourself in the world.
00:02:22They just appear at different times.
00:02:26Let's start with one of the most ancient constellations
00:02:29the Greeks knew, Orion.
00:02:32The great ancient giant hunter,
00:02:35really prominent in the sky.
00:02:37We identify him primarily through these three stars
00:02:41in his hunter's belt.
00:02:42And maybe in Mesopotamia, this was Gilgamesh,
00:02:45their great hunter character.
00:02:46It kind of looks like he's holding a bow,
00:02:48but in some depictions of him,
00:02:50this is a lion's skin,
00:02:52kind of draped from his arm,
00:02:54or even a shield.
00:02:56And then here we can see him
00:02:59holding a club, or even a sling,
00:03:01a hunter's sling, which we know was part
00:03:03of the panoply of the hunter in the ancient world.
00:03:05And sometimes there's a sword
00:03:07hanging down here as well,
00:03:08which can be seen in the star cluster
00:03:10directly below his belt.
00:03:13And Orion's sword became a very famous
00:03:16navigational constellation for the ancient Greeks.
00:03:19The myths about Orion tell us
00:03:21that he was a massive giant,
00:03:23and he was out of control.
00:03:25He loved to hunt,
00:03:26so much so that he actually started
00:03:29to deplete the earth of all of its animals.
00:03:32And Gaia became so enraged with him
00:03:35that that is the reason why he's lifted from the earth
00:03:37and turned into a constellation.
00:03:39He also had a voracious appetite,
00:03:42including a sexual appetite,
00:03:44and he was struck blind by an ancient king
00:03:47for attempting to rape his daughter.
00:03:49His blindness was cured by the rays of light
00:03:52from Helios, the sun god,
00:03:54and he went on to continue his foray across the world.
00:03:59He's also associated closely with Artemis,
00:04:02who was the goddess of the hunt.
00:04:04And in some myths, he's even bequeathed to marry her,
00:04:07Apollo gets very jealous about this.
00:04:10And in one story, he tricks his sister
00:04:13by challenging her to see if she could hit an object
00:04:17far away in the sea.
00:04:18She takes up the challenge,
00:04:20pulls back her bowstring,
00:04:21fires the arrow, hits the object.
00:04:24She couldn't have known that that was Orion.
00:04:26Orion's body washes up on the shore,
00:04:28Artemis sees it, and she dissolves into tears,
00:04:32and Orion is killed.
00:04:34So in some versions of the myth,
00:04:35it's Artemis who then takes up Orion
00:04:37and places him in the stars.
00:04:39In ancient Greece, Orion heralded the start of winter.
00:04:43He starts to rise and emerge in the late fall,
00:04:46and he becomes most prominent during the winter itself.
00:04:50Orion is found next to two constellations
00:04:54that are associated with him,
00:04:56which are his hunting dogs,
00:04:58Canis Major and Canis Minor.
00:05:05Here we can see Canis Major,
00:05:07the dog who will always catch his prey.
00:05:11You can see the actual constellation
00:05:14really resembles a dog.
00:05:15The key star here is Sirius,
00:05:18and Sirius is one of the most important stars
00:05:20that the Greeks knew.
00:05:22It was so bright in antiquity
00:05:24that you could actually see it during the day,
00:05:27particularly around mid-summer in August,
00:05:30which is where we get the term
00:05:31the dog days of summer.
00:05:33And they actually had a festival called the Skira,
00:05:35where they would send somebody up
00:05:36to the highest point to look for Sirius
00:05:39and to call out a cry called the Olologmos,
00:05:43a lululation.
00:05:44All the women would come out
00:05:45and ululate to welcome the dog star.
00:05:48And this was a time between the old year
00:05:51and the new year.
00:05:52It was a time of great heat.
00:05:54It was very arid.
00:05:55And it was also a time when power changed.
00:05:58So in democratic Athens,
00:06:00it's when the yearly officials
00:06:02passed on their power
00:06:03from one official to another official.
00:06:05In Greek tragedy,
00:06:06it's the time when tyrants and kings
00:06:09are killed and brought down
00:06:10and new ones take over.
00:06:12We see Sirius, the dog star,
00:06:14open Aeschylus' Oresteia,
00:06:16where Clytemnestra is waiting for Agamemnon
00:06:19to kill him because he sacrificed
00:06:21their daughter, Iphigenia.
00:06:23And when Agamemnon comes home
00:06:24and he walks up the red carpet
00:06:26into his house,
00:06:27ready to get into the bath,
00:06:29and then Clytemnestra is going to take
00:06:31a huge sacrificial axe
00:06:33and strike him three times in the bath,
00:06:35she calls out to Sirius
00:06:37and asks the dog star
00:06:39to kind of bless what she's about to do.
00:06:41So this was a hugely significant star
00:06:44in antiquity.
00:06:45The irony of these two dogs
00:06:47is you have a constellation
00:06:48known for always catching his prey,
00:06:50chasing prey that will never be caught.
00:06:55Canis Minor is what the Romans called it.
00:06:57It means small dog,
00:06:58but the Greeks saw it
00:06:59as the Tumesian fox,
00:07:01the creature that can never be caught.
00:07:04So Orion is imagined
00:07:06with these two hunting dogs
00:07:07forging across the universe
00:07:09in this futile pursuit.
00:07:12It's really just a line
00:07:13between two stars,
00:07:14perhaps these other two stars here
00:07:15maybe sometimes making a head.
00:07:21Next at Orion is Taurus the bull.
00:07:26Here we can see the face of the bull,
00:07:29its two great horns,
00:07:30and the body of the bull.
00:07:32It's such a huge constellation
00:07:34that we only get half of the body.
00:07:36One reason for this
00:07:38may be the myth of the bull from the sea,
00:07:40that Zeus disguises himself as a bull
00:07:44and carries off Europa into the sea.
00:07:47The bull is a really kind of significant creature.
00:07:49It's the largest land animal,
00:07:51the most expensive animal in Greece.
00:07:54To sacrifice and kill a bull
00:07:56was a huge undertaking.
00:07:58And so we imagine that Orion here
00:08:00is perhaps wrangling this bull
00:08:02or trying to bring this bull to heel.
00:08:05So the bull raging across the universe
00:08:07is a representation of this idea
00:08:10of the spread of the Greeks.
00:08:11And Taurus pops up in many myths
00:08:13associated with the constellation,
00:08:15including the myths of Heracles,
00:08:16and of course is placed as a zodiac symbol.
00:08:22Directly beneath Orion is Lepus the rabbit.
00:08:29There you can see the sort of bunny ears of the hare,
00:08:32the rabbit, if you like,
00:08:33and the tail and the body.
00:08:35This is another creature associated
00:08:38with Orion, the huntsman, hunting the hare.
00:08:41A story told about Lepus
00:08:42is that the rabbit was introduced to a Greek island
00:08:46and bred, as all rabbits do,
00:08:49to the point where the rabbits were eating the island
00:08:52out of house and home
00:08:53and they had to be culled.
00:08:54And Lepus survived
00:08:56and was taken up by the gods
00:08:57and given to Orion
00:08:59as a creature that he would eternally hunt.
00:09:03One of the most frightening constellations
00:09:05in the Greek sky was Scorpius.
00:09:09Scorpius is a fantastic constellation.
00:09:12Here you can see Antares,
00:09:14the pincers of the scorpion,
00:09:15and then the long body ending in the tail
00:09:18with Shaula as the stinger.
00:09:21Orion's prowess as a hunter was so great
00:09:24that he was depleting the earth of all animals.
00:09:27Gaia was obviously deeply unhappy about this,
00:09:30so she created the scorpion to sting Orion and kill him.
00:09:34And we find this myth quite a lot
00:09:36of the world pushing back on heroic, mythological,
00:09:40usually male characters,
00:09:41who are just committing ecological disaster
00:09:44with their prowess.
00:09:45And we see the universe balancing itself.
00:09:48So Scorpius is sent to sting Orion.
00:09:51This is another version of his death and kill Orion.
00:09:54And then Gaia takes Orion and puts him up into the heavens.
00:09:58Really is a lesson to humanity to live within moderation.
00:10:04Another constellation in the southern sky connected with Orion
00:10:07is Lupus, the wolf.
00:10:11There we can see the triangle head of the wolf,
00:10:13the body of the wolf, its tail, and its legs.
00:10:16Wolves are really interesting, particularly in Greek mythology,
00:10:18because they often represent transformation.
00:10:21The whole kind of mythological history of the werewolf,
00:10:24we can really trace all the way back to the Greeks
00:10:26and possibly beyond,
00:10:28where we have all kinds of stories of wolfmen and wolfboys.
00:10:33This may go back far deeper into the Bronze Age
00:10:37with the Yamnaya, who were these mounted hordes
00:10:40who came out of Eurasia and Central Europe
00:10:42and often would spread with maybe their wolf boy hunters
00:10:46leading the pack.
00:10:48And possibly this wolf is already been dispatched
00:10:51or is being sacrificed,
00:10:53which is why it's shown sort of upside down on its back.
00:10:57And here's one of my favourite constellations.
00:11:00This is Centaurus, the centaur,
00:11:03who's also part of this southern sky winter hunting story.
00:11:08Centaurs were the mythical half-men, half-horse creatures
00:11:12who lived in northern Greece.
00:11:14They're probably based on the Scythians,
00:11:16who were famous horsemen,
00:11:18and horses were not originally native to Greece.
00:11:20So obviously, pre-Bronze Age,
00:11:24when the Greeks came into contact with mounted warriors,
00:11:27stories of the centaurs would have emerged.
00:11:29This is probably Chiron, one of the most famous centaurs.
00:11:33Chiron is the wise centaur,
00:11:36the teacher of Achilles and Jason
00:11:38and Asclepius, the mortal founder of healing rituals.
00:11:44And Chiron himself is a healer.
00:11:46Sometimes, perhaps, Chiron is imagined holding a bow.
00:11:50Often that's given to the other centaur character,
00:11:52Sagittarius, who we also find up there in the constellations.
00:11:56What's significant about Chiron
00:11:57is Chiron was actually injured by an arrow of Heracles
00:12:02that was dipped in the blood of the Hydra,
00:12:05the Hydra being another constellation of the 48.
00:12:08The Hydra's blood was poisonous,
00:12:10and Chiron, being semi-divine,
00:12:13couldn't die from that injury,
00:12:14but the wound would never heal.
00:12:17So Chiron has to heal himself,
00:12:19but the tragedy of Chiron is that he's always in pain,
00:12:22but he uses that as a way to teach other healers.
00:12:26Achilles is interesting because
00:12:27one thinks, how is Achilles a healer?
00:12:30Achilles' name actually means
00:12:32he who brings pain to others.
00:12:34So that's significant that he's kind of educated
00:12:36in the martial arts by Chiron.
00:12:38Jason, of Jason and the Argonauts,
00:12:41Jason Iason means healer from the Greek Iathros.
00:12:45And of course, Asclepius,
00:12:46being the mortal son of Apollo,
00:12:48he becomes the doctor god,
00:12:50the kind of god of healing.
00:12:52And he may be encapsulated as well in the stars
00:12:56as holding the two snakes, his symbol,
00:13:00a snake wrapped along a staff.
00:13:03Chiron is by far the most civilized of all the centaurs.
00:13:07The centaurs are really regarded as kind of wild creatures
00:13:10that live on the fringes of society.
00:13:12There's a lot of myths about centaurs getting drunk,
00:13:15ruining weddings, smashing things up, running riot.
00:13:18Famously, we see a battle between Lapiths,
00:13:21who are humans and centaurs enshrined on the Parthenon in Athens.
00:13:27And here we see a centaur in all his glory.
00:13:32If we move to the northern sky,
00:13:34we find another great hunter-warrior, Heracles,
00:13:38who the Romans called Hercules.
00:13:40It's one of my favorite constellations.
00:13:43There's an enormous amount of mythology surrounding Hercules.
00:13:47Here we can see his body.
00:13:48He's holding a lion's skin or maybe a bow and arrow.
00:13:52There's his legs running, maybe raised up here as his club.
00:13:56He again is a great hunter and a warrior.
00:13:59And of course, he's the original lion man,
00:14:01certainly the original Greek lion man.
00:14:04The lion man is one of the oldest mythological characters we found.
00:14:08In fact, the earliest representation of a human
00:14:11that has been found carved from a mammoth tusk about this big
00:14:16is actually a lion man figure.
00:14:17Maybe a lion woman that we can't tell the gender,
00:14:20but it's certainly a human dressed as a lion with a lion features and face.
00:14:26So in a way, the lion man is one of the original superheroes.
00:14:30So here is Heracles.
00:14:32His name means famous to Hera,
00:14:35which is ironic because Hera,
00:14:37the wife of Zeus and queen of Olympus,
00:14:39absolutely detested him.
00:14:41One of the reasons she detested him
00:14:44is that Heracles is a lot like Orion.
00:14:46He's the son of Zeus and a mortal woman,
00:14:49and he has great strength and power,
00:14:51and he's arrogant,
00:14:52and he uses that power without any regard for moderation.
00:14:56He's violent.
00:14:58He's prone to going into a berserk state.
00:15:00He's gluttonous.
00:15:02He doesn't know how to control himself.
00:15:04So Hera refuses to let Heracles have a family.
00:15:08And that's the tragedy of this constellation.
00:15:10One of the reasons for his famous 12 labors
00:15:13is that he actually destroys his family.
00:15:16Hera drives him insane.
00:15:17He destroys his family.
00:15:19And then he has to go through 12 labors
00:15:21to atone for the wrongs that he's done.
00:15:23In other versions of the myth,
00:15:25he completes the 12 labors,
00:15:26and then he destroys his family.
00:15:28Either way, Heracles is very, very destructive.
00:15:31But Heracles was a beloved demigod.
00:15:33He was the only mortal raised up to Olympus
00:15:37to become a god.
00:15:38One of the reasons is that Heracles,
00:15:40after destroying his family,
00:15:42is actually taken to Athens by his friend Theseus
00:15:46and initiated into the Eleusinian mysteries,
00:15:50which were rites to Demeter and Persephone.
00:15:53Going through these rites,
00:15:55Heracles learned a new identity.
00:15:57He set aside his violence and his temper,
00:16:01and his berserk state,
00:16:02joined the community of Athens
00:16:03and became the true definition of hero,
00:16:06which in Greek means a protector.
00:16:09So Heracles is worshipped
00:16:11as somebody who has suffered an enormous amount
00:16:14and yet come through it on the other side
00:16:17and is seen as a benevolent god.
00:16:23Alongside Heracles in this same group,
00:16:25we actually see the hydra,
00:16:27the water snake or the water serpent,
00:16:31this beautiful menandering star pattern
00:16:34with the head of the snake here.
00:16:35And the hydra was the second labor of Heracles.
00:16:40Heracles is made to undertake 12 labors
00:16:43to atone for the killing of his family.
00:16:46The first labor is the slaying of the Nemean lion.
00:16:50And of course, Leo, the lion,
00:16:51is one of the constellations that also appears in the Zodiac.
00:16:55According to the myth,
00:16:56the hydra was dominating a community
00:16:58close to where Heracles was born called Lerna.
00:17:01The Lernaean hydra was multi-headed.
00:17:05And when you cut one of its heads off,
00:17:08two grew back.
00:17:10Heracles had to use a combination of strength
00:17:12and cunning to defeat the hydra.
00:17:14What he did is as he cut off one of the heads,
00:17:17he cauterized the stump,
00:17:19allowing another head not to grow back.
00:17:21However, the main head of the hydra was immortal.
00:17:24What Heracles did is cut off that head
00:17:27and bury it under a large rock.
00:17:29So he didn't kill the hydra,
00:17:31he basically just encapsulated it.
00:17:33Some people think that myth is really a myth
00:17:36about the knowledge of irrigation
00:17:38in order to control the waterways around Argos
00:17:42and bring irrigation to the crops.
00:17:44And certainly one of the things Heracles does
00:17:47by going out and completing his labors
00:17:49is tame the wilderness.
00:17:51This is another reason why Hera is mad at him,
00:17:53because Hera is an anthropomorphic version of Gaia,
00:17:57the Earth Mother.
00:17:58So she sees him as actually committing
00:18:01a lot of ecological disaster.
00:18:03And you also notice two smaller constellations
00:18:06that are associated with the serpent.
00:18:09The crater, which is a drinking cup or a beaker,
00:18:12and Corvus, the crow.
00:18:16And even though this doesn't look much like a crow,
00:18:18right, it's just really a box
00:18:20and also the large cup here,
00:18:22they represent a story
00:18:23that Apollo sent his bird, the crow,
00:18:27to fill up his crater,
00:18:30his large cup with fresh water.
00:18:32And apparently the crow got distracted
00:18:35by wanting to eat some figs
00:18:38and waited for the figs to ripen,
00:18:40which obviously took a long time.
00:18:42And the crow eventually returns.
00:18:43And as an excuse,
00:18:45the crow says,
00:18:46the reason I took so long
00:18:47is that this hydra was guarding the spring
00:18:50and I couldn't get to it.
00:18:52And Apollo just sees through the lies
00:18:54and throws the snake,
00:18:56the crater and the crow
00:18:58up into the heavens.
00:18:59And hence we have
00:19:00these three constellations brought together.
00:19:04Another serpent associated with Heracles
00:19:07is Draco,
00:19:09which is the Latin word for dragon.
00:19:13And there's a relationship
00:19:14between these serpent snake-like creatures
00:19:17and the idea of a dragon.
00:19:19These are often chthonic of the earth,
00:19:22female protectors
00:19:24who protect the earth
00:19:25from heroes like Heracles.
00:19:27Draco emerges in several myths
00:19:30associated with the constellations,
00:19:31including the guardian of the golden fleece,
00:19:35which Jason has to retrieve.
00:19:36But in the Heracles myth,
00:19:38Draco is really important.
00:19:39The second to last task
00:19:42that Heracles completes
00:19:43is to go to the far western edge of the world,
00:19:47to the garden of the Hesperides
00:19:49and to recover the golden apples
00:19:51that are protected by Draco,
00:19:54this fearsome dragon-like serpent.
00:19:56These apples were actually a wedding present
00:19:59from Gaia to Hera.
00:20:01And Heracles is sent to steal them.
00:20:04So again, another affront
00:20:05against both Gaia and Hera.
00:20:08There's no way that even a powerful hero
00:20:12like Heracles is going to be able
00:20:13to get past Draco.
00:20:15So he has to get help.
00:20:17And what he does,
00:20:18he goes to see the great titan Atlas,
00:20:21and Atlas is holding the world up
00:20:23on his shoulders.
00:20:24And he says to Atlas,
00:20:26will you go and get the golden apples for me?
00:20:28If you retrieve these apples,
00:20:30I'll hold the world for you.
00:20:31That's the deal.
00:20:32Atlas is really thankful
00:20:34to be able to get literally the weight
00:20:36of the world off his shoulders.
00:20:38So he hands the world to Heracles.
00:20:40Heracles puts the world on his shoulders.
00:20:43Atlas goes off to the secret gardens
00:20:44of the Hesperides.
00:20:46We don't know how he does it,
00:20:47but he manages to recover the apples.
00:20:50Whether he takes on Draco
00:20:52or whether he's such a massive titan
00:20:55that Draco is no match for him,
00:20:58we don't know.
00:20:58But he comes back with the apples.
00:21:01He lays them at the feet of Heracles,
00:21:03and he says,
00:21:04I've done my deal.
00:21:05I'm leaving now.
00:21:06You have the world, right?
00:21:08And Heracles says,
00:21:09okay, fair enough,
00:21:10but the world is really uncomfortable.
00:21:13Can I get a pillow
00:21:14to put under my shoulders?
00:21:17And Atlas has empathy
00:21:19because obviously he's been carrying the world,
00:21:21and he agrees.
00:21:22And so he goes to get a pillow.
00:21:25Heracles says,
00:21:25here, hold this.
00:21:26And then he says,
00:21:27sucker, you've got the world now,
00:21:29takes the apples and leaves.
00:21:30So here you can see Heracles
00:21:31not being particularly heroic,
00:21:34using trickery in order to achieve his goals.
00:21:38But nevertheless,
00:21:38he manages to come back
00:21:40with the golden apples of the Hesperides.
00:21:43The Greeks also adopted the Zodiac,
00:21:46the way of animals,
00:21:47from the Mesopotamian cultures.
00:21:49The Babylonians and possibly the Sumerians
00:21:51divided the vault of the universe
00:21:53into a 360-degree circle
00:21:56with 12 Zodiac symbols,
00:21:59each at 30 degrees.
00:22:01The first was Aries, the ram.
00:22:10Really just a line here,
00:22:12but maybe here the head of the ram,
00:22:13as if the ram is kind of butting through
00:22:16from winter into the spring,
00:22:18which is an appropriate time
00:22:20for a ram or a goat.
00:22:22This was the lambing season,
00:22:24the times when vegetation
00:22:26was returning to the earth
00:22:28after the long winter.
00:22:29It was also a time of festival
00:22:31in ancient Greece.
00:22:32For example,
00:22:33we have the festival of Dionysus,
00:22:35which took place in late March,
00:22:36which was both a spring festival
00:22:38and also a festival of music,
00:22:40dance and theatre.
00:22:41So we know about Greek tragedy
00:22:44and we know that tragedy
00:22:45means song of the goats
00:22:47and this is probably related
00:22:48to the goat and ram and sheep of Aries.
00:22:54The next Zodiac symbol
00:22:56is Taurus, the bull.
00:23:00It's interesting with Taurus,
00:23:03we tend to think of the bull as male, right?
00:23:05It's obviously a sort of male creature,
00:23:08but also the cow was also often
00:23:11a sacred animal in Greek mythology
00:23:13and Hera, the queen of the gods,
00:23:16is often called cow-faced, right?
00:23:18So Taurus may also be a cow
00:23:20as well as a bull
00:23:21and in Egyptian mythology,
00:23:23we have the goddess Hawthor
00:23:25and she's shown with a cow's face
00:23:27and these long horns,
00:23:30often with the kind of eye of Ra
00:23:32in between the two horns.
00:23:33So this is a very common symbol
00:23:35in mythology,
00:23:36both a powerful cow
00:23:38and a powerful bull.
00:23:40If it is a male bull
00:23:41and probably is in terms of the Zodiac,
00:23:44that is the most powerful land animal,
00:23:48the most expensive land animal
00:23:49in ancient Greece.
00:23:51It's hard to raise cattle
00:23:53on the Greek landscape.
00:23:55It's not a great landscape
00:23:56for kind of arable farming.
00:23:58So if you did own a bull,
00:23:59that was a very, very expensive item
00:24:01and if you sacrificed the bull,
00:24:03that was significant.
00:24:04So we get a lot of myths
00:24:06about Zeus coming as a bull,
00:24:08carrying off maidens as a bull,
00:24:14Europa and Io traveling the world as a bull.
00:24:17So Taurus is a very significant Zodiac creature.
00:24:23The next Zodiac symbol is Gemini,
00:24:27the celestial twins.
00:24:31Castor and Pollux,
00:24:33they were the brothers of Helen and Clytemnestra.
00:24:37Now, we know the story
00:24:38that Zeus comes to Leda,
00:24:41the queen of Sparta,
00:24:43disguised as a swan
00:24:44and he makes love to her as a swan.
00:24:47Go with me here.
00:24:48And on the same night,
00:24:49she makes love to her husband,
00:24:51Tyndareus.
00:24:52And out of that come four children.
00:24:54Two are descended from Zeus
00:24:56and two are descended from Tyndareus.
00:24:59Of the girls,
00:25:01the one descended from Tyndareus
00:25:02is Clytemnestra,
00:25:03who marries Agamemnon.
00:25:05The one descended from Zeus is Helen,
00:25:07who of course becomes Helen of Troy.
00:25:10From the brothers,
00:25:11we have Castor and Pollux.
00:25:14The myths get confused
00:25:16about which brother is descended from Zeus
00:25:18and which brother is not.
00:25:20But really, the story is beautiful.
00:25:22The mortal brother dies
00:25:26and the immortal brother
00:25:27gives up his immortality
00:25:30so his brother can live.
00:25:31And then they decide to swap each day.
00:25:34One day, one brother is immortal
00:25:35and one brother is mortal.
00:25:37The next day, they swap.
00:25:38So here we see the two celestial twins
00:25:41joined hand in hand,
00:25:43sharing that divinity
00:25:45and placed up in the stars.
00:25:49Next, we find Cancer, the crab.
00:25:54There you can see the long pincers of the crab,
00:25:58the two eyes of the crab
00:25:59made up by these stars
00:26:00and the crab's body.
00:26:02The crab is associated
00:26:04with the myth of Heracles
00:26:06that when Heracles was battling
00:26:08the Linnaean Hydra,
00:26:10Hera sent a crab
00:26:12to nip at his toes
00:26:13and distract him.
00:26:14Heracles has no problem
00:26:15dealing with the crab.
00:26:16Either he kind of stamps on it
00:26:18or he brings his club down on it
00:26:20and he smashes the crab.
00:26:22Hera feels sorry for the crab
00:26:23so she takes it
00:26:24and she turns it into a constellation.
00:26:28Next is Leo, the great lion.
00:26:31Here we can see the constellation
00:26:33with the body of the lion,
00:26:35its head and mane
00:26:37and its hindquarters.
00:26:39The lion is associated
00:26:41with several myths
00:26:42but in particular
00:26:43the myths of Heracles.
00:26:45Heracles becomes
00:26:46the essential lion man.
00:26:48His first labour
00:26:49is to defeat
00:26:50the lion of Nemea
00:26:52who's ravaging the countryside
00:26:54just to the north
00:26:55of where Heracles is from.
00:26:58But the Nemean lion
00:26:59has an impenetrable hide
00:27:01and Heracles' arrows
00:27:03and club glanced off it.
00:27:05So he's forced
00:27:06to wrestle the lion
00:27:07and actually choke the lion
00:27:09and then he has a problem.
00:27:11How does he get
00:27:12the lion skin
00:27:13from the lion?
00:27:14He actually uses
00:27:15the claws of the Nemean lion
00:27:16to cut the lion skin off
00:27:18and then he wears
00:27:19that lion skin
00:27:20as his protective shield.
00:27:23It's also the representation
00:27:25of Heracles' status
00:27:27as a berserker.
00:27:28Berserkers tend to be
00:27:30therianthropic
00:27:31which means
00:27:31they turn into animals.
00:27:34So you can think
00:27:35of berserker
00:27:36as a Norse word
00:27:37meaning bear man.
00:27:38So you can think
00:27:39of the Vikings
00:27:39who some of them
00:27:40went into battle
00:27:41naked with a bear skin
00:27:42and here you can see
00:27:44Heracles taking the lion
00:27:46and wearing it
00:27:47as his status
00:27:48as a berserker.
00:27:49So Leo the lion
00:27:51is a really important
00:27:52constellation
00:27:53in the world
00:27:54of Greek myth
00:27:55and lions were also
00:27:56at one point
00:27:57pre-Bronze Age
00:27:58indigenous to Greece
00:27:59as well.
00:28:01Next we have Virgo
00:28:02Parthenos
00:28:04or the Virgin.
00:28:06Here you can see
00:28:07the body
00:28:07of Virgo
00:28:08her legs
00:28:09and her arms
00:28:11held up
00:28:11into the air.
00:28:12This was a significant
00:28:13constellation
00:28:14because it would rise
00:28:16September, October
00:28:17around the time
00:28:19of the secret
00:28:19Eleusinian mysteries.
00:28:21We don't really know
00:28:22what happened
00:28:22at the Eleusinian mysteries
00:28:24because if you revealed them
00:28:25it was on pain of death
00:28:27but you know
00:28:28up to about a quarter
00:28:29of the population
00:28:30of Athens
00:28:30were initiated
00:28:31into the mysteries
00:28:32and many famous people
00:28:34Plato, Aristotle,
00:28:36Sophocles,
00:28:37Marcus Aurelius,
00:28:38Julius Caesar
00:28:39were all initiates
00:28:40of the mysteries
00:28:40and we think
00:28:41the culmination
00:28:42of the mysteries
00:28:43was that Demeter
00:28:45appeared to you
00:28:46and it may have been
00:28:46this constellation
00:28:47that actually appeared
00:28:49in the very dark sky
00:28:50in September, October
00:28:52and certainly
00:28:54this key star here
00:28:56which means germ of wheat
00:28:58was also significant
00:29:00because we believe
00:29:02that the initiates
00:29:03after this huge
00:29:04nine day ceremony
00:29:05were shown
00:29:06an ear of wheat
00:29:08as this sort of idea
00:29:09of perhaps celestial
00:29:10reincarnation
00:29:11or the secrets
00:29:12of agriculture
00:29:13or the gift
00:29:15of agriculture
00:29:16from Demeter
00:29:17to humanity.
00:29:18So this may actually
00:29:19be Demeter
00:29:20or Persephone
00:29:20appearing in the sky.
00:29:22We know this now
00:29:24as Virgo.
00:29:26The next constellation
00:29:27is Libra,
00:29:28the scales.
00:29:32And in a way
00:29:33the equilibrium
00:29:34of this constellation
00:29:36invokes scales
00:29:38for the Greeks.
00:29:39Scales were really important
00:29:40in antiquity
00:29:41because obviously
00:29:42it was the way
00:29:43that you weighed goods
00:29:45or products
00:29:46but also the Greeks
00:29:47saw scales
00:29:48as something
00:29:49that weighed souls.
00:29:51Something that kind of
00:29:52brought an idea
00:29:52of justice
00:29:53that your life
00:29:54was weighed
00:29:55on these great scales
00:29:56and you could
00:29:57you know
00:29:58the good and the bad
00:29:59laid next to each other.
00:30:01So the scales
00:30:01are really important
00:30:02for concepts
00:30:03of leading a good life.
00:30:06Next in the Zodiac
00:30:07is Scorpio
00:30:08the Scorpion.
00:30:12Sent by Gaia
00:30:13to defeat Orion.
00:30:15Orion boasts
00:30:16that he's going to
00:30:16rid the world
00:30:17of all animals.
00:30:18He's such a great hunter
00:30:19and Gaia's not having it
00:30:21so she creates
00:30:22the scorpion
00:30:23and sends it
00:30:24against Orion
00:30:25and the great giant hunter
00:30:27is felled
00:30:29by the sting
00:30:29of the scorpion.
00:30:30This astrological symbol
00:30:32reminds us
00:30:33do not mess with Gaia.
00:30:36Next
00:30:37is Sagittarius
00:30:38the archer.
00:30:40Here you can see
00:30:41the body
00:30:42of possibly
00:30:43another centaur
00:30:44holding
00:30:45a bow
00:30:46you can see
00:30:47the bow here
00:30:48and the arrow
00:30:49with the tail
00:30:50of the centaur
00:30:51going off
00:30:52into the distance.
00:30:53Archery is an interesting
00:30:54concept
00:30:55for the ancient Greeks.
00:30:57Obviously
00:30:58bowmen
00:30:59are important
00:30:59in Greek mythology.
00:31:01Heracles
00:31:01has a great bow
00:31:02that never misses.
00:31:04We also meet
00:31:05the archer
00:31:05Tusa
00:31:06who is a half
00:31:07Greek
00:31:07half Phrygian
00:31:08who fights
00:31:09with his half-brother
00:31:10Ajax
00:31:11at Troy
00:31:12and here we can see
00:31:13Sagittarius
00:31:15pulling back
00:31:15that bow
00:31:16and firing
00:31:17actually on Scorpius
00:31:19but by and large
00:31:20they regarded
00:31:21archery as dirty
00:31:22fighting
00:31:23like a sniper.
00:31:24They wanted to be
00:31:25infantrymen
00:31:25or cavalrymen
00:31:26and fight
00:31:27close quarter.
00:31:28Of course
00:31:29Achilles
00:31:29the greatest
00:31:30infantryman of all
00:31:31is brought down
00:31:32by an arrow
00:31:34fired into his ankle
00:31:35so we do see
00:31:36a lot of bows
00:31:37a lot of arrows
00:31:38in ancient mythology
00:31:40and the centaurs
00:31:42were known
00:31:42to be
00:31:43great bowmen.
00:31:45Now it may be
00:31:46that the centaurs
00:31:47were derived
00:31:47from the first contact
00:31:49between the Greeks
00:31:49and the Scythians.
00:31:51The Scythians
00:31:52were great horsemen
00:31:53and horsewomen
00:31:54and they were known
00:31:55to shoot
00:31:56forward and back
00:31:58from horseback
00:31:59and Sagittarius
00:32:00may be a representation
00:32:01of that contact
00:32:03with the ferocious Scythians.
00:32:06Next in the Zodiac
00:32:08is Capricorn
00:32:09the goat
00:32:10with the tail
00:32:11of a fish.
00:32:12Here you can see
00:32:13the large triangle
00:32:14is the body
00:32:14of the goat
00:32:15with the goat horns
00:32:16and there you can see
00:32:17the tail
00:32:18turning into a fish.
00:32:22Hybrid animals
00:32:23are very popular
00:32:24in Greek mythology.
00:32:26We can think
00:32:26of the chimera
00:32:27for example
00:32:27and here we can see
00:32:30Capricorn
00:32:30who may be
00:32:31the embodiment
00:32:32of the goat god
00:32:34Pan
00:32:34fleeing
00:32:35from the monster
00:32:36Typhon
00:32:37and jumping
00:32:38into the sea
00:32:38as if he transforms
00:32:40into a sea creature
00:32:42in order to avoid
00:32:43Typhon
00:32:43and being pursued
00:32:44by that great Titan.
00:32:47Next is Aquarius
00:32:49the water carrier
00:32:52and we imagine
00:32:53that the central line
00:32:55of stars
00:32:56is Aquarius' body
00:32:57and he's lifting up
00:32:59a water jug
00:33:00and pouring
00:33:01the water down
00:33:02and for the Greeks
00:33:04Aquarius
00:33:05was probably Ganymede
00:33:07the cup bearer
00:33:08of Zeus.
00:33:09Ganymede is a beautiful
00:33:10young man
00:33:11and Zeus
00:33:11wants him
00:33:12by his side
00:33:13so he transforms
00:33:14into an eagle
00:33:15or he sends
00:33:16his eagle
00:33:16that's the constellation
00:33:18Aquila
00:33:18down to earth
00:33:20to grab Ganymede
00:33:21and pull him up
00:33:22to heaven
00:33:22whether he likes it
00:33:23or not
00:33:24and Ganymede
00:33:25becomes the cup bearer
00:33:26of Zeus
00:33:28and here he is
00:33:28pouring out
00:33:29his celestial water.
00:33:31Next is Pisces
00:33:32the twin fish.
00:33:36Here you can see
00:33:37the head of the fish
00:33:38and their scaly bodies
00:33:40connected together.
00:33:41The myth of these fish
00:33:43actually comes
00:33:44from the Syrians
00:33:45the fish
00:33:46helped protect
00:33:48the goddess of fertility
00:33:49hiding her in the river
00:33:51and as a result
00:33:53we're told
00:33:54that the Syrians
00:33:55regarded fish
00:33:56as sacred
00:33:57and refused
00:33:58to eat them.
00:34:00One of the most
00:34:01compelling group
00:34:02of constellations
00:34:03in the northern sky
00:34:05told the myth
00:34:06of Andromeda
00:34:07who's shown
00:34:08laying
00:34:09across the southern sky
00:34:11with her arm
00:34:12up
00:34:13chained to a rock.
00:34:16Andromeda
00:34:17is a princess
00:34:18of Ethiopia
00:34:18and the Ethiopians
00:34:21are under a curse
00:34:21by Poseidon.
00:34:22he has flooded
00:34:24their community
00:34:25and the only way
00:34:26that they can make
00:34:27the waters recede
00:34:28is to offer a sacrifice.
00:34:30So Andromeda
00:34:31is stripped naked
00:34:33and tied up
00:34:34to this great rock
00:34:35on a cliff
00:34:36and is about
00:34:37to be devoured
00:34:38by a great sea monster
00:34:40called Cetus.
00:34:44This is an incredible
00:34:46constellation
00:34:46because it really does
00:34:47look like the Loch Ness Monster.
00:34:48This kind of huge
00:34:49long dinosaur-like body
00:34:51with this long neck
00:34:52and this kind of ugly head
00:34:53and these horns.
00:34:55Cetus is also called
00:34:56the whale
00:34:57and is just any
00:34:58large, massive,
00:35:00frightening sea creature
00:35:02that appears
00:35:03in the Andromeda myth.
00:35:05Luckily,
00:35:06the Greek hero
00:35:07Perseus
00:35:07is on his way home
00:35:09having decapitated
00:35:11Medusa the Gorgon.
00:35:13And next to Andromeda
00:35:15we actually see
00:35:16Pegasus
00:35:17which is the winged horse
00:35:19that Perseus rides.
00:35:22Pegasus
00:35:23emerged
00:35:24from the decapitated
00:35:25neck
00:35:26of Medusa
00:35:27when Perseus
00:35:29cut off her head.
00:35:30And Pegasus
00:35:31is a divine creature
00:35:33because
00:35:34he is the offspring
00:35:35of both Medusa
00:35:36and Poseidon.
00:35:38Poseidon is the god
00:35:38of the sea
00:35:39but he's known
00:35:40as the Earthshaker
00:35:41and he's depicted
00:35:42riding horses.
00:35:44So the idea
00:35:44of an earthquake
00:35:45is that Poseidon
00:35:46is thundering
00:35:47across the seabed
00:35:48and causing
00:35:49the Earth to shake.
00:35:50So it's fitting
00:35:51that one of his offspring
00:35:53would be a horse.
00:35:55Perseus
00:35:56is depicted
00:35:57riding this horse
00:35:58and swoops in
00:36:00and sees what's going
00:36:01on with Andromeda
00:36:02and this is one of our
00:36:04earliest Greek love stories.
00:36:06He falls instantly
00:36:07in love with Andromeda.
00:36:09He doesn't care about
00:36:10why she's being sacrificed.
00:36:11And in some versions
00:36:13of the myth
00:36:13he takes out
00:36:14the head of Medusa
00:36:15which we know
00:36:16petrifies anybody
00:36:18who looks at her,
00:36:19holds it up
00:36:20and turns Cetus,
00:36:21this great sea monster,
00:36:23into a rock.
00:36:25He then takes Andromeda
00:36:27and makes Andromeda
00:36:29his wife.
00:36:30Above Andromeda,
00:36:32those cluster of bright stars
00:36:34is Cassiopeia.
00:36:36Cassiopeia is the mother
00:36:38of Andromeda
00:36:38who consented
00:36:39to her sacrifice
00:36:40and she's depicted
00:36:42in the constellations
00:36:44as if seated
00:36:45on a throne
00:36:46constantly spinning
00:36:47as a punishment.
00:36:49In some versions
00:36:50of the Cassiopeia myth
00:36:51she's said to be
00:36:52eternally looking
00:36:53at her reflection
00:36:54in a mirror.
00:36:55One of the reasons
00:36:56why she was punished
00:36:58is she claimed
00:36:59her daughter Andromeda
00:37:00was more beautiful
00:37:01than the gods.
00:37:03Here we can see
00:37:05Cepheus
00:37:05where we see
00:37:06a triangle
00:37:06associated with a box.
00:37:08This is the body
00:37:09of King Cepheus
00:37:10anchored to a throne
00:37:12and he too
00:37:14is in this
00:37:15eternal spinning
00:37:16as a punishment
00:37:17for his arrogance.
00:37:19Perseus
00:37:19marries Andromeda
00:37:21they go back
00:37:21and live in Greece
00:37:22he recovers his kingdom
00:37:23he sets up a home
00:37:25in the region of Argos
00:37:26and they become
00:37:27the ancestors
00:37:28of Heracles.
00:37:31In this depiction
00:37:32of Perseus
00:37:33we may actually
00:37:34be seeing
00:37:35his winged shoes
00:37:36that are given
00:37:37to him by Hermes
00:37:38in order for him
00:37:39to fly across
00:37:41the universe
00:37:41and go to the ends
00:37:43of the world
00:37:43to the lair of the Gorgons
00:37:45and find Medusa.
00:37:47He's also given
00:37:48a cap of invisibility
00:37:49and a highly polished shield
00:37:52which acts as a mirror
00:37:53which enables him
00:37:55to land his blow
00:37:56without actually
00:37:57looking at the face
00:37:59of Medusa.
00:38:00Medusa's an interesting
00:38:01character because
00:38:02many Greek warriors
00:38:03actually painted
00:38:04the face of Medusa
00:38:05on their shields.
00:38:06Also we see
00:38:07the face of Medusa
00:38:08in drinking cups.
00:38:10Greek wine was
00:38:11very thick and heavy
00:38:12so you wouldn't see
00:38:13Medusa until you
00:38:14drank the wine
00:38:15and then the head
00:38:16of Medusa
00:38:17would be staring
00:38:17back at you
00:38:18as you got progressively
00:38:19more and more drunk.
00:38:21So Medusa becomes
00:38:22a really popular image
00:38:23in Greek art
00:38:24but she really
00:38:25is a symbol
00:38:26of the power
00:38:27of goddesses
00:38:29to turn you
00:38:30to stone
00:38:30to petrify you
00:38:31unless you treat
00:38:32them with respect.
00:38:38In the northern sky
00:38:40were a series
00:38:40of constellations
00:38:41that were incredibly
00:38:42important to the Greeks
00:38:44particularly for navigation.
00:38:46We see here
00:38:47the great bear
00:38:48Ursa Major
00:38:50and next to it
00:38:51Ursa Minor
00:38:53the little bear.
00:38:55These are very
00:38:56distinctive constellations
00:38:58because they contain
00:38:59the big dipper
00:39:00or the plough
00:39:01and the little dipper
00:39:03which of course
00:39:04has the pole star
00:39:05so this was essential
00:39:06for navigation
00:39:07today and in
00:39:08the ancient world.
00:39:09There's various myths
00:39:10associated
00:39:11with these two bears.
00:39:13One of them
00:39:14which I think
00:39:15is significant
00:39:17is that they're
00:39:18regarded as
00:39:19the nursemaids
00:39:20who took care
00:39:21of Zeus
00:39:22when he was hidden
00:39:23from his father
00:39:24Kronos.
00:39:25Kronos received
00:39:25the prophecy
00:39:26that he would
00:39:27be overthrown
00:39:28by one of his
00:39:28divine children
00:39:29as he himself
00:39:30overthrew his own
00:39:31father Oronus
00:39:32so he decided
00:39:33to basically
00:39:34devour his children
00:39:35and eat them.
00:39:36His wife Rhea
00:39:38distraught
00:39:39took the last
00:39:40of her children
00:39:41Zeus
00:39:41the youngest child
00:39:42and hid him
00:39:44in the Idean
00:39:45cave in Crete
00:39:46and instead
00:39:47she took a rock
00:39:48wrapped it
00:39:48in swaddling clothes
00:39:49fed that
00:39:50to Kronos
00:39:51and Kronos
00:39:52swallowed that rock.
00:39:53Ultimately
00:39:54he would vomit
00:39:55up that rock
00:39:55that rock
00:39:56would fall
00:39:57to the earth
00:39:57land at Delphi
00:39:59and become
00:39:59what's called
00:40:00the Omphilus stone
00:40:01which is the center
00:40:02of the world
00:40:03at Apollo
00:40:04shrine at Delphi
00:40:05and then that
00:40:05would release
00:40:06all the other
00:40:08gods who would
00:40:09eventually overthrow
00:40:10Kronos.
00:40:11As for Zeus
00:40:12these two
00:40:13bear figures
00:40:14who are sort of
00:40:14nursemaids to Zeus
00:40:16they organized
00:40:17the curates
00:40:18who are these
00:40:18bronze-clad warriors
00:40:20to sing
00:40:21and dance
00:40:21and clash
00:40:22their weapons
00:40:23and clash
00:40:23cymbals
00:40:24in order to
00:40:25cover the sound
00:40:26of the baby crying
00:40:27and protect Zeus
00:40:28to allow Zeus
00:40:30not to be devoured
00:40:31by Kronos.
00:40:34Next
00:40:35of the two plows
00:40:36is the plowman
00:40:37Boetes.
00:40:42actually there's
00:40:43the handle
00:40:43of the big dipper
00:40:44known as the plow
00:40:45in many cultures
00:40:46and over here
00:40:47is Boetes
00:40:48who is the plowman.
00:40:50Here we can see
00:40:51the body
00:40:51of Boetes
00:40:53the plowman
00:40:53and either his feet
00:40:54or perhaps
00:40:55he's pushing
00:40:56the plow itself.
00:40:57This too
00:40:58was a really
00:40:58significant constellation
00:40:59we hear about
00:41:00this constellation
00:41:01in the Odyssey
00:41:02and in Hesiod
00:41:03back in the 7th century BCE
00:41:05so we knew
00:41:06that the Greeks
00:41:06knew it
00:41:07they navigated
00:41:08by it
00:41:08and also
00:41:09it was the sign
00:41:11to plow
00:41:12usually in the late fall.
00:41:16Also in this group
00:41:17we see the Corona Borealis.
00:41:22This is the northern crown
00:41:24or what the ancient Greeks
00:41:26called the Stephanos
00:41:27which meant a wreath.
00:41:28There's actually
00:41:29two crowns
00:41:30both called
00:41:31Stephanoi
00:41:31in Greek
00:41:32which means crown
00:41:34or wreath
00:41:34but this one
00:41:35is regarded
00:41:35as the crown
00:41:36of Ariadne
00:41:37when she becomes
00:41:38Queen of Argos.
00:41:39Some ancient writers
00:41:40connected that wreath
00:41:41with what the followers
00:41:42of Dionysus
00:41:43would wear on their heads.
00:41:45Dionysus
00:41:45was the god of wine
00:41:47and the mask
00:41:48and ecstasy
00:41:49and following Dionysus
00:41:51was to step out
00:41:52of your normal day to day
00:41:53and literally party
00:41:55or watch the theatre
00:41:57or dance
00:41:58or sing
00:41:59and being wrapped
00:42:01in a myrtle wreath
00:42:01was a sign
00:42:02that you were a follower
00:42:03of that god.
00:42:05One of the largest
00:42:06constellations in the sky
00:42:08was the Argo Navis.
00:42:11Here we can see
00:42:12the prow of the ship
00:42:14known as Pupis
00:42:15the body of the ship
00:42:16next to it
00:42:17and Vela is the sail
00:42:19where we see the ship
00:42:20being blown
00:42:21across the universe.
00:42:22This is associated
00:42:24with the Argo
00:42:25which is the famous ship
00:42:27built for Jason
00:42:28and the Argonauts
00:42:29the travellers
00:42:30on the Argo
00:42:31in their search
00:42:32for the Golden Fleece.
00:42:34Jason is another
00:42:35heroic character
00:42:37who must go on a quest
00:42:38in order to reclaim
00:42:39his rightful place
00:42:41as the ruler
00:42:42of a Greek community
00:42:43and he sells the Argo
00:42:45to the fringes
00:42:46of the Greek world
00:42:47through the Black Sea
00:42:49to the ancient kingdom
00:42:50of Colchis
00:42:51where he too
00:42:52must face
00:42:53a great Draco figure
00:42:55who is protecting
00:42:56the Golden Fleece.
00:42:58He's unable
00:42:59to do this alone
00:43:00so he gains
00:43:02the help
00:43:02of the Princess Medea
00:43:04who is a native
00:43:05of Colchis.
00:43:07Medea is known
00:43:07for her extensive
00:43:08knowledge
00:43:09of pharmacology
00:43:11poisons
00:43:12plants
00:43:13healing
00:43:14in fact
00:43:14our term medical
00:43:15is associated
00:43:16with the word
00:43:17Medea
00:43:18it means forethinker
00:43:19or somebody who plans.
00:43:21Jason clearly
00:43:22needs this help
00:43:23in some versions
00:43:24of the myth
00:43:25he's actually
00:43:26swallowed
00:43:26by Draco
00:43:27and Medea
00:43:28lulls it to sleep
00:43:29in other versions
00:43:31they rub
00:43:32an ointment
00:43:34on Draco
00:43:34which also makes
00:43:35the snake fall asleep
00:43:36enabling Jason
00:43:37to take the Golden Fleece
00:43:39and return
00:43:40on the Argo
00:43:41back to Greece.
00:43:42This is a huge
00:43:43constellation
00:43:44the Argo
00:43:45also in some versions
00:43:47of the story
00:43:48contains a figurehead
00:43:49to Hera
00:43:50and Hera
00:43:51actually helps Jason
00:43:52in recovering
00:43:53the Golden Fleece
00:43:54and he brings
00:43:56back
00:43:56from Colchis
00:43:58Medea
00:43:58according to one version
00:44:01Medea has brought
00:44:02her young brother
00:44:03with her
00:44:03and in order
00:44:05to slow down
00:44:05her father
00:44:06she kills her brother
00:44:08cuts his body
00:44:09up into pieces
00:44:10throws it across
00:44:11the prairie
00:44:12of the ship
00:44:12and then her father
00:44:14has to stop
00:44:15and recover
00:44:16the pieces
00:44:16of his son
00:44:17and this allows
00:44:18the Argo
00:44:19to sail away.
00:44:20So here we see
00:44:21the Argo
00:44:22ploughing through
00:44:23the universe.
00:44:26A small constellation
00:44:27connected to the myth
00:44:29of Jason
00:44:29is Lyra
00:44:30the Lyre.
00:44:33This is the instrument
00:44:34of Orpheus
00:44:35who was one of the
00:44:36Argonauts
00:44:37aboard the Argo
00:44:38and Orpheus
00:44:39was said to be able
00:44:40to charm anybody
00:44:41including the gods
00:44:43with the sound
00:44:44of the Lyre
00:44:44and his singing voice.
00:44:46The Lyre is important
00:44:47that's where we get
00:44:48the word lyric from
00:44:49the Greeks regarded
00:44:50music as having
00:44:51the ability
00:44:52to charm the soul
00:44:53including the souls
00:44:54of the gods
00:44:55and so the famous
00:44:56story of Orpheus
00:44:57is that on his
00:44:58wedding day
00:44:59his wife Eurydice
00:45:00dies
00:45:01and so Orpheus
00:45:02goes down
00:45:03into the underworld
00:45:04and charms Hades
00:45:06with his beautiful
00:45:06singing
00:45:07and the strumming
00:45:08of his lyre
00:45:08to the point
00:45:09where Hades agrees
00:45:10to let Eurydice
00:45:12go back to earth
00:45:13with Orpheus
00:45:15on the condition
00:45:16that Orpheus
00:45:17trusts that Eurydice
00:45:18is behind him
00:45:19and doesn't look back
00:45:20Orpheus can't resist
00:45:22checking that Eurydice
00:45:24is behind him
00:45:25he catches a glance
00:45:26and at that moment
00:45:27Eurydice is pulled
00:45:28back into the underworld
00:45:30Orpheus then goes on
00:45:32to sing his song
00:45:33across the Greek world
00:45:35ultimately
00:45:36he is destroyed
00:45:37by the followers
00:45:38of Dionysus
00:45:39the Maenads
00:45:40who tear him apart
00:45:41cut off his head
00:45:42throw it into the sea
00:45:44but the head
00:45:44keeps on singing
00:45:47also in the northern sky
00:45:49we see one of my
00:45:50favourite constellations
00:45:51Ophicius
00:45:55Ophicius is the serpent handler
00:45:57the Greeks probably saw
00:45:59this figure as Asclepius
00:46:01Asclepius is the mortal
00:46:03son of Apollo
00:46:04he becomes the founder
00:46:06of the cult of Asclepius
00:46:08which is a healing cult
00:46:10which actually spread
00:46:11throughout Greece
00:46:12from the 5th century onwards
00:46:13and becomes really
00:46:15a dominant form
00:46:17that the Greeks
00:46:17found healing
00:46:19through these Asclepians
00:46:21which are really hospitals
00:46:22and actually
00:46:24the Hippocratic corpus
00:46:25where kind of modern
00:46:26western medicine
00:46:27is developed from
00:46:28all of the Hippocratic writers
00:46:30were priests of Asclepius
00:46:32they were healers
00:46:33when you
00:46:34went for treatment
00:46:36at one of these hospitals
00:46:38you actually
00:46:39had to practice
00:46:41something called incubation
00:46:42which is you
00:46:43you went to sleep
00:46:44in the sanctuary
00:46:44and then you were
00:46:46sort of visited
00:46:46by these serpents
00:46:47and they would
00:46:49give you dreams
00:46:50and then you
00:46:51woke from the sleep
00:46:52and the priests
00:46:53would interpret
00:46:54your dream
00:46:54and then they would
00:46:55do the surgery
00:46:56or then they would
00:46:57do whatever you needed
00:46:58and apparently
00:46:59this was a very
00:47:00effective way
00:47:01of curing people
00:47:03both the mind
00:47:04and the body
00:47:04the snake
00:47:05was seen as a symbol
00:47:07of life and death
00:47:08it would shed its skin
00:47:09and yet survive
00:47:10it lived beneath the earth
00:47:12and on the earth
00:47:13so picking up a snake
00:47:15and holding it away
00:47:16from the earth
00:47:17is a sense
00:47:18that you've restored life
00:47:19and this is what
00:47:20Asclepius was famous for
00:47:22he actually
00:47:23did bring a dead person
00:47:25back to life
00:47:25he was punished
00:47:26for that
00:47:27by Zeus
00:47:28but he was followed
00:47:30by an enormous amount
00:47:31of real doctors
00:47:32in the ancient world
00:47:33and his healing sanctuaries
00:47:35the Asclepians
00:47:35were all over
00:47:36the Greek world
00:47:38and here we see
00:47:40serpents
00:47:40an individual constellation
00:47:42but also part
00:47:44of the constellation
00:47:44of Vycus
00:47:45the snake handler
00:47:47or Asclepius
00:47:48holding his snake
00:47:50above the earth
00:47:51adjacent to Centaurus
00:47:53is Ara
00:47:54the altar
00:47:55and above Ara
00:47:57you can see Lupus
00:48:01some of the stories
00:48:03of Ara
00:48:03is that the centaur
00:48:05possibly Chiron
00:48:06is holding the wolf Lupus
00:48:08and sacrificing it
00:48:10over the altar
00:48:11to the gods
00:48:12altars are incredibly important
00:48:14in both Greek
00:48:16and Roman mythology
00:48:17but also real cult practice
00:48:19to sacrifice an animal
00:48:21on an altar
00:48:22is to communicate
00:48:23with the gods
00:48:24Hesiod tells us
00:48:26a really great story
00:48:27about an altar
00:48:27which is that
00:48:29Prometheus
00:48:30the Titan
00:48:31he told humans
00:48:32when you kill an animal
00:48:34you need to trick Zeus
00:48:35and what you need to do
00:48:37is butcher the animal
00:48:38take all the meat
00:48:39and put it on one side
00:48:41in a pile
00:48:42but make it kind of
00:48:43look unruly
00:48:44and then
00:48:45take all the
00:48:46parts of the animal
00:48:47you're not going to eat
00:48:48the splagmata
00:48:50which is a great Greek word
00:48:51for guts
00:48:51and the bones
00:48:52and sew it all back up
00:48:54in a skin
00:48:54kind of resurrect the animal
00:48:56if you like
00:48:56and put that on one side
00:48:58then ask Zeus
00:48:59what do you want
00:49:00you want this
00:49:00reconstituted animal
00:49:02or you want this
00:49:02horrible pile of flesh
00:49:04and Zeus
00:49:04picks the reconstituted animal
00:49:07which is why
00:49:08you burn those parts
00:49:09and send that up
00:49:11as a sacrifice
00:49:12to the gods
00:49:13now of course
00:49:14this makes sense
00:49:15right
00:49:15because if you're going
00:49:15to butcher an animal
00:49:16you've got to get rid
00:49:18of the body parts
00:49:18if you leave them
00:49:19lying around
00:49:20everybody's going
00:49:21to get sick
00:49:21so this is a great
00:49:22etiological myth
00:49:23explaining and justifying
00:49:25why the humans
00:49:26are getting the good stuff
00:49:27and they're kind of
00:49:28burning all the crap
00:49:28and sending that to the gods
00:49:30but nevertheless
00:49:31without sacrifice
00:49:33the gods are not worshipped
00:49:34so this is a really
00:49:35really important part
00:49:37of ancient culture
00:49:38so the Aura
00:49:39is an important constellation
00:49:41reminding the Greeks
00:49:42of their relationship
00:49:43with the divine
00:49:44of course occasionally
00:49:45the Aura
00:49:46the altar
00:49:47is used for human sacrifice
00:49:49and the question is
00:49:51did the Greeks
00:49:51ever practice
00:49:52human sacrifice
00:49:53we'd like to think not
00:49:54but maybe now
00:49:56there's some
00:49:56archaeological evidence
00:49:57from the Peloponnese
00:49:59that perhaps
00:50:00they may have done
00:50:01in certain situations
00:50:02the jury is still
00:50:03out on this
00:50:04but we should be open
00:50:06to the fact
00:50:06that occasionally
00:50:07it may have happened
00:50:07we certainly have
00:50:08an enormous amount
00:50:09of myths
00:50:10about human sacrifice
00:50:12when Achilles
00:50:13is cremated
00:50:15they take 12
00:50:16Trojan boys
00:50:17slit their throats
00:50:18and burn them
00:50:19on the pyre
00:50:20alongside Achilles
00:50:22and of course
00:50:23the Trojan War
00:50:23itself is launched
00:50:25because Agamemnon
00:50:26sacrifices his own
00:50:27daughter on an altar
00:50:29face down
00:50:30like a sacrificial goat
00:50:32and slits her throat
00:50:33and allows the blood
00:50:35to fall onto the altar
00:50:36and this basically
00:50:38gives them
00:50:39favourable winds
00:50:40to send the fleet
00:50:42upon Troy
00:50:42so the altar
00:50:44can also be
00:50:45a very negative
00:50:45symbol as well
00:50:47and remind
00:50:49the Greeks
00:50:50of some of these
00:50:51negative myths
00:50:51of human sacrifice
00:50:55and here
00:50:56connected with
00:50:57the theme of water
00:50:58is Eridanus
00:50:59the great river
00:51:03and there you can see
00:51:04the river
00:51:05meandering
00:51:05through the cosmos
00:51:07there's a fascinating
00:51:08myth associated
00:51:09with Eridanus
00:51:10which is that
00:51:11Phaethon
00:51:12who is the son
00:51:13of Helios
00:51:14desperately wants
00:51:15to drive
00:51:16his father's chariot
00:51:17across the sky
00:51:18this is the
00:51:19chariot of the sun
00:51:20that brings the sun
00:51:23to mortals
00:51:24and Helios is like
00:51:25you're not ready
00:51:26to drive this chariot
00:51:26you can't handle it
00:51:27so obviously
00:51:28like any teenage boy
00:51:29he waits
00:51:29until his dad's
00:51:30not around
00:51:30and he gets
00:51:31in the chariot
00:51:32and he tries
00:51:32to drive it
00:51:33and the horses
00:51:34of the sun
00:51:35recognise
00:51:35that this kid
00:51:36does not know
00:51:37what they're doing
00:51:38so they buck
00:51:39and they take him
00:51:40on this wild
00:51:41crazy ride
00:51:42and he scorches
00:51:43the earth
00:51:44and eventually
00:51:45they end up
00:51:46flipping him
00:51:47out of the chariot
00:51:47and he falls
00:51:48headlong
00:51:49into this river
00:51:50and the river
00:51:51itself is scorched
00:51:52and this is
00:51:53what we see here
00:51:55here is Piscis
00:51:57Austrinus
00:51:58the big fish
00:52:02really the parent
00:52:03of Pisces
00:52:04also connected
00:52:06with that same
00:52:07Syrian story
00:52:08of protecting
00:52:09the fertility goddess
00:52:10that's the big fish
00:52:14a distinctive
00:52:15northern constellation
00:52:16is Cygnus
00:52:17the great swan
00:52:22there you can see
00:52:23the wingspan
00:52:24of Cygnus
00:52:25going up to its
00:52:26beak
00:52:26and its tail
00:52:27we immediately
00:52:28think of Zeus
00:52:29coming as a swan
00:52:31to Leda
00:52:32and producing
00:52:33the famous egg
00:52:35also the swan
00:52:36is the bird
00:52:38most closely
00:52:39associated with
00:52:40Aphrodite
00:52:41the goddess
00:52:42of erotic love
00:52:43so the swan
00:52:44is a symbol
00:52:44of eroticism
00:52:45and the power
00:52:46of erotic love
00:52:50a very important
00:52:52bird astrological sign
00:52:53was Aquila
00:52:55the eagle
00:52:58there you can see
00:52:59the large wingspan
00:53:00of the eagle
00:53:01the head
00:53:02of the eagle
00:53:03either side
00:53:04of the star
00:53:04altar
00:53:05and the eagle's tail
00:53:06and this is
00:53:07the sacred bird
00:53:09of Zeus
00:53:10Zeus often transforms
00:53:12into an eagle
00:53:13it also becomes
00:53:15the imperial symbol
00:53:16of Rome
00:53:17we can think
00:53:18of the Roman legions
00:53:19who each of them
00:53:21had a golden eagle
00:53:23which was their
00:53:24sacred divine symbol
00:53:25and their greatest
00:53:27warrior
00:53:27would be the
00:53:28aquifer
00:53:29he would be the one
00:53:30to hold the Aquila
00:53:31and interestingly enough
00:53:33he would be dressed
00:53:34as a lion man
00:53:35or a bear warrior
00:53:36protecting that symbol
00:53:37if he went down
00:53:39in battle
00:53:40that was of great
00:53:41disgrace to the legion
00:53:42and the legion
00:53:43was decimated
00:53:43one man in ten
00:53:44was put to death
00:53:45Julius Caesar
00:53:46tells a story
00:53:47that when he invaded
00:53:48Britain the first time
00:53:50his battle hardened
00:53:51troops did not
00:53:52want to get off
00:53:53the ship
00:53:54because the Britons
00:53:55were pretty much
00:53:56covered in kind of
00:53:57blue paint
00:53:57naked and screaming
00:53:58and they just
00:53:59didn't want to
00:53:59deal with them
00:54:00and the aquifer
00:54:01jumped into
00:54:02the icy English channel
00:54:04and strode
00:54:05into the battle
00:54:06and the rest of the men
00:54:07knew they had to
00:54:08go with him
00:54:09otherwise they would
00:54:10be decimated
00:54:10so the eagle
00:54:12is a really
00:54:12really powerful symbol
00:54:13of course it's
00:54:14the symbol
00:54:15of the United States
00:54:16right so it's still
00:54:16with us today
00:54:17Ovid the great
00:54:18Roman writer
00:54:19who wrote his book
00:54:20Metamorphosis
00:54:21was fascinated
00:54:22by the idea
00:54:23of human animal
00:54:24transformation
00:54:25and divine
00:54:26animal transformation
00:54:27so many of these
00:54:28constellations
00:54:29tell those stories
00:54:31a small but important
00:54:33constellation
00:54:34is Delphinus
00:54:35the dolphin
00:54:38there you can see
00:54:39the dolphin shape
00:54:40in its tail
00:54:41the dolphin is
00:54:42associated with
00:54:43Dionysus
00:54:43because they tended
00:54:45to surround
00:54:46Greek ships
00:54:47and seem like
00:54:48a chorus
00:54:48also we see
00:54:50monuments
00:54:51to Dionysus
00:54:52with humans
00:54:53jumping into the water
00:54:54turning into dolphins
00:54:56one of the most
00:54:57famous dolphins
00:54:57is the dolphin
00:54:59that rescued
00:54:59the poet
00:55:00Orion
00:55:01who is captured
00:55:03by pirates
00:55:04and sings a song
00:55:05that calls the dolphin
00:55:07then jumps into the sea
00:55:08and rides on the back
00:55:09of a dolphin
00:55:10and is delivered
00:55:11to safety
00:55:11and then he's able
00:55:12to meet up
00:55:13with the pirates
00:55:14and indict them
00:55:15for his crime
00:55:16and they're punished
00:55:17Dionysus is also
00:55:18saved by dolphins
00:55:19when he too
00:55:20was captured
00:55:21by pirates
00:55:22he turns the pirate ship
00:55:24into a vine
00:55:25leaps into the sea
00:55:26and the dolphins
00:55:27protect him
00:55:30this is Auriga
00:55:31the charioteer
00:55:35this constellation
00:55:37was most closely
00:55:39associated
00:55:40by the Athenians
00:55:41by the Greeks
00:55:41with Eric Thonus
00:55:43Eric Thonus
00:55:44was said to invent
00:55:45the chariot
00:55:46he is regarded
00:55:48as the son
00:55:48of Hephaestus
00:55:49who's the god
00:55:50of the forge
00:55:51and the god
00:55:52of technology
00:55:52and Athena
00:55:53now how can Athena
00:55:55have a son
00:55:56if Athena
00:55:56is Parthenos
00:55:57the celestial virgin
00:55:59well the story
00:56:00is told
00:56:01that Hephaestus
00:56:02is pursuing Athena
00:56:03Athena's kind of
00:56:04ignoring him
00:56:05she happens to be
00:56:07flying over Athens
00:56:08at that moment
00:56:09Hephaestus
00:56:10can't control himself
00:56:11anymore
00:56:11he ejaculates
00:56:12his celestial sperm
00:56:14glances off
00:56:15the thigh of Athena
00:56:16Athena disgusted
00:56:17takes some wool
00:56:18from Athens
00:56:20wipes off the sperm
00:56:21throws it onto the ground
00:56:23and this is what
00:56:24produces Eric Thonus
00:56:26of the earth
00:56:28and this is how
00:56:29the Athenians
00:56:30claim some kind
00:56:31of descent
00:56:32from the virgin
00:56:33goddess herself
00:56:34and within this
00:56:35constellation
00:56:36this idea
00:56:37of the charioteer
00:56:38is that
00:56:38through his
00:56:40connection
00:56:41with Hephaestus
00:56:42he creates
00:56:43the first ever chariot
00:56:47here we see
00:56:48triangulum
00:56:49the triangle
00:56:52the triangle
00:56:53was a sacred object
00:56:55to the Greeks
00:56:56they based a lot
00:56:56of their architectural
00:56:57temple building
00:56:58on the triangle
00:56:59itself
00:57:00so the triangle
00:57:01in the sky
00:57:02is a nod
00:57:03towards the sacredness
00:57:04of the triangle
00:57:05in Greek cultural
00:57:06and religious life
00:57:08here we see
00:57:09Aquelius
00:57:10the little horse
00:57:11which is a horse's head
00:57:12in the sky
00:57:16this is the sort of
00:57:18face of a horse
00:57:19emerging
00:57:20possibly
00:57:20the sibling
00:57:21of Pegasus
00:57:24here we see
00:57:25the southern crown
00:57:26you can see
00:57:26the arc
00:57:27of those bright
00:57:28stars
00:57:29this is Corona
00:57:31Australis
00:57:33mythologically
00:57:33this is associated
00:57:35with the crown
00:57:35of Dionysus
00:57:41and here
00:57:41you can see
00:57:42Sagitta
00:57:43the arrow
00:57:44dashing
00:57:45across the universe
00:57:47we can see it here
00:57:49very clear
00:57:49these three stars
00:57:50and these two stars
00:57:51here making up
00:57:52the feathers
00:57:52of the arrow
00:57:53the arrow
00:57:53is kind of going
00:57:54in a different direction
00:57:55but we might want
00:57:56to think of the arrow
00:57:57as maybe the arrow
00:57:58that Heracles fires
00:58:00on the eagles
00:58:02or the vultures
00:58:03who are pecking out
00:58:04the liver
00:58:05every day of Prometheus
00:58:06Prometheus is a titan
00:58:08who basically
00:58:10gives the gift
00:58:11of fire
00:58:11to humanity
00:58:12this is really
00:58:13what sets humanity
00:58:15on the road
00:58:16to technology
00:58:16and Zeus is furious
00:58:18right
00:58:19because Zeus
00:58:19controls fire
00:58:20that's his thunderbolt
00:58:21and Prometheus
00:58:23has given this
00:58:23to the humans
00:58:24because he wants
00:58:24to create some balance
00:58:25between humanity
00:58:27and the gods
00:58:28so Zeus
00:58:29takes Prometheus
00:58:30and chains him
00:58:31to a rock
00:58:31and every day
00:58:32an eagle comes
00:58:34and pecks out
00:58:34his liver
00:58:35and every day
00:58:36the liver grows back
00:58:37the next day
00:58:38the eagle comes
00:58:39and Heracles
00:58:39is said to free Prometheus
00:58:41by shooting his arrow
00:58:43at the eagle
00:58:44I mean here
00:58:45the arrow
00:58:45is kind of missing
00:58:46it's in such
00:58:47close proximity
00:58:48to Aquila
00:58:49that it definitely
00:58:50makes
00:58:50it made ancient minds
00:58:52think about that story
00:58:53well Heracles
00:58:54may have freed Prometheus
00:58:55but I guess Zeus
00:58:57had the last laugh
00:58:58because he's now concerned
00:58:59that humans
00:59:00have got the technology
00:59:01that's going to
00:59:02turn them into gods
00:59:03so Hesiod
00:59:04tells the story
00:59:05that the gods
00:59:06create the first woman
00:59:07Pandora
00:59:08and they create her
00:59:10to basically distract
00:59:11the men
00:59:11from doing anything
00:59:12valuable with their lives
00:59:14it's a pretty sexist
00:59:15misogynistic story
00:59:16and it was probably
00:59:17told to a kind of
00:59:18all male crowd
00:59:18back in the 7th century BC
00:59:20but it gives us
00:59:21the sense that the Pandora
00:59:23the all giving
00:59:24is sent to humanity
00:59:26to actually
00:59:27balance things
00:59:29and stop them
00:59:30from taking fire
00:59:31and taking over Olympus
00:59:34so these 48 constellations
00:59:36are not all the constellations
00:59:38that we see in the sky today
00:59:39NASA now recognizes 88
00:59:41but these 48
00:59:43were the most prominent ones
00:59:44known to the Greeks
00:59:46catalogued by ancient writers
00:59:47particularly Ptolemy
00:59:48that have come down to us
00:59:50and are almost certainly
00:59:51based on
00:59:52much more ancient
00:59:53Mesopotamian system
00:59:55of astrology
00:59:56so they were significant
00:59:58we hear about many of them
01:00:00in Greek texts
01:00:00and we know that the Greeks
01:00:02navigated by them
01:00:03they pulsed their rituals
01:00:05to them
01:00:06they planted
01:00:06plowed by them
01:00:08they were significant
01:00:09and if one thinks about
01:00:10the Greek world
01:00:11at night
01:00:12there was no light pollution
01:00:13at all
01:00:14so you would see
01:00:15these constellations
01:00:17really bright
01:00:18in the sky
01:00:19they were really significant
01:00:21and important
01:00:22and particularly
01:00:22if you were sailing
01:00:23if you wanted to
01:00:25to cross
01:00:25a large body of water
01:00:27which was very dangerous
01:00:28your only hope of getting
01:00:29where you needed to go
01:00:30was to trust the stars
01:00:31in the sky
01:00:32there's a wonderful opening
01:00:34to a play called
01:00:35the Agamemnon
01:00:35when a watchman
01:00:36on the roof
01:00:37of the house of Atreus
01:00:38looks up at the sky
01:00:39and says
01:00:40how well I've come to know
01:00:42Nike's congregation
01:00:43of stars
01:00:44and he calls them
01:00:45the blazing monarchs
01:00:46of the sky
01:00:46and then he says
01:00:47those that bring winter
01:00:49and those that bring summer
01:00:50to us mortals
01:00:51I know just when they rise
01:00:53and when they set
01:00:54so clearly
01:00:55the Greeks knew
01:00:56the way the stars moved
01:00:59probably way better
01:01:00than we do
01:01:00and they governed
01:01:01their lives by them
01:01:02also we find
01:01:04philosophers like Plato
01:01:05seeing the stars
01:01:07as a reflection
01:01:08of humanity
01:01:08he believed
01:01:10that if you led
01:01:10a good life
01:01:11there was a parallel star
01:01:13for you
01:01:13up there in the universe
01:01:15and that you became
01:01:16that star
01:01:17and then you
01:01:17could be reincarnated again
01:01:19as a human
01:01:20back on earth
01:01:21so there was this
01:01:22sort of reciprocity
01:01:23between you on earth
01:01:24and the stars in the sky
01:01:25so they were
01:01:27the natural order of things
01:01:28they were the pulse
01:01:29of the world
01:01:30they were the heavens
01:01:31the Milky Way
01:01:32which could be seen
01:01:34really clearly at night
01:01:35was seen as a way
01:01:36up into
01:01:38the realm of the gods
01:01:39there's no way
01:01:40you could ignore them
01:01:41and they were of great
01:01:42importance to all
01:01:43ancient peoples
01:01:43and they were the
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