The ''Catasterismi'' or ''Catasterisms'' ( Greek Καταστερισμοί ''Katasterismoi'', "Constellations" or "Placings Among the Stars") is a lost work by

Eratosthenes Eratosthenes of Cyrene (; ; – ) was an Ancient Greek polymath: a Greek mathematics, mathematician, geographer, poet, astronomer, and music theory, music theorist. He was a man of learning, becoming the chief librarian at the Library of A ...

of Cyrene. It was a comprehensive compendium of astral mythology including origin myths of the stars and

constellation A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The first constellati ...

s. Only a summary of the original work survives, called the ''Epitome Catasterismorum'', by an unknown author sometimes referred to as pseudo-Eratosthenes.

Summary

The ''Epitome'' records the mature and definitive development of a long process: the Hellenes' assimilation of a Mesopotamian

zodiac The zodiac is a belt-shaped region of the sky that extends approximately 8° north and south celestial latitude of the ecliptic – the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year. Within this zodiac ...

, transmitted through Persian interpreters and translated and harmonized with the known terms of

Greek mythology Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ...

. A fundamental effort in this translation was the application of Greek mythic nomenclature to designate individual stars, both asterisms like the

Pleiades The Pleiades (), also known as Seven Sisters and Messier 45 (M45), is an Asterism (astronomy), asterism of an open cluster, open star cluster containing young Stellar classification#Class B, B-type stars in the northwest of the constellation Tau ...

and Hyades, and the constellations. In

Classical Greece Classical Greece was a period of around 200 years (the 5th and 4th centuries BC) in ancient Greece,The "Classical Age" is "the modern designation of the period from about 500 B.C. to the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C." ( Thomas R. Mar ...

, the "wandering stars" and the gods who directed them were separate entities, as for

Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...

; in Hellenistic culture, the association became an inseparable identification, so that

Apollo Apollo is one of the Twelve Olympians, Olympian deities in Ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek and Ancient Roman religion, Roman religion and Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, mu ...

, no longer the regent of the Sun, actually ''was''

Helios In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, Helios (; ; Homeric Greek: ) is the god who personification, personifies the Sun. His name is also Latinized as Helius, and he is often given the epithets Hyperion ("the one above") an ...

(Seznec 1981, pp 37–40). Chapters 1–42 of the ''Epitome'' treat forty-three of the forty-eight constellations (including the

) known to

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...

(2nd century CE); chapters 43–44 treat the five planets and the

Milky Way The Milky Way or Milky Way Galaxy is the galaxy that includes the Solar System, with the name describing the #Appearance, galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars in other arms of the galax ...

. † Not one of the modern constellations. Of the 48 Ptolemaic constellations, the ones not included are Corona Australis, Equuleus, Libra, Lupus, and Serpens. In modern times, Argo Navis (the ship ''Argo'') has been divided into three constellations: Carina (the keel), Puppis (the stern), and Vela (the sails); and the Pleiades are recognized as a star cluster within the constellation Taurus. The work cites in some places the lost ''Astronomia'' attributed to Hesiod. A similar later account is the '' Poeticon Astronomicon'', or '' De Astronomica'' (tellingly also titled ''De Astrologia'' in some manuscripts that follow Hyginus' usage in his text) attributed to Gaius Julius Hyginus. During the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

, printing of the ''Epitome'' under the title ''Catasterismi'', began early, but the work was always overshadowed by Hyginus, the only other ancient repertory of catasterisms. The ''Catasterismi'' was illustrated by woodcuts in the first illustrated edition by Erhard Ratdolt, (Venice 1482). Johann Schaubach's edition of the ''Catasterismi'' (Meiningen 1791) was also illustrated with celestial maps drawn from another work, Johann Buhle's Aratus (Leipzig, 2 volumes, 1793–1801). After the old Teubner edition of A. Olivieri, ''Pseudo-Eratosthenis Catasterismi'' (Leipzig 1897), the text has a new complete edition including the recensio Fragmenta Vaticana. In 2013, there is a greek-french scientific translation and commentary by Jordi Pàmias I Massana and Arnaud Zucker. ''Ératosthène de Cyrène'', Catastérismes, Paris, CUF, Belles Lettres, 2013.

Notes

References

*Condos, Theony, ''Star Myths of the Greeks and Romans: A Sourcebook, Containing The Constellations of Pseudo-Eratosthenes and the Poetic Astronomy of Hyginus'' (Grand Rapids I Phanes Press, 1997) (hb); (pb). Reviewed by Roger Ceragioli in: ''Journal for the History of Astronomy,'' 30.1 (1999), pp. 313–315; by John McMahon in: ''Archaeoastronomy: The Journal of Astronomy in Culture'', XVI (2001), pp. 98–99 and by John T. Ramsey, a
"Bryn Mawr Classical Review 98.6.28"
* Decker, Elly, ''Illustrating the Phaenomena: Celestial Cartography in Antiquity and the Middle Ages'',

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 2013. . * Hard, Robin, (trans.) ''Eratosthenes and Hyginus: Constellation Myths, With Aratus's Phaenomena'',

, 2015. . * Kanas, Nick, ''Star Maps: History, Artistry, and Cartography'', Springer, 2009. {{ISBN, 978-0-387-71668-8. * Seznec, Jean, ''The Survival of the Pagan Gods'' (Princeton J Princeton University Press, 1981).

External links

Katasterismoi
ancient greek original text. *The Katasterismoi
Part 1
an
Part 2
in ADSABS * ''Mythographoi. Scriptores poetiace historiae graeci'', Antonius Westermann (ed.), Brunsvigae sumptum fecit Georgius Westermann, 1843
pagg. 239-67
*''Mythographi Graeci'', Alexander Olivieri (ed.)
vol. III, fasc. I
Lipsiae in aedibus B. G. Teubneri, 1897. *
Eratosthenis catasterismorum fragmenta vaticana
', Albert Rehm (ed.), Ansbach, Druck von C. Bruegel & Sohn, 1899.
Italica: Rinascimento: Ilaria Miarelli Mariani, "Astrologia"
(in Italian)

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20040214205934/http://aagc.dis.ulpgc.es/gt_historia_constelaciones.html Daniel Marin, "The History of Constellations"(in Spanish) *Ian Ridpath
Star Tales – The mythographers
Ancient astronomy Astrological texts Ancient Greek pseudepigrapha References on Greek mythology