According to Greek myth, this constellation depicts Aphrodite and her son, Eros, who took the form of fishes to escape the giant Typhon. Pisces was known by the Babylonians as Nunu, by the Persians as Mahik, and the Turks as Balik, all meaning "Fish." The Arabs also knew Pisces as Al Samakatain, or "the Two Fishes." The Chinese called Pisces at various times the Dark Warrior, the Northern Emperor, and the Pig, but ultimately the constellation became known as The Two Fishes.

In one German story, Antenteh and his wife lived in very poor circumstances by the sea. One day Antenteh caught a fish, which pulled and tugged so vehemently at the net that he decided to let the fish go back to the sea again. To the amazement of Antenteh, the fish started to speak to him. The fish told Antenteh that he was an enchanted prince and, in return for his release, the fisherman could ask for anything he desired. But Antenteh was a simple soul and felt so honored at having rescued a person of such nobility that he would not accept anything.

When Antenteh's wife heard his story, however, she became extremely angry with him for letting such an opportunity pass. She nagged Antenteh until he went back to the shore. He called for the fish, who instantly came swimming towards him. Rather embarrassed, Antenteh told the fish of his wife's wish for a house with furniture in it. The fish told him to leave everything to him and to return to his home. Antenteh did so where, instead of his humble cabin, he found a splendid house.

Orion boasted that so great was his might and skill as a hunter that he could kill all the animals on the face of the Earth. Gaea, Goddess of Earth, was alarmed at such a boastful and inappropriate statement. Gaea decided that Orion must be killed just in case he might one day decide to carry out his boast. She sent a giant scorpion and ordered the beast to sting Orion. As mighty as Orion was, after only a brief battle, the scorpion managed to deliver the hunter a deadly sting. Scorpius stung Orion on the heel (at the star Rigel).

Orion and the scorpion were given honored places in the sky, but they were placed at opposite ends of the great sky dome so that they would never engage in battle again. Although there are other stories about how Orion met his death, this one is the most common.

In New Zealand, the constellation is not seen as a scorpion, but as a heavenly fishhook. The Mayans of Central America named Scorpius "the Sign of the Death-god." The Romans at one time called Scorpius "the Lurking One." The ancient people of Asia called the evil Antares "the Grave Digger of Caravans." The Chinese looked on Antares as a star to be worshipped as a safeguard against fire. They named the star Huo Shing, meaning "the Fire Star."

In Greek myths, they are the daughters of Atlas, who supported the world on his shoulders. Zeus first transformed the sisters into doves, and then into stars to enable them to escape the attention of Orion, who for seven long years pursued the maidens. The sisters are Alcyone, Merope, Celaeno, Taygeta, Maia, Electra, and Asterope. According to one legend, only six of the stars can be seen because Merope hid herself in shame over marrying a mortal.

The ancient Greeks, Egyptians, and Hindus recorded seven stars. It is thought that the seven chambers of the Great Pyramid represented the seven stars of the Pleiades. The Blackfoot Indians of North America, tell of six brothers. The Polynesians and Mayan cultures also describe the origin of the Pleiades.

When people talk about the seasons and the Pleiades, they often talk about food, hunger, and magical departure from the earth. Parts of this pattern are very clear in the story told by the Onondaga Indians of upstate New York. After reaching one of their favored hunting territories, a party of Onondaga decided to build their lodges by the lake and stock up on fish and game for the winter. By autumn, most of the work had been accomplished, and a group of the children decided to dance each day by the side of the lake. After their play turned into habit, a strange old white-haired man, adorned with white feathers, appeared among them and warned them to stop. Not believing any harm could come from their dancing, they refused to take the old man seriously. After he had gone, they decided to enhance their enjoyment by having a picnic at their next dancing session. When they went home and asked their parents for food for the outing, however, they were refused.

One story has it that Ursa Major grew greedy in her old age and wanted to steal the Pole Star for herself since Polaris matches her own stars in brightness. She has never managed to do so, however, because of the "Guard Stars" in Ursa Minor. These two stars form the front edge of the Little Dipper and are located between Polaris and the greedy Greater Bear, so protecting Polaris.

The North Star (The last star in the tail of Ursa Minor, more commonly known as the Little Dipper, is called Polaris or The North Star).

Perhaps more than any star other than our Sun, Polaris has been regarded as the most important star in the heavens. Located almost directly overhead as seen from the North Pole, it is the end-star in the tail of Ursa Minor, the Little Bear. Its name comes from the Latin, Stella Polaris, meaning "Pole Star." Polaris has long been an important star to sailors and caravans of old winding their way over the desert by night, and others who navigated their way by stars.

To our eyes, Polaris appears to be motionless at the center of the field of circumpolar stars. All the other stars appear to circle around Polaris. As early as 320 B.C. the Greeks had realized that Polaris did not mark the pole exactly. Until then many people had believed that the heavenly pole was absolutely and eternally fixed. Not so. Polaris has long been moving nearer the North Celestial Pole, as it is still doing now. It will be closest to that position around A.D. 2105--27'. Currently it is about 1° from the celestial pole.

The centaur, half-man and half-horse, was famous in Greek mythology for being rude, untrustworthy, violent, deceptive and, on top of all that, they drank too much. But one centaur, Chiron, was different. Chiron was educated by the Sun-god Apollo and by Diana, Goddess of the Moon and Wild Animals. He was as kind, gentle, and wise as the other centaurs were mean, fierce, and unthinking. Chiron's skills and wisdom became so widely known that children of many famous kings were sent to him to be taught. Among his pupils were the mighty Hercules and Aesculapius, who became skilled at medicine. Ironically, it was Hercules who tragically killed his archery teacher. Although Hercules knew and deeply respected Chiron, he could not recognize his friend from a great distance and accidentally shot him with one of his poisoned arrows. To assuage his son’s grief, Zeus gave the good centaur a resting place among the stars as the constellation Sagittarius, the Archer.

According to another myth, Sagittarius is poised and ready to shoot an arrow through the heart-star of the unpredictable Scorpio.

When you look for Taurus in the sky, don't expect to find the entire bull. The constellation depicts only his front half. The explanation is that his hindquarters are underwater because he is quite busy carrying Europa safely across the sea to Crete.

Years ago in Memphis, Egypt, archaeologists unearthed a broad paved avenue lined by lions carved out of stone. All along a high arched corridor cut into solid rock, 2,000 feet long, 20 feet wide, and 20 feet tall, they found recesses carved into the rock. Each held the ornately entombed remains of bulls. What they had uncovered the ancient tomb of the Apis-bulls.

The Bull-god, Apis, was worshipped in Egypt for thousands of years. To qualify for the honor of being an Apis-bull, a bull calf must have certain markings. For as long as it lived an Apis-bull was tended by the high priests. It was assumed that the bull embodied the soul of the Bull-god. When the Apis-bull died, it was elaborately entombed and another with similar markings had to be found to house the soul of Apis.

Spring was the time when festivals honoring the Apis-bulls were held. At this time in history (roughly 4000 B.C.) the Sun's position along the Zodiac on the first day of spring, or Vernal Equinox, was in the constellation we now recognize as Taurus. For many centuries Taurus was the first and most important constellation of the Zodiac. Some have suggested that Taurus may have been the first Zodiac constellation invented.

The ancient Babylonians and Sumerians also recorded the constellation Taurus in the night sky. The Arabs called Taurus Al Thaur. It was known as Il Toro by the Italians, Le Taureau by the French, Taura by the Persians, and Shor by the Jews, all meaning the Bull.

Ursa Major, more than any other group of stars, shows that any shape one wants to imagine can be assigned to a constellation--a plow, wagon, coffin, bear, or even a reindeer, as the people of Lapland imagined this constellation to represent. In ancient England, Ursa Major was called Arthur's Chariot. The Irish named this constellation after one of their early kings, calling it King David's Chariot. And in France it was the Great Chariot. The North American Indians also chose bears for these two constellations. They called them Okuri and Paukunawa, both meaning "Bear."

The middle star in the dipper's handle is Mizar, which is actually a double star. Alcor is so close to Mizar that they appear to be one star but Alcor is not Mizar's companion star. In some ancient armies, these stars were used as an eye test. If you could see two separate stars your eye sight was good, if not, you had poor eye sight.

In Greek tradition, Zeus fell in love with the beautiful young huntress, Callisto. When Hera, Zeus' wife, heard what has happening she was furious and set out after Callisto. On finding her, Hera said, "Your beauty, of which my husband speaks so tenderly, is no more!" Whereupon Hera changed Callisto into a bear, but left her with her human feelings, rather than those of a bear. Callisto roamed the forest day and night in constant fear of the hunters and in fear of other wild beasts, although she was now one.

One day Callisto found herself face-to-face with a young and handsome hunter and suddenly recognized him as her son, Arcas. She raised up on her hind legs to embrace her son. Thinking that the bear was about to attack him, Arcas raised his spear and was about to hurl it and kill his mother. Zeus happened to be looking down on the scene from his position on Mt. Olympus and instantly turned Arcas into a bear also. Zeus then grasped each bear by its tail and tugged and tugged until he had managed to lift both high into the sky, Callisto as Ursa Major and her son Arcas as Ursa Minor. This tugging of tails over such a long journey through the sky, stretched both tails and explains why our celestial bears, unlike earthly ones, have long tails. The tail of Arcas became even longer as he was continuously swung around the sky by the end-star in his tail, Polaris.

On discovering that her husband had given Callisto and Arcas honored places in heaven, Hera was furious. She went to her friend the ocean god, Oceanus. "How dare Zeus give these two an honored place in heaven?" Hera fumed. "They have now displaced me, Queen of Heaven, from my place in the sky. I ask you forever keep these two penned so that they may never wander far."

Oceanus was sympathetic and promised that he would grant Hera her wish. He would see to it that “the couple never would be permitted to enter our water in their wandering." In other words, the bears would be forbidden to set below the horizon of the sea as other constellations do. To this day both the Lesser Bear and the Greater Bear are held high in the sky near the Pole Star and never sink beneath the horizon.

Named for the Greek Earth-goddess Demeter, this constellation is associated with the arrival of spring and of the growing season. Virgo usually is shown carrying two sheaves of wheat, one of which is marked by the bright star Spica, whose name comes form the Latin and means ear of wheat, or corn.

Legend tells that Hades, the God of the Underground, fell in love with Demeter's daughter, Persephone, swearing that he would marry her and maker her his queen. Demeter would not stand for this. One day Hades, in a black chariot drawn by four great black horses, carried the girl off with him to the Underworld. Demeter became worried when her daughter did not return home. She immediately went out in search of her daughter. Demeter searched with out food or sleep, and without focusing her attention upon the land and its harvest. When Zeus pleaded with her to return to Olympus and to accept Persephone's marriage to Hades, she refused and continued her search. Zeus sent Hermes, messenger of the gods, to visit Hades and tell him that Persephone must return with him. Hades, knowing that the gods of Olympus were stronger than he, agreed to let Persephone return home upon the condition that she had not eaten during her stay in the underworld. Unfortunately, Persephone had absentmindedly eaten several seeds from a pomegranate. Demeter was distraught. People everywhere were starving and could not understand how their Earth-goddess could be so cruel. Zeus solved the problem by saying that Persephone would spend half of her time in the Underworld with Hades and the other half on Olympus with her mother. In this way, winter comes when Persephone goes down to the Underworld to be with Hades. When Persephone returns to Olympus, the winter cloak of death melts and there is a rebirth of life over the land and the crops begin to grow.