Myths in the Sky: the Crab and the Lion

The Crab (lat. Cancer)

This name was given to the constellation by the Assyrians and Babylonians, because in those remote times the Sun, having reached its peak in its motion around the ecliptic, began to descend, moving backwards like a crab. In accord with a Greek legend the Crab bit Hercules in the foot. Hercules crushed it, but the Goddess Hera, who detested the hero, took him to heaven.

^{Johannes Hevelius, atlas Firmamentum Sobiescianum, Map 29}

The Lion (lat. Leo)

This zodiac constellation was given its name in the age when the summer solstice point was in it. At that time the Nile overflows its banks, watering the scorching and cracked soil. Every living being, including lions, rushed to the water.

No other image was more suited to depict this event than that of the lion — the King of beasts. According to another version, it was that very lion who was invulnerable to arrows, whom Hercules smothered in his mighty embrace.

^{Johannes Hevelius, atlas Firmamentum Sobiescianum, Map 30}