Page:Star Lore Of All Ages, 1911.pdf/226

158 constellation by Apollo. This god being jealous of Coronis (whom he loved), the daughter of Phlegyas, and mother of Æsculapius (who is represented in the skies by the figure of the giant Ophiuchus), sent a crow to watch her behaviour. The bird perceived her criminal partiality for Ischys, the Thessalian, and immediately acquainted Apollo with the fact, which so fired his indignation that:

To reward the crow he placed it among the constellations, but just why it was located on the back of the Hydra does not appear.

It is a curious fact that we find elsewhere among the constellations birds closely associated with other figures. Thus the Crane is shown as pecking at the Southern Fish. The Pleiades or Doves flock together on the back of the ferocious Bull, and ancient Chinese maps depict the Eagle on the Dolphin's back. Design clearly enters into these grotesque arrangements.

Some say that this constellation takes its name from the daughter of Coronæus, King of Phocis, who was transformed into a crow by Minerva, to rescue the maid from the pursuit of Neptune.

Allen gives the following classical legend respecting Corvus: It appears that the bird being sent by a god with a cup for water, loitered at a fig tree till the fruit became ripe, and then returned to the god with a water snake in his claws, and a lie in his mouth, alleging the snake to have been the cause of his delay. In punishment he was for ever fixed in the sky with the Cup and the Snake, and, we may infer, doomed to everlasting thirst by the guardianship of the Hydra over the Cup and its contents. Hence the constellation has been called "Avis Ficarius," the "Fig Bird," and "Emansor," one who stays beyond his time. There