Page:Star Lore Of All Ages, 1911.pdf/233



identified with Corvus is the constellation Crater, the Cup, an inconspicuous group of stars bounding Corvus on the west. An imaginary line, drawn through the brighter stars in Crater, traces out a bowl-shaped figure, whence its fancied resemblance to a Cup, the title the constellation has borne from time immemorial.

In the old atlases, the Cup is usually represented in the form of a large urn elaborately ornamented, with two handles set opposite each other and rising above the rim of the bowl, resting insecurely on the coils of the great sea serpent Hydra.

This was the cup fabled to belong to Bacchus, and Manilius thus refers to it:

The original connection of Crater and Corvus is with Hydra, the storm and ocean monster. Crater was the symbol of the vault of heaven, wherein at times storm winds, clouds, and rain were chaotically mixed, while Corvus, as we have seen, was known as the Great Storm Bird."

Omar in the following familiar lines employs the simile respecting Crater and the dome of heaven: