Page:Star Lore Of All Ages, 1911.pdf/437



antiquity of this constellation is attested by the fact that it is depicted on ancient Babylonian monuments, and upon the early zodiacs of Egypt and India.

Sagittarius, according to Greek mythology, represents the famous centaur Chiron, son of Philyra and Saturn, who changed himself into a horse to elude his jealous wife, Rhea. Ovid tells us that Chiron was slain by Hercules with a poisoned arrow. Chiron, realising that the wound was incurable, begged Jupiter to deprive him of immortality. The father of the gods granted his request, and placed him among the constellations.

Another legend relates that Apollo urged the moon goddess Artemis to aim a shaft from her bow at a gleaming point on the horizon, which concealed Orion, the mighty hunter. Orion was thus unwittingly slain by Artemis. The constellation Orion is exactly in opposition to the so-called "Bow stars" of Sagittarius, which accounts for this myth connecting the two constellations.

The legend is clearly astronomical in its significance, for in the variant form here depicted, Artemis is represented as sending a scorpion to sting Orion to death, and we find the stars marking the scorpion's sting in very close proximity to the Bow stars of Sagittarius.

On ancient obelisks the figure of an arrow is sometimes seen, which is supposed to be a hieroglyphical