Page:Star Lore Of All Ages, 1911.pdf/572

432 The Ship, or Argo as it is generally called, lies entirely in the southern hemisphere, east of Canis Major and south of the Unicorn and Hydra. Only the few stars representing the stern of the ship can be seen in the latitude of New York City.

The Ship is figured without a prow, one of the best evidences that chance had no part in the invention of the constellation.

According to mythology Argo was built either by Glaucus, Jason, Argos, or Hercules. It was famous as the first craft that ever ventured to sea, and as the one that bore the Argonautic expedition to Colchis on its quest of the Golden Fleece.

To the Egyptians it represented the ark that bore Osiris and Isis over the Deluge.

Sir Isaac Newton fixed the date of the building of this celebrated craft as 936

With the Romans it was generally "Argo," or "Navis," nd the Arabs called it "a Ship." To the Biblical school it represented Noah's Ark.

The lucida of the constellation, never seen in these latitudes, is the first magnitude star Canopus. 



The Giraffe, described as "a long, faint, and straggling" constellation, first appeared on the star map of Bartsch in 1640. It is also found in the catalogue of Hevelius published in 1690, as Camelopardalus.

Prof. E. C. Pickering tells us that the correct spelling according to the best classical authorities, both Greek and Latin, is Camelopardalis.

Bartsch wrote that the group represented to him the camel that brought Rebecca to Isaac.

The Chinese are said to have located seven asterisms within the borders of this star group.