Page:Star Lore Of All Ages, 1911.pdf/89

Rh the view that the Water Bearer and the Eagle were closely associated.

Some of the ancient poets say that this is the eagle which furnished Jupiter with weapons in his war with the giants. In accordance with this version early representations added an arrow held in the Eagle's talons. Manilius wrote:

On Burritt's map, Antinous is represented as grasping a bow and arrows as he is borne aloft in the talons of the Eagle. In this connection there may be a significance in the position of the asterism Sagitta, the Arrow, just north of Aquila.

Among the Australians Aquila is called "Totyarguil," and represents a man who, when bathing, was killed by a fabulous animal, a kind of kelpie, as in Greece Orion was killed by a scorpion and translated to the stars.

The Hebrews know this constellation as "Neshr," an eagle, falcon, or vulture. The Arabians called it "Al-'Okāb," probably their black eagle. Grotius and Bayer both called the constellation " Altair," the name now borne by its brightest star.

The Turks called Aquila the "Hunting Eagle," and through all the ages it has been known as a bird of prey, the "Eagle of the Winds," the "Soaring Eagle," as contrasted with Vega near by, the "Swooping or Falling Eagle."

Here over the face of the waters as it were, just above the region of the sky known to the ancients as "the Sea," we find three birds in flight, two eagles and a swan, our Lyra, being anciently known as "the Falling Eagle." There is a significance in this arrangement that has never been satisfactorily explained. Dupuis advanced the idea that