Page:The Music of the Spheres.djvu/103

 even denting it. The huge beast was also so rapacious that it was fast annihilating all the inhabitants of Nemea, which was the ancient name of the deep valley of Argolis. Hercules had no trouble in tracking the lion through the valley, which was only two or three miles long and half a mile broad, and easily found its den. Rushing in, he barricaded the opening, grasped the lion by the throat and after a terrific struggle, crushed the beast in his arms. Ever after he wore the tough, impenetrable skin as a covering for his own defense. The Nemean games, one of the national festivals of the Greeks, are believed to have been founded by Hercules after his victory over the Nemean lion. There is some evidence that there was a lion traced among the stars before the time of Hercules, but, if so, the Greeks erased the impression and substituted their own lion in its stead.

Leo, the Nemean lion in stars, is seen at his best during the early evenings of March, April, May and June, although he makes his first appearance on the 4th of March when, just as the sun sets in the west, his tail rises above the eastern horizon. In April he is at his highest point in his path across the sky, lying just to the south and below the bowl of the Big Dipper.

On the end of the handle of the Sickle shines Regulus, also called Cor Leonis which means "The Heart of the Lion." Regulus sends out 300 times as much light as our sun, but is so far away that it takes 99 years for its light to reach us. This star rises in the northeast at twilight on the 15th of February and crosses the meridian at 8 o'clock on April 23rd.

One generally thinks of stars as being bright and gay, but Regulus has a companion which is somber and so unusual in its appearance as compared with other stars that it was described by Winlock, its discoverer, as if "steeped in indigo." Later it was found that this