Page:The Music of the Spheres.djvu/152

 an easy way of traveling from place to place. For this achievement Jupiter rewarded him with a constellation, choosing five bright stars which actually somewhat resemble an ancient chariot.

Yet, on the star-maps, the Charioteer is pictured with a goat on his shoulders, instead of driving a chariot, although sometimes a chariot has also been represented. Allen says that modern research gives us reason to believe that the constellation was delineated by the early star-gazers of the Euphrates valley millenniums ago and perhaps the Greeks merely impressed their legends on another figure as it is possible they also did in the case of Hercules. The goat which the Charioteer holds, according to one tradition, was the goat on whose milk the infant Jupiter was fed after he had been carried to the island of Crete to escape being devoured by his father Saturn, the God of Time.

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It is further related that one day while playing with the goat, Jupiter accidentally broke off one of its horns. In atonement, he filled the horn with fruits and flowers—the horn of plenty—and consoled the goat by giving it a constellation. The brilliant star, Capella, lies on the heart of this goat, the name signifying "the little She-goat," and not only the Greeks and Romans, but the ancient Peruvians, far across the ocean, connected this star with the affairs of shepherds. English poets refer to Capella as the "Shepherd's Star."