Page:The Music of the Spheres.djvu/63

 a fire among the woodlands," which was entwined around a beech tree in the Grove of Mars, the War-god, at the eastern end of the Euxine (which we now call the Black Sea). On this beech tree was nailed the golden fleece of the wondrous ram which flew into the sky and aided two persecuted children to escape. To obtain this fleece, Orpheus drugged the snake with music while Jason stepped across the mighty coils and tore the golden wool from the tree. After the Argonautic expedition, both the ram and the dragon were placed among the stars.

Still another legend relates that when the gods and the earth-born giants waged their mighty war to gain possession of Olympus, a huge crawling monster had the audacity to anger the Goddess Minerva who seized it and hurled it far into the heavens where it caught on the axis of the world, and froze into immobility before it had time to unwind its contortions. The only time on record that this dragon ever revived from its stupid torpor was when Phæthon, son of Apollo, lost control of the steeds of his sun-chariot and the heated vehicle swerved northward from the beaten path.

Although there are a number of opinions as to just which dragon in legend is represented by Draco, the constellation is a very important one, for one of its stars, a star named Thuban, was at one time our Pole Star. Indeed, in 2300 the Pharaohs of Egypt looked up at Thuban as their Pole Star. As their Pole Star! But where was our faithful North Star during 2300, and how could our earth's pole swing from this point in the heavens to one half the way between the "Guards" on the tiny bowl of the Little Dipper, and Mizar on the crook of the handle of the Big