Profile / Characteristics
| English translation | Latin declination and pronunciations | Size/ °² | # stars (visible) |
| the Male Water Snake | Hydrus – HIGH-drus Hydri – HIGH-dry | 243 | 34 |
Ancient Globes
Farnese Globe
Kugel Globe
Mainz Globe
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Ancient Lore & Meaning
Aratus
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Reference:
English translation by Douglas Kidd (1997).
Aratus: Phaenomena, Cambridge Classical Texts and Commentaries, Series Number 34
Pseudo-Eratosthenes
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References:
French translation by:
Jordi Pàmias i Massana and Arnaud Zucker (2013). Ératosthènes de Cyrène – Catastérismes, Les Belles Lettres, Paris
English version in:
Robin Hard (2015): Eratosthenes and Hyginus Constellation Myths with Aratus’s Phaenomena, Oxford World’s Classics
Early Modern Interpretation
For modern versions of ancient lore:
Ian Ridpath’s page on this constellation
Commentary
Hydrus is a chain of stars that continues the chain of Eridanus and in the earliest preserved depiction, Uranometria 1603, Hydrus is pointing towards the celestial south pole. This was later changed by Lacaille but it suggests that the constellation originally was invented as a navigation tool.
Contemporary
As one of their first tasks in the 1920s, the newly founded International Astronomical Union (IAU) established constellation standards. The Belgian astronomer Eugène Delporte was assigned to the task to define borders of constellations parallel to lines of declination and right ascension. They were accepted by the General Assembly in 1928. The standardized names and abbreviations had already been accepted in 1922 and 1925.
