Profile / Characteristics
| English translation | Latin declination and pronunciations | Size/ °² | # stars (visible) |
| the Arrow | Sagitta – suh-JIT-uh Sagittae – suh-JIT-ee | 80 | 26 |
Main Star (brightest one):
| Designation | HIP number | name in IAU-CSN | brightness |
| gam Sge | HIP 98337 | – | 3.51 mag (V) |
Our (modern) Explanation
Greek mythographers, namely Eratosthenes (and if you want also Roman Hyginus) give rather explicitly one story which identifies this specific arrow as the one on which riding Apollo and his sister Demeter (the god of light and the goddess of fertility) return to Greece in spring time – in winter they had been in a country far away called Hyperborea and which is considered at the Eastern edge of the world.
Ancient Globes
Farnese Globe
Kugel Globe
Mainz Globe
missing (the area is covered by the Eagle but the Eagle does not carry it)
The Arrow is depicted next to the Bird (not next to the Eagle as usual).
carried by the Eagle
Ancient Lore & Meaning
Aratus
Reference:
English translation by Douglas Kidd (1997).
Aratus: Phaenomena, Cambridge Classical Texts and Commentaries, Series Number 34
Pseudo-Eratosthenes
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
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.
