Profile / Characteristics
| English translation | Latin declination and pronunciations | Size/ °² | # stars (visible) |
| the Archer | Sagittarius – SAJ-ih-TARE-ee-us Sagittarii – SAJ-ih-TARE-ee-eye | 867 | 195 |
Main Star (brightest one):
| Designation | HIP number | name in IAU-CSN | brightness |
| eps Sgr | HIP 90185 | Kaus Australis | 1.81 mag (V) |
Our (modern) Explanation
The origin of this constellation is the ancient Babylonian god Pabilsag, a god of war and agriculture married to the healing goddess. He was later identified with the god Nergal who was often depicted as an archer. Nergal is anthropomorphic, he is a man standing on two feet. Pabilsag is a mixed creature with the upper body of a man and a horse-body with wings and a scorpion tail in addition to the horse tail. The constellation is in the zodiac and was, therefore, taken over by the Greeks but didn’t fit their pantheon. They depicted him either with two feet like Nergal and called him Krotos, a mythological archer, or with four legs like Pabilsag and called him Chiron, a wise centaur. Both images existed in Greek antiquity and are even preserved on ancient globes until today.
Ancient Globes
Farnese Globe
Kugel Globe
Mainz Globe
satyr Crotos
CrA is a ring at its front hoof
centaur Chiron
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.
