Leo star chart (IAU and Sky & Telescope magazine, Roger Sinnott & Rick Fienberg).

One of the 88 IAU constellations with Greco-Roman background. It has been developed from a Babylonian predecessor (UR.GU.LA)

Etymology and History

The Greek constellation ...

Kugel Globe: Cancer, Leo, Hydra, Virgo (drawing by SMH 2024)

Origin of Constellation

Leo and Virgo above the MUŠ-Dragon, two claytablet drawings from the Seleucid era (roughly 2nd century BCE), CC BY SMH based upon the drawings by E. Weidner (1967) and Thureau-Dangin (1922).

Babylonian

Greco-Roman

Aratos

Beneath the Bear’s head are the Twins, beneath her belly the Crab, and under her hind legs the Lion shines brightly. This is where the sun’s track is hottest, [150] and the fields are seen bereft o f their corn-ears when the sun first comes into conjunction with the Lion. This is the time when the whistling etesian winds sweep strongly across the broad sea, and it is no longer seasonable for ships to be under oars. Then let broad-beamed ships be my pleasure, [155] and let helmsmen hold their steering-oars into the wind. (Kidd 1997)

Eratosthenes

Hipparchus

Hyginus, Astronomica

He is said to have been put among the stars because he is considered the king of beasts. Some writers add that Hercules' first Labor was with him and that he killed him, unarmed. Pisandrus and many others have written about this. Above his likeness in the sky nearest the Virgin are seven other stars near his tail, arranged in a triangle, which Conon, the mathematician, and Callimachus call the Lock of Berenice. When Ptolemy had married his sister Berenice, daughter of Ptolemy and Arsinoe, and after a few days had set out to attack Asia, Berenice vowed that if Ptolemy returned as victor she would clip off her hair. She placed the lock, consecrated by this vow, in the temple of Venus Arsinoe Zephyritis, but on the following day it couldn't be seen there. When the king was distressed by this, Conon the mathematician, whom we mentioned above, desiring to win the favor of the king, said that he had seen the lock among the constellations, and pointed out seven stars without definite configuration which he imagined were the lock. Some authors along with Callimachus have said that this Berenice raised horses, and used to send them to Olympia. Others add that once Ptolemy, Berenice's father, in panic at the number of the enemy, had sought safety in flight, but his daughter, an accomplished horsewoman, leaped on a horse, organized the remaining troops, killed many of the enemy, and put the rest to flight. For this even Callimachus calls her high-souled. Eratosthenes says that she ordered returned to the girls of Lesbos the dowry left to them by their parents, which no one had released, and she established among them right to bring action of recovery. (Mary Ward 1960)

Geminos

Almagest Δέοντος.

Transfer and Transformation of the Constellation

Mythology

Weblinks

References

• References (general)
• References (Babylonian)
• References (ancient Greco-Roman)
• References (medieval)