A New
Mythology
Constellations
• A constellation is a name given to a group of
stars and the area of the sky they occupy.
• You might know the names of some from the
signs of the zodiac.
Eg. Libra, Leo, Pisces, Aquarius, etc.
• The whole sky is divided into constellations.
From where do the names of the
constellations come?
• In the past, most travel was done by sea.
• Sailors navigated at night using the stars.
• To help make the sky familiar to them, they
created shapes in the stars to represent
stories from their culture.
• Many constellations show mythical stories
from ancient Greek or Arabic cultures.
Orion
Orion is a hunter from Greek mythology.
One myth tells that Orion dared to say that he would
kill every animal on the planet. An angry goddess tried
to dispatch Orion with a scorpion. This is given as the
reason that the constellations of Scorpius and Orion
are never in the sky at the same time
This is Scorpius, the scorpion that killed Orion.
The name is Latin for scorpion.
However, Scorpius is not a scorpion to everyone.
The Javanese people of Indonesia call this
constellation Banyakangrem, meaning "the
brooded swan" or Kalapa Doyong, meaning
"leaning coconut tree." In Hawaii, it is known as
the demigod Maui's Fishhook. In Chinese
mythology, the constellation was part of the
Azure Dragon.
Scorpius
Cygnus – the
swan
In Greek mythology, Cygnus has been identified with
several different legendary swans. Zeus disguised
himself as a swan to seduce Leda, Spartan king
Tyndareus's wife, who gave birth to the twins of
Gemini, Helen of Troy and Clyteemnestra; Orpheus
was transformed into a swan after his murder, and
was said to have been placed in the sky next to his
lyre (Lyra); and the King Cycnus was transformed
into a swan.
A New Mythology
• For this HLA, we want you to come up with a
new constellation, based on the following star
map (it’s colours have been inverted to allow
you to draw on it).
• Once you’ve seen and drawn a shape, come
up with a made-up story to explain why there
might a teapot or a giant crocodile or a mobile
phone in the stars…
• No more than 100 words.