User:Paul August/Catasterismi

Catasterismi

Sources

Modern

Decker

p. 2

The constellation myths were collected, possibly for the first time, in a now lost work attributed to Eratosthenes (ca. 276 BC-ca. 195 BC). Traces of this work are found in the Epitome Catasterismorum in which the myths are supplemented by descriptions of the locations of the individual stars [cont.]

p. 3

within a constelation. ...

The Epitome appears to combine two traditions: a literary one describing the constellation myths and a cartographic one describing the positions of the stars within a constellation.

Evans

• Evans, James, The History and Practice of Ancient Astronomy, Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN 978-0-19-509539-5.

p. 41

Another source of some value is the Catasterisms ("Constellations") of Eratosthenes.⁴⁶ This brief tract was written as a commentary on, and supplement to, the Phenomena of Aratus, as is evident from the fact that the constellations are treated in the same order in the two works. The work is basically a list of constellations, with a story or legend for each.

p. 454

46. The attribution to Eratosthenes is doubted by some scholars. See Neugebauer (1975), pp. 577-578. For most constellations, the number of stars is smaller than in a constellation list attributed to Hipparchus ... Thus the Catasterisms probably predates Hipparchus. On the other hand, as the text mentions Coma Berenices, it cannot be earlierthan 247 B.C. Thus there seems no good reason to doubt that it really is by Eratosthenes. The work was already attributed to Eratosthenes in antiquity, as is clear in the Latin Astronomy of Hyginus.

Hard

p. i

ERATOSTHENES of Cyrene (c.285-c.194 BC) was a leading scholar, scientist, and poet of the Hellenistic era, ... He compiled a comprehensive handbook of astral mythology, the Catasterisms by collecting constellation myths from the previous tradition, altering and improving them as he saw fit, and devising new myths, where it was necessary or desirable. ...

pp. xviii-xx [section Eratosthenes and his catasterisms]

p. xviii

Eratosthenes and his catasterisms

As to the title of his compendium, there are three references in ancient sources to what he said 'in his catasterisms'. Although we cannot be absolutely certain that this was ever the formal title of the work, since the writers could have been using the word descriptively in reference to the nature of its contents, it may be accepted as the title with due reservation for want of better evidence.

p. xxiii

It has even been suggested that he [Eratosthenes] wrote the work [Catasterisms] with that [supplementing Aratus's Phaenomena) in mind, although that must be regarded as more than a little doubtful;

p. xxiv

It is as a result of that interconnection [between Aratus and Eratosthenes] that we possess one of the main sources for the myths that were recounted by Eratosthenes in his lost work. Fo we have summaries, short and selective though they may be, of myths from that work for every constellation, ultimately derived from a supplemented edition of Aratus' poem. The constellations are thus covered in the same order as they are described in the Phaenomena, rather than in the order originally adopted in Eratosthenes' handbook (which is known from two surviving lists of its contents). The edition of Aratus for which these summaries were originally prepared, known in the scholarly literature as 'Phi', is believed to have been of fairly late origin, dating from the second to third century AD.

p. xxxvii

As has been explained in the Introduction, the canon of Greek astral mythology was established by Eratosthenes of Cyrene in the third century BC, in a comprehensive work probably entitled the Catasterisms; but since the original work has not survived, ...

Kanas

p. 109

4.1.2 Eratosthenes' Catasterismi

A second major work on constellations that achieved popularity through the centuries is the Catasterismi (i.e. "constellations"), a compilation of myths explaining their origin that is attributed to Eratosthenes, the "beta" who was discussed in Section 3.1.8. The original work does not survive. What we do have is a summary of the original, and because the author of this work is not known, it is attributed to a "pseudo-Eratosthenes", who probably wrote it in the 1st or 2nd Century AD. Unlike Aratus' great work, the major focus of the Catasterismi was a constellation mythology, not simply poetic descrition. In addition the location of the principal stars in each constellation is mentioned.

Ridpath

• Ridpath, Ian, Star Tales, The Lutterworth Press, 2018. ISBN 978-0-7188-9478-8.

p. 14

After Aratus, the next landmark in our study of Greek constellation lore is Eratosthenes (c.276-c.194 BC), to whom an essay called the Catasterisms is attrributed. Eratosthenes was a Greek scientist and writer who worked in Alexandria at the mouth of the Nile. The Catasterisms gives the mythology of 42 separate constellations (the Pleiades cluster is treated individually), with a listing of the main stars in each figure. The version of the Catasterisms that survives is only a summary of the original, made at some unknown date, and it is not even certain that the original was written by the real Eratosthenes; hence the author of the Catasterisms is usually referred to as pseudo-Eratosthenes.