Catasterismi (Greek Katasterismoi, "placings among the stars") is an Alexandrian prose retelling of the mythic origins of stars and constellations, as they were interpreted in Hellenistic culture. The work survives in an epitome assembled at the end of the 1st century CE, based on a lost original, with a possible relation to work of Eratosthenes that is now hard to pinpoint. Apparently it was pseudepigraphically attributed to the great astronomer from Cyrene, to bolster its credibility. However, the astrological connoisseurship of its fables in fact have nothing to do with Eratosthenes' scientific conjectures and solutions—which belong instead near the origins of an astronomy that was separated from the predictive and interpretive functions of astrology, not an easy feat of the logical imagination. The separation was effected in Alexandrian intellectual circles during the 1st century BCE. Antiquity and modernity stand cheek-by-jowl in Egypts chief Mediterranean seaport Located on the Mediterranean Sea coast, Alexandria (in Arabic, الإسكندرية, transliterated al-ʼIskandariyyah) is the chief seaport in Egypt, and that countrys second largest city, and the capital... Greek mythology comprises the collected narratives of Greek gods, goddesses, heroes, and heroines, originally created and spread within an oral-poetic tradition. ... Orion is a remarkable constellation, visible from most places on the globe (but not always the whole year long). ... 1. ... Eratosthenes (Ερατοσθένης) Eratosthenes (Ερατοσθένης) (276 BC - 194 BC) was a Greek mathematician, geographer and astronomer. ... Pseudepigrapha (Greek pseudos = false, epi = after, later and grapha = writing (or writings), latterly or falsely attributed, or down right forged works, describes texts whose claimed authorship is unfounded in actuality. ... Cyrene can refer to: The USS Cyrene (AGP-13), a motor torpedo boat tender] Cyrene, a figure from Greek mythology Cyrene, a Greek colony in Libya (north Africa) 133 Cyrene, an asteroid Cyrene, fictional character who is the mother of Xena in the series Xena: Warrior Princess See also: Cyrenaica... An astrological chart (or horoscope) - Y2K Chart — This particular chart is calculated for January 1, 2000 at 12:01:00 A.M. Eastern Standard Time in New York City, New York, USA. (Longitude: 074W0023 - Latitude: 40N4251), using the tropical zodiac Astrology (from Greek: αστρολογία = άστρον, astron, star + λόγος, logos, word) is... Astrometry: the study of the position of objects in the sky and their changes of position. ...

Castasterismi records the mature and definitive development of a long process: the Hellenes' assimilation of a Mesopotamian zodiac, transmitted through Persian interpreters and translated and harmonized with the known terms of Greek mythology. A fundamental effort in this translation was the application of Greek mythic nomenclature to designate individual stars, both asterisms like the Pleiades and Hyades, and the constellations. In Classical Greece, the "wandering stars" and the gods who directed them were separate entities, as for Plato; in Hellenistic culture, the assocation became an inseparable identification, so that Apollo, no longer the regent of the Sun, actually was Helios (Seznec 1981, pp 37–40). Greek mythology comprises the collected narratives of Greek gods, goddesses, heroes, and heroines, originally created and spread within an oral-poetic tradition. ... In astronomy, an asterism is a recognized pattern of stars seen in Earths sky which is neither an official constellation nor a true star cluster. ... Pleiades refers to: Pleiades (star cluster) an open cluster of stars in the constellation Taurus. ... Hyades can refer to the mythological Hyades the open star cluster Hyades the italian thrash metal band This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... This article describes the ancient classical period: for the classical period in music (second half of the 18th century): see Classical music era. ... Plato (Greek: Πλάτων Plátōn) (ca. ... Apollo (Greek: Απόλλων, Apóllōn; Απελλων) is a god in Greek and Roman mythology, the son of Zeus and Leto, and the twin of Artemis (goddess of the hunt), one of the most important and many-sided of the Olympian divinities. ... This article is about Helios in Greek and Roman mythology. ...

Chapters 1–42 of Catasterismi treat forty-three of the forty-eight constellations known to Ptolemy (second cent. AD); chapters 43–44 treat the five planets and the Milky Way. Claudius Ptolemaeus, given contemporary German styling, in a 16th century engraved book frontispiece. ...

Many of the mythic themes in Catasterismi are simply drawn from Aratus, Phaenomena (ca 275 BCE) and the sequential arrangement is essentially that of Aratus as well. On the other hand, a similar later account is De astronomia (tellingly also titled De astrologia in some manuscripts that follow Hyginus' usage in his text) attributed to Hyginus. During the Renaissance, printing of Catasterismi, invariably attributed to Eratosthenes, began early, but the work was always overshadowed by Hyginus, illustrated by woodcuts in the first illustrated edition by Erhard Ratdolt, Venice 1482. Johann Schaubach's edition of Catasterismi was also illustrated with celestial maps drawn from another work, Johann Buhle's Aratus (Leipzig, 2 volumes, 1793-1801). Aratus (Greek Aratos) (ca. ... Hyginus can refer to: Gaius Julius Hyginus (c. ... By region Italian Renaissance Spanish Renaissance Northern Renaissance French Renaissance German Renaissance English Renaissance The Renaissance, also known as Il Rinascimento (in Italian), was an influential cultural movement which brought about a period of scientific revolution and artistic transformation, at the dawn of modern European history. ...

External links

• Cathy Bell, "The mythology of the constellations"
• Italica: Rinascimento: Ilaria Miarelli Mariani, "Astrologia" (in Italian)
• Bradley E. Schaefer, "The epoch of the constellations on the Farnese Hercules and their origins in Hipparchus's lost catalogue"

Further reading

• Seznec, Jean. 1981 The Survival of the Pagan Gods. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press)
• Condos, Theony. 1997. Star Myths of the Greeks and Romans: A Sourcebook A translation of the Catasterismi and De Astronomia attributed to Hyginus. The only available Enlish translation, reviewed by Roger Ceragioli in Journal for the History of Astronomy, 30.1 (1999) pp 313–315; by John McMahon in Archaeoastronomy: The Journal of Astronomy in Culture, XVI (2001) pp 98-99 [1] and by John T. Ramsey, as "Bryn Mawr Classical Review 98.6.28" [2].