Abstract
The figure of Argo Navis occupies an entirely unique position among all of the constellations in this book; as Ian Ridpath (1989) put it, “Argo is a constellation that is not so much disused as dismantled.” Of an ancient origin, it persists to the current day albeit in a reduced form. In the mid-eighteenth century it was broken up into a series of adjacent figures still recognized as “official” by the International Astronomical Union: Carina (the Keel), Puppis (the Poop Deck), and Vela (the Sails). It is also the only of the 48 constellations listed in Ptolemy’s Almagest (second century ad) that is no longer officially recognized as a constellation by the IAU (Fig. 5.1).
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Notes
- 1.
“A large space in the southern hemisphere, to the south-east of Canis Major” (Green, 1824); “Situated south-east of Monoceros and Officina, and east of Columba” (Bouvier, 1858) “Eastward and S.E.-ward of Canis Major, extending from Dec. 10 S. to 60 S., between R.A. 7h. and 10 1/2 h” (Rosser, 1879); “It lies entirely in the southern hemisphere, east of Canis Major, south of Monoceros and Hydra, largely in the Milky Way” (Allen, 1899); “East of Canis Major and south of the Unicorn and Hydra” (Olcott, 1911).
- 2.
The modern constellation Pyxis (the Compass) comprises a group of stars that were identified with Argo’s mast in antiquity. One occasionally finds a modern astronomy book that asserts the Compass was placed in the stars by the Greeks but this is impossible because magnetic compasses were not used for navigation in the West prior to the Medieval period.
- 3.
“Dies Gestirn soll das Andeken des im Alterthum berühmten Schiffs verewigen, welches nach den Fabeln der Dichter auf Befehl der Minerva und des Neptuns in Thessalien vom Argo erbauet wurde, und dessen sich jene von Jason angeführten griechischen Helden, die Argonauten, zu ihrer damals unerhörten Seefahrt bedienten, um aus der am östlichen Ufer des schwarzen Meers gelegenen Landschaft Colchis das sogenannte goldene Vliess abzuholen.”
- 4.
“Dieses Gestirn nimmt einen grosse Raum am südlichen Himmel, vom grossen Hund südostwärts ein, und ist mit vielen hellen Sternen besetzt, worunter einer der ersten Gröse Canopus am Steuerruder besindlich, bey uns aber nicht mehr aufgeht. Es kömmt nur der nordlichste Theil vom Schiff, zunächst links beym grossen Hund über unsern Horizont, und macht sich daselbst an einigen Sternen dritter und vierter Grösse in der Milchstrasse, die mitten durch dies Gestirn geht, kenntlich.”
- 5.
Indicating precession in the ∼ 1500 years since the end of antiquity had taken Canopus below the horizon as seen in Germany.
- 6.
“ARGO, NAVIS, αργώ, Navis Iasonis, quâ vecti Argonautæ heroës in Colchidem per mare, raptum vellus aureum cum Medeâ in patriam reportarunt. Dicitur ita per antiphrasin, quasi minimè segnis & pigra, Latinis Celox: vel ideò efformata, quod eius carina, ut non ex undarum fluctibus, ita nunquam tota supra horizontem emergat. Recentioribus navis Batavica pingitur. Nobis sit Arca Nohæ, Gen. 6. & 7. præsertim cùm Corvus & Columba olivifera non procul absint. Stellas habet plures, sed paucissimæ nobis oriuntur. Inter illas toto ferè cœlo illustrissima fertur ea, quæ in clavo, seu temone navis, radens horizontem Rhodiensium, & ab eius gubernatore quodam Canobus vel Canopus dicitur.” (pp. 63–64)
- 7.
Denotes a type of cutter or otherwise swift-sailing ship.
- 8.
These chapters recount the traditional Biblical telling of the Flood Myth.
- 9.
“Aut ab Architecto hujus nominis, aut à Graeco ὰργός, quod celeritatem significat, aut denique, teste Cicerone, sic dicta, quia ultra 50. Argivorum Heroës (qui & inde Argonatuæ) duce Jasone in Colchidem ad diripiendum aureum velus profecti, Nam rate, quæ, curâ pugnacis facta Minervæ, Per non tentatas prima cucurrit aquas. Iam, qua & mole maxima, altius sublata inter stellas appulit, placidum ibi littus tenens. Lucidissimam in gubernaculo stellam tenet, quam Ægyptii Canopum dixere, aut horum Numini sacratum, aut derivata ab oppido Ægypti, aut à Canopo navis Menelai gubernatore, aspidis ictu extincto, aut tandem, quia circa Canopum oppidum primò conspici incipiat horizontem radens, de quo Manilius: − − − nusquam invenies fulgere Canopum, Donec Niliacus per pontum veneris undas.
- 10.
Ovid, Tristas III.9.
- 11.
Conon, Narrations 8; Strabo, Geography 17.1.17.
- 12.
Manilius, Astronomica I.216–I.217.
- 13.
“Only one ocean-going vessel has passed between them [ Scylla and Charybdis], the celebrated Argo fleeing from Aeetes, and the waves would have quickly broken her on the massive crags, if Hera had not seen her through, because of her care for Jason.” Book XII, line 69 (trans. A.S. Kline).
- 14.
Paradiso, Canto XXXIII, line 96.
- 15.
Presumably refers to Philipp von Zesen, also known as Filip Cösius or Caesius (1619–1689), a German poet and writer.
- 16.
Written c. ad 198.
- 17.
c. 150\(\mbox{ \textendash }\) c. 215.
- 18.
‘The signs or emblems of you are the Dove, or the course of the Heavenly Ship stretching across in the sky or the musical Lyre, in remembrance of the Fisherman Apostle [Peter].’
- 19.
A short Chronicle from the first memory of things in Europe to the conquest of Persia by Alexander the great., MS Add. 3988, Cambridge University Library, Cambridge, UK.
- 20.
An alternate name for the constellation Libra, indicating the “claws” of Scorpius.
- 21.
Meton of Athens (c. fifth century bc) was a Greek mathematician and astronomer for whom the 19-year lunar Metonic cycle is named.
- 22.
Nabonassar (Nabû-nāṣir) was the king of Babylon from 747 to 732 bc.
- 23.
See, e.g., John J. McHugh, The Deluge: A Mythical Story that was Projected onto the Constellations, master’s thesis, Department of Anthropology, Brigham Young University, 1999 (Harold B. Lee Library call number GN 2.02.M33 1999).
- 24.
Isis and Osiris 22, trans. F.C. Babbitt (from Moralia, Loeb Classical Library edition, Vol. V, 1936).
- 25.
“From Argos she did chosen men convey, bound to fetch back the Golden Fleece, their prey.” (Tusculan Disputations Book 1, Sect. XX, trans. C.D. Yonge, 1877.)
- 26.
“She herself too fashioned the swift ship; and with her Argus, son of Arestor, wrought it by her counsels. Wherefore it proved the most excellent of all ships that have made trial of the sea with oars.” (Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica I, 110, trans. R.C. Seaton. Loeb Classical Library Volume, London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1912.)
- 27.
See e.g., A.W. Bulloch, “Hellenistic poetry” in The Cambridge History of Classical Literature Volume 1: Greek Literature eds. P.E. Easterling and Bernard M.W. Knox, Cambridge University Press (1985).
- 28.
An oracle at Epirus in northwestern Greece devoted to a Mother Goddess identified with Dione.
- 29.
“Ovid calls Argo a sacred Ship, sacram conscendis in Argum; by reason, say some, that Minerva contrived the Plan, and even assisted int he building thereof: Or rather, on account of a piece of Timber in its Prow, which spoke, and render’d Oracles—Several Authors make mention of the Piece of Timber, which is said to have been hewn in the sacred Forest of Dodona.” (Chambers, 1728)
- 30.
“[T]he oracles were delivered by the priests, who, by artfully concealing themselves behind the oaks, gave occasion to the superstitious multitude to believe that the trees were endowed with the power of prophecy. As the ship Argo was built with some of the oaks of the forest of Dodona, there some beams in the vessel which gave oracles to the Argonauts, and warned them against the approach of calamity.” (John Lemprière, A Classical Dictionary, London: T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1820.)
- 31.
For example, Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, 1, 23–228; Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1. 9. 16; Hyginus, Fabulae, 14.
- 32.
Translated by Brown (1885).
- 33.
Argonautica 1, 16–17, trans. R.C. Seaton.
- 34.
Argonautica 3, 1340 et seq., trans. R.C. Seaton.
- 35.
New York: American Book Company (1893), p. 274.
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Barentine, J.C. (2016). Argo Navis. In: The Lost Constellations. Springer Praxis Books(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22795-5_5
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